First time post, looking for advice/knowledge to understand better.
I had a HA in early June, a stent fitted in my LV.
Completely out of the blue, don’t smoke, don’t drink much, eat fairly healthy and took
regular exercise.
It’s been classed as ‘severe’, my ejection fraction is 35%, where the usual is 50-65%. I’m not being allowed to access the cardiac rehab because of this. I’ve seen a cardiac nurse once, but not a cardiologist and seem to be told different things from different (all helpful) medical staff.
What I would like your input on:-
- What’s the reason for the damage and low ejection fraction? The ambulance took 2 and a half hours to arrive. Some have said the longer delay in getting treatment the more damage? When I’ve asked NHS staff they seem to fudge the answer.
- What can I do to try and help my recovery? I walk 10K steps most days, have improved my diet but I’m nervous about exercise...I’ve been told I can do light cardio, should have asked what that means!
- Should I have seen a cardiologist by now? It would help me to get clarity to these and other questions. I’ve been told I ‘might’ get to see one for a few minutes at my next appointment with a cardiac nurse to discuss an Internal defib...
Thanks in advance
Written by
Yorkie0
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Heart disease is usually a shock although with my family history I saw it as inevitable. I am slightly confused as to my knowledge LV is the left ventricle. The arteries to the left are the LCA (Left Coronary Artery) and LAD (Left Anterior Descending).
I am not medically trained so cannot really comment on the delay although it seems long for a HA. Did you have much of an additional wait before the stent was fitted?
Have you been offered rehab as it is now over two months on. If not ask your GP to chase it up and also ask him.about seeing a cardiologist. As regards seeing s cardiologist it may be worth considering seeing one privately. This typically costs £200 - £250. I did this in the early days, got half-an-hours undivided attention, better understood my situation and has my medication adjusted for the better.
There is a lot of information on the BHF website and it might be worth calling one of their nurses on Tuesday. Good luck!
Sorry, still getting my head round terminology and acronyms! Think the stent was fitted to the LAD.
No further delay after reaching hospital, more or less straight into theatre.
Rehab was discussed but I’ve been told by the cardiac nurse that I can’t do it as my ejection fraction is too low and they don’t have the resources needed to enable me to do the rehab.
Hi Yorkie0, my husband has HF with an EF of 30. I would think you're not being referred to re-hab as possibly you're not stable at the moment, it's very early days for you and the meds can take time to get right. Managing 10k steps a day is very good I know of some with a higher EF who aren't able to that much. The cardiac nurses probably left you a contact number, certainly give them a call and ask bout the cardiologist appt, they can usually sort it for you. Hard to say if the delay has contributed to your HF, my husband was having a HA for 3 days before he went into cardiac arrest. He kept going to A & E with pains and they kept saying he had virus etc but that's another story. The main thing is, you are now being looked after just make sure you're not overlooked, it can happen. You might want to look at pumping marvellous website it's a patient led heart failure charity & I can't recommend them enough. Cardiologists & nurses often refer their patients to pumping marvellous. I'm happy to try & help with any questions you may ask but I'm currently away for a few days so difficult to access the forum (deep sigh of relief from some members on here no doubt! 😂) the main thing to remember HF is not the end of your world it simply means your heart needs help pumping. If you follw the NHS/BHF recommended diet & lifestyle there's no reason why you can't lead an normal life & lifespan. My husband has had HF since at least 2012, there's lots of people who have had HF for 30+years.
It all takes time to recover after a heart attack. My heart pumps to 40 %, but I feel much much better physically since February when I had mine.... Lezzer gave you good advice and I shall have a look on that pumping marvellous website Yorkie. Just hang in there, right???😊
Pumping Marvellous also have a closed facebook group of the same name. Great place to interact with others who have HF, their families and carers, the advice and support are invaluable. A great group of people who totally understand and never judge. even if all you wanna do is just have a moan some days.
When I go on Facebook I get bombarded by friends at times and I do find that hard if too many people want to talk to me Lezzer. Sometimes I go on Facebook but not very often.
Secondly needed peace to recover and found the heart forum invaluable to be truthful x
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