hi
im 4 1/2 months post heart attack and a stent fitted. at the time i was told the damage to my heart muscle was moderate with 30 to 50% effeciency. now since the stent i seem to have bad fatigue and just cant seem to overcome it. i do excersize, walking ect but any time i try to increase the level i get hit by bad fatigue for days after its crippling.
is this "normal".the nurse at the time said it may take months to improve but it seems like ive got no where.
Hello jon2018. I’m 4 months post heart attack and stent and I am very tired. I’m assured it’s normal. I have good days and bad. You’ll get there.
right now im knackered.seem to have so little energy and when its gone im floored.i do take some other meds one of which makes me tired so i guess its sort of compounded effect. it is just the fact its fatigue as apposed to been tired.i sleep 8/10 hours and wake up lifeless.
It can take a while don’t expect miracles. It took me about 6 months before I had good energy. I had the same but I had 2 balloons inserted with the stent. Even now I get tired quickly but I’ve just had a pacemaker put in so I’m putting that down to the pacemaker. Are you sleeping ok.
Fatigue is French for tired lol 😂. Try not to worry. I find if I’m having a worry day or a stress day or a pain day I’m shattered. I had an appointment with a clinical psychologist on Monday and it wore me out. Maybe your exercise regime is too much. When you relax do you have quality “me time”? I don’t and I think that’s one of my problems that I have to work on.
at the moment exercise is limited to walking. i find i dont have the energy for anything else. i find it easy to overdo it.it doesnt help im trying to loose some weight so meals are a bit lacking in energy food.i do have a lot of me time i try to relax as much as i can
If you’re trying to lose weight you may be cutting out the foods you need for energy. It may be a good idea to ask cardiac rehabilitation nurse about your diet.
yeh might be worth a call. right now i need something
I am now 7mths post heart attack and stent. I was floored for 8 weeks, sleeping 8 hrs at night and having naps in the afternoon, and didn't fight it. I went to the rehab and, having dogs, walked every day. After 18 weeks I felt a lot better but did not have the energy to do too much extra. I dedicated one day a week to reading/watching TV. The good news is I am now rowing twice a week, walking an average of 80k steps a week and riding my bike. I am a 63 year woman. I also really worked on my diet for energy. Look after yourself and keep going. You will get there.
Congratulations on a great recovery. Proper exercise and diet are often overlooked as important factors in recovery. Do you mind sharing the basic elements of your diet and how it changed from before the surgery? I recall reading somewhere that stents are only effective as a short term solution - forgive my ignorance (I've been more up on heart rhythm issues than atherosclerosis) how and how often do you have your plaque levels monitored (the only time I had mine checked was w/MRI post mini stroke when the docs were looking for a cause, it turned out to be BAVD, not plaque, but I want to cover all bases).
I would suspect side effects of any medication you are on. Have a look at the patient information which comes with them, see which ones have fatigue listed & ask for them to be reviewed. I am 3.5 months on from same damage as you & feeling OK but on low dose of everything.
You didn't mention medication. A lot of drugs have fatigue as a side effect. Read the leaflets that come with your drugs. If any of them list fatigue as a side effect you could discuss them with your doctor. I found that taking the fatiguey ones at night helped me sleep and I was less tired the day after.
Hi Jon, I'm almost 2 years past heart attack and have to say that everyone's recovery is different. I think the mind has a lot to do with our recovery. Once I got my mental health better my recovery was easier.
HI Jon - hopefully you are much better now - please do share what you did that seem to have helped, or maybe if it was just time for better healing/ recovery. Or if you are still having fatigue issues, what you are trying to do to address this.
I had bouts of excessive fatigue in my recoveries (open heart surgery, aortic valve replacement and ascending aorta replacement, and maze for AFIB, then corrective ablation later). Once it turned out that my medication level (amiodarone) was too high, causing my BP to go too low. Later it was the LIsinopril that was halved to deal with another problematic period (the ablation was to correct atrial flutter that developed after all was good w/ EF around 50, coming down to the low 30's) ..
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