Grateful to be Alive

[DJGR33R]

In January 2019, after experiencing severe breathlessness, I went to hospital and told them of my symptoms. In less than 4 hours, I had an angioplasty and stent placement to correct a 98% blocked “ widow-maker” in my left coronary artery. Since then, I have changed my life completely. I have lost 15 kg, attend the gym 5 days a week, walk/run an average of 15km/day and do everything else in moderation including food, salt and alcohol consumption and sleep longer and better than ever.

I am ever so grateful to the medical fraternity who helped me and would be delighted to help or motivate anyone in a similar position to regain and recover their life.

If you have any doubts about whether to go out and smash your fitness levels and to regain your life, contact me and I will be delighted to help you in any way I can.

David

[ChicagoGirl1961]

Inspiring and remarkable accomplishments! I agree, for those that are able to, immersing oneself wholeheartedly (pun intended lol) into a rigorous fitness regimen both fullfills and is rewarding in so many ways. Going in with full gusto like yourself may not be the way to go for many depending on there health, but embracing working towards obtaining the best fitness level one can safely obtain is highly desirable. I was diagnosed with CAD 15 years ago and I have become an avid runner and workout vigorously frequently. I'm also passionate about eating a heart healthy diet. I've been at this now for 15 years and have come to fully believe the right diet and exercise has markedly improved my heart health. I truly believe that food can be the most powerful medicine in many cases, although I am in no way advocating not taking ones medications.

Congrats to you on all you have overcome and the remarkable changes you have made since HA. Keep up the good work!

[fergusthegreat in reply to ChicagoGirl1961]

Congratulations on keeping your CAD under control for 15 years.

Have you taken statins for all that time?

[ChicagoGirl1961 in reply to fergusthegreat]

No, however my doctor recently talked me in to giving statins a go. Although my lipids are fine, HDL consistently over 80 and LDL not more than 50, my CRP (a marker of inflammation) was slightly elevated so doctor convinced me to take a low dose statin. I've only been on it a month or so, but so far so good. I really think the inflammation was just the result of an extended workout the day before, but I'm now convinced that a low dose statin is a good idea if no side effects. Better safe than sorry for not taking, although I have always been reluctant to take one previously.

[fergusthegreat in reply to ChicagoGirl1961]

I'm assuming by CAD you mean coronary artery disease, athersclerosis, and am also assuming that you've either had stents or bypass surgery.

Brilliant effort keeping the disease under control, especially without the statins. I also have a good lipid profile although I do take a statin as my LDL was 80 but is now 36 which I think is beneficial.

Could you give me a quick summary of your diet and any supplements you take just to see if I can improve anything diet wise as I also regularly exercise to a high level.

[ChicagoGirl1961 in reply to fergusthegreat]

I actually have not had a HA or stents. I had a stress and imaging test and doctor followed up with a heart catheterization 15 years ago. LAD was 35% blocked, other than that OK. I was fortunate to be diagnosed in the early stage of the disease. Ever since diagnosis I've had an extremely low fat vegetarian mostly vegan diet. That in addition to my fitness regimen I believe have dramatically improved my heart health. Since diagnosis I have had two more nuclear stress imaging tests and two echos each of which came back with good results, unlike the first nuclear stress imaging test I had before my diagnosis which indicated perfusion abnormalities. My mantra is that food is medicine, and I believe that with all my HEART.

[fergusthegreat in reply to ChicagoGirl1961]

I have had a successful stent to my Lad. I also have a mild narrowing in my Rca so hopefully with a good diet and exercise routine like yours hopefully I can avoid more problems for a few years.

[ChicagoGirl1961 in reply to fergusthegreat]

My goal is to avoid ever visiting another Cath Lab. The two nuclear stress tests I have had since my diagnosis have been done only because I elected to have them because I wanted at least some degree of confirmation that my heart remained in such a state that it merited no intervention. I was not symptomatic of any heart issues when I had the last two tests, they were more for peace of mind than anything else. I'll never have another imaging study or stress test going forward if I remain asymptomatic. I'm not naive enough to believe that heart disease is no longer present, but firmly believe the disease has at least not progressed and possibly regressed to a limited degree. I'm betting that by maintaining the lifestyle I have adopted that I will not experience a debilitating or catastrophic heart event in my lifetime. I could very well be mistaken, but believe the odds are greatly in my favor. Of course when I go for a run in the morning the odds are greatly in my favor that I won't be run over by a car, but I could be mistaken about that as well. There are no sure things in life, but one exception that certainly comes to mind being that we are far more empowered to improve are heart health than what we are lead to believe.

[fergusthegreat in reply to ChicagoGirl1961]

I seem to share exactly the same thoughts and opinions as you regarding heart disease. I'm also thinking of getting a diagnostic test done to check for any progression or problems but haven't decided between a nuclear stress test or a cardiac mri.

How long did you wait between diagnosis and first follow up stress test?

[ChicagoGirl1961 in reply to fergusthegreat]

About 6 years post diagnosis I believe. At the time I thought the nuclear stress test was the gold standard for noninvasive tests......I'm not so sure now, I've read studies that indicate CTA studies are more likely to identify problems than the nuclear test, but that the CTA also leads to more false positives and unwarranted heart cath's. The cardiac MRI is certainly worthy of consideration.

[DJGR33R in reply to ChicagoGirl1961]

Many thanks for your kind note and well done to you on all that you have achieved 🌹

[mistymolly]

Delighted for you- you sound like a lovely guy willing trying to help others. You're an inspiration

[DJGR33R in reply to mistymolly]

Many thanks for your kind note 🙏

[athi0110]

Hi David, well done! It is great to take over and change your life and it feels unbelievably amazing to be in control! It shows that it can be done! Keep going!

[DJGR33R in reply to athi0110]

Many thanks for your kind note 🙏

[fergusthegreat]

Congratulations mate, well done

[DJGR33R in reply to fergusthegreat]

Many thanks for your kind note Great One 🙏

[Harbourside]

I suffered a heart attack, cardiac arrest and stent implant late January. I found your post inspiring. I've finished phase 3 cardio rehab fitness and have just started phase 4. I've been doing a lot of walking but worry about tackling anything more 'intense'. Where did you start? Were you already fairly active before?

[DJGR33R in reply to Harbourside]

Thanks for your note. I felt sorry for myself for about a week but decided that I could choose to mope around the house or go out and smash it. I took the latter route and have no regrets. I started with cardio work only but now do both cardio and strength work both quite strenuously. We have two arms, two legs, two eyes and ears etc and if we lose one, we can still function with the other. However we only have on heart and my experience taught me that I didn’t look after it well enough in the past or make it work hard enough. I simply didn’t exercise enough in the past, had a bad diet, drank too much, had bad sleep patterns due to a hectic work and flight schedule and worked in a toxic management structure. I have corrected all my bad habits, quit my job and am focused on staying on the planet as long as I can by never returning to my old life style.

Good luck with your plans - wishing you the best of health

[babarhom]

hi David and welldone

well i might need your help

I am a 64 old man never smoke don t dink and was doing running and cycling ok my diet was nt good and .i was overweight

on the 13 /10 18 just after a 40 km cycling stat to feel a little pain in my chess but i was still to attempt a working interview it only when i come from this one that i call 999 and that was HA + angioplasty 1 stent .

till mid DEC a bit lost and start rehab

after that i came back little by Little to my previous fitness lost about 10kg i stop all craps food and salt tried to eat healthy

FEB MAR APR were good months of training may a little less and suddenly without reason all body aches knee cracking and feeling exhausted all the time and difficulty to control my hunger

my prescription has come down i only on aspirin 75 bisoprol 1.25 and artovastin 20 mg

i am still working 4 days a week

so any advice .what kind of diet do you do .do you take any supplement

thanks

[Zena166]

Thanks David for sharing. Brilliant recovery I may take you up on your offer! I am struggling with severe pain at the moment from costochondritis frozen shoulder and severe neck pains. So will need motivational support when I can get better pain relief. Whilst I do a lot of gym work and lost a lot of weight I’ve been told to lose a further 7kgs which I am struggling to do at the moment with the pain. Great to see you doing so well. It’s worth the hard work to feel so good. Take care. Zena

[Lezzers in reply to Zena166]

Best wishes Zena, I hope you're feeling better soon xx

[Zena166 in reply to Lezzers]

Thank you xx

[DJGR33R in reply to Zena166]

Best wishes Zena. Happy to help in any way I can - reach out and I will do my best to assist you. Regards, David

[Milkfairy Heart Star]

Zena sorry to hear you are in pain.

I hope you feel more at ease soon!

[Zena166 in reply to Milkfairy]

Thanks. x

[Zena166]

No just an LOL. that’s a Little Old Lady to you!! x