Two in three months

[Hill4332]

Had ha in Jan ,did rehab for fourteen weeks then a week later had second ha. The two stents had become blocked ,was it a too small stent or changes to meds. Now told mild to moderate damage to pumping that may recover. Feel let down by GP for sure .no follow up other than at rehab. Non smoker,low drinker ,aged 69 ,family history .continual tiredness and being breathless .GP difficult to access .

[Shoshov]

this has just happened to me too. i had HA february last year. after year of hell being told pain was gastric or gall bladder which i don’t have byvthe way was admitted to hospital 2 weeks ago before going for angio where they found original stent had closed over. again they said original stent was too small. like you no after care except for rehab team. a cardiologist actually asked senior nurse why she was so interested in this patient. i too am angry and feel stents should routinely be checked. an ecg takes about 10 minutes. how hard would this be. hope your well now. just know your not on your own and as many say on here. emergency care on nhs is excellent but there’s no after care. good luck myfriend❤️shiona

[Shoshov in reply to Shoshov]

meant to say echo not ecg. iv had so many of them in the last 2 weeks i automatically said it. by the way every ecg i had done was normal. even with unstable angina. makes you wonder how useful a tool it is

[Sillyfroggy in reply to Shoshov]

There’s lots of stuff that an ecg can show, bearing in mind it looks at rhythm. Echo and angio looks at the pumping side of things. Some heart problems are electrical, some are structural. Ecg is minimally invasive and quick as you say, so in some cases (and definitely in a STEMI situation) is exactly what’s needed. Unstable angina is unlikely to show up on an ecg but they can see how your heart is functioning electrically, which is a vital first step to diagnosis. If you’re interested you can find some good basic ecg learning tools. I knew I was having a heart attack without the actual words because I understood the ecg read!!

[Shoshov in reply to Sillyfroggy]

that was my point. they knew my electrics were ok. it was the plumbing that was faulty. i suppose they were just covering all they’re bases❤️

[Fortepiano in reply to Shoshov]

Such early restenosis is uncommon; I do sympathize with you both.

Unfortunately echos aren't useful for evaluating stents. There were trials in using angios for surveillance but it didn't help outcomes, so they found that only investigating those with symptoms was the best method.

Everybody who has a stent is referred back to primary care: follow-up is based on cardiac rehab nurses /GP. If you have problems then they decide whether to refer you back to secondary care.

ECGs are a moment in time. Immensely useful, but not perfect.

[Shoshov in reply to Fortepiano]

makes sense❤️

[Janma123]

Hubby had HA in 2007 and 1 stent inserted with another artery that ‘might need attention at a later date’. He had a couple of ‘episodes’ in that were just checked with an ecg and passed as ok. GP not over bothered. Then in March 2018 he had another HA but this time stents wouldn’t work so he had a quadruple bypass, from which he recovered well. Signed off by cardiologist after 8 weeks and taken off amiodorone (for AF) and rivaroxaban (blood thinner) just left on Asprin, low dose ramipril and atenolol and metformin. Started rehab classes the following week and had a ‘small but significant stroke that weekend - although he has largely recovered he still has significant difficulty particularly with memory and numbers.

Hope you get on ok.