My husband has a very stressful job (own business) he is slightly over weight. Up until January he drank to control stress, he hasn’t drunk since jan (10 months) and has been on a diet (Herbalife) since October.
He has regularly felt heart pain, but more recently as stress has grown, he is experiencing more regular heart pain and pins and needles in his left arm. He’s short fused anyway but in work he thinks he’s going to have a heart attack when he’s stressed.
Basically - what can he do to prevent it?! I’ve suggested the gym- he doesn’t have time or the head for it. He also thinks that the exercise and rise in heart rate will give him a heart attack (is there truth in that?) He’s eating healthier.
I’m carrying aspirin around with me and doing as much research as I can. He’s not willing to go to the doctors for tests as he’s had previous bad experience with doctors not being much help (yes I know he needs to go and I’m working on it)
Thanks
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Freddiebear1
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He's absolutely got to see a doctor, who will then decide if he needs to be referred to the chest pain clinic at a hospital. Any other advice is plain inadequate.
Based on a (completely unscientific!) straw pole of the other patients I met on the ward prior to my own bypass, the vast majority of us had convinced ourselves that we wouldn't need surgery, and the verdict would be indigestion, or at the absolute worst a quick stent and home again the same afternoon!
Maybe your husband is privately frightened of the impact on his business of taking eight or ten weeks off for surgery and recovery? Again, completely unscientific, but the guys on the ward who were self employed or care givers, seemed to be the ones most determined to kid themselves into believing they were basically fine and not at risk.
You are right, your husband needs to see a doctor urgently.
He needs to know his numbers (BP and cholesterol). Many large pharmacies (Boots and those in Tesco Extra for example) will do this on request usually within half an hour (a friend's cholesterol came out around 12). Alternatively he could have a BUPA medical at a time convenient to himself (but asap) that will cover this and other issues. Based on these results he can be given any appropriate medication.
As previously said self employed can be the worse patients.y sister knows someone who went back to work a few weeks after a bypass and at six months was behind me at three months (and mine is not the fastest of recoveries).
Learnt something there. I had no idea that Boots did simple cholesterol tests. I'll definitely be looking further into that.
Also, interesting advice regarding a BUPA check up, if your husband has a poor opinion of his GP then maybe he'd be more willing to have a private "Wellman" style check up? If that shocks him into realising he can't continue to play Russian roulette by delaying expert help then it'll have been money well spent.
I suspect if you get your husband along to one of these they'll make it crystal clear that he should seek specialist help, either private or NHS, as soon as possible.
Stress can be a risk factor if you already have heart disease. Though I understand smoking and genetics and overweight come first! I certainly get more angina when stressed, and my first heart attack was during a very difficult day, rushing to get everything done. I also ran my own business, and thought I couldn’t afford to stop rushing, even when I had very similar symptoms to your husband.
Just a quick comment about exercise. Generally the consensus seems to be that exercise is good for the heart. However you have to be very careful that you don't overload the heart, so best to start off very slowly and build up from there.
But that's assuming there isn't a major problem with the heart. After I had my stress echocardiogram which showed that my heart wasn't getting the blood flow/oxygen it needed I was told to take the lift, not the stairs. So this points to your husband finding out what's going on with his heart. It's tough for us all to accept that we have heart problems but to ignore symptoms is not advisable.
The only answer is to see a doctor urgently. He is an adult so you shouldn't feel responsible. Many people are afraid to go to the doctor because they know what they will be told and fear the news whether it's bad or simply just changing lifestyle. Next time he is having pain etc consider calling an ambulance - maybe the paramedics can talk sense into him.
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