First Post

[chdjazz]

I joined the forum a few weeks ago and thought it was time to say hello.

I'm 61 and was diagnosed with Stable Angina last October, bit of a shocker, never smoked , not overweight, always done moderate excercise. Only had one slight pain since then which passed as soon as I stopped walking. Well, having more or less got used to and accepted my situation, two weeks ago I went into AF (caught this thanks to my Fitbit) so after an ECG I'm now booked in for a 24 hr monitor and an echocardiagram (plus the inevitable additional drugs).

The main effect on me has been on my confidence, one of my hobbies is landscape photography and I am often out before sunrise in often quite remote places with no one around and that thought is a bit scary for me at the moment. I am also a bit anxious about the outcome of the 24hr monitor and echocardiagram, the Angina hasn't affected my hobby and I am hoping the AF won't either. Having said that I am determined that it won't , just a bit of an unknown for me at the moment.

Anyway it's great that this forum is here, it did me the world of good just to write the above.

[Urssy]

Hello. I'm relatively new too. A wealth of information on the site.

I've been recently diagnose with angina and have really appreciated the help and support.

[Chappychap]

"The main effect on me has been on my confidence, one of my hobbies is landscape photography and I am often out before sunrise in often quite remote places with no one around and that thought is a bit scary for me at the moment."

I sympathise with that dilemma, my wife and I enjoy walking our dogs well off the beaten track and I'm a keen yachtsman.

If you have a stroke, heart attack, or cardiac arrest then your chances of survival increase the faster you get to hospital. But does that mean we should live our lives hanging around A&E just on the off chance?

We've all got to make up our minds regarding the risks we're comfortable with, Personally I'm investing a lot of effort into making life style changes, but having done everything I can to reduce the chances of a "cardiac event" via diet and exercise I'll then take my chances living the life I want. However, I do take some sensible precautions. When walking the dogs we'll always have a mobile phone and my wife's brushed up on her first aid, and when sailing I'll no longer take out a non sailor unless there's someone else on board qualified to take over if I have a problem.

In other words my approach is to do all the obvious and sensible stuff, but then to get out and enjoy life.

[chdjazz in reply to Chappychap]

Great stuff, pretty much how I want to approach things. One of my great pleasures since I retired is spending a couple of days alone in the Lake District doing photography, I was there every month last year and that was my plan for this year too. I am really not sure about this now, is it a risk too far ? Maybe it is !

[bruceDavid in reply to Chappychap]

thanks for your wonderful post

[benjijen in reply to Chappychap]

I totally agree. You can't live your life worrying about what might happen as you then won't have a life. It takes a while to get back your confidence but then, when your condition is controlled as much as it can be, just do what you want with the sensible precautions.

[dunestar]

A warm welcome from one photographer to another. I was diagnosed with coronary microvascular disease last October. You are right, it knocks your confidence and I'm still trying to grapple with what I can do sensibly and what's a risk too far. I prefer to do my photography on my tod and I like astrophotography as well, but being alone in the middle of nowhere in the dark makes me think twice. On the other hand I don't want to join an organised workshop and be a burden to others.

Just as a matter of interest, what happened with your Fitbit when you went into AF?

[chdjazz in reply to dunestar]

Hi, thanks for your comment, I’m very much a lone wolf tog too.

Re the Fitbit, I have the HR version that can track sleep , it can show periods in deep sleep or periods when you are in REM or awake etc (lots of awake periods for me!).

I have had it for about a year and it had never failed to give me a sleep report. Then a few weeks ago it started reporting that it couldn’t give a breakdown , initialling suggesting adjusting the strap or the battery was low. After about 3 days of failed reports it then reported it couldn’t get a consistent heart beat reading. This led me to check my pulse and the rest is history. It creates some interesting charts too, these show my resting heart beat at a steady 60 bpm for the months leading up to when I started beta blockers where it changed to 50bpm. When I went into AF the chart line shot up to

70bpm. I can say for sure that without the Fitbit my AF would have gone undiagnosed for some time.

[dunestar in reply to chdjazz]

Thanks chdjazz. Must try and get the full use out of my Fitbit with the sleep reports. At the moment I'm just using it to check pulse when exercising.