Hi Everyone hope you are all OK? It's 5 months now since my two heart attacks and stent fitted,sticking to the advice given and have now started three afternoons a week at my local gym. At the moment and for the past four weeks I have had an irregular heart beat and very breathless on the slightest exertion, I have had a trip to A/E just told this was normal and sent home. Visited G P Monday with the same symptoms, he advised stopping nebivolol for a week to see if that's the problem. It's still happening and iam scared and angry that nobody is taking me seriously. I feel as though iam going to kick the bucket, and if I have to put up with feeling like I do then, I don't know what else to do? When I look in the mirror all I see is an old woman, who looks very pale and dead behind the eyes, which is just how iam feeling, I want and have tried so hard to get the old fun me back, but the hole is getting deeper and deeper to climb out of. I really don't know where to go from here. I have thought about seeing a cardiologist privately, as I was discharged from mine in August, but will I be just fobbed off again. I am so fed up of crying about how iam feeling and I think my husband is sick of me too, he's been amazing throughout. But any advise would be great. Thanks for listening to me moan!
Scared and fed up! : Hi Everyone hope... - British Heart Fou...
Scared and fed up!
recognise what you have written too well. I got fed up with feeling like I was making a fuss about nothing, two trips to A and E and overnight stays + 2days in the joke of a hospital locally. I made a private appointment with the consultant who looked after me when I had my STEMI heart attack and put the stent in. It helped me a lot as I had an hour to ask all the questions I wanted to, got the medications reduced and the GP after he received the letter from the consultant actually took me more seriously. I got fed up with becoming geriatric overnight and looking at the pale, lifeless face in the mirror. That said things are not perfect but I feel better able to cope, my husband says I am a bit more like a human being and if I had waited until I went for for the annual review I would have waited an additional fourteen months for an appointment at the Heart clinic.
Thank you for your quick post, So you think it's worthwhile going privately to see a Cardiologist? I know and feel something is going on that needs intervention. I just feel they think "ok she's 65 and had it, let's just fob her off with some jargon she won't understand" Wrong! I know a lot of medical jargon as I was a nurse for 43 years! I do think we don't get enough time or help discussing what we feel and how we are coping, it's such a life changing event, and some people cope better than others. Take care.
Hello again fellow 54 baby - hope your pension has finally kicked in. I can only speak for myself obviously but the money I spent on that appointment was so worth it. It pulled me off the downward hairpin road I had been traveling. You have to go prepared and have thought through what you want to talk about and get answers for. As an ex nurse you will have more of an idea. I found zero support when I told the GP I was rapidly declining and felt mental health issues were fast approaching. He just told me there was nothing available in the way of counseling. That;s when I got proactive. There are too many people and not enough time for the medics to follow up. Take care.
No bloody state pension till iam 66 +3 months! I too feel as though iam a getting too many mental health issues, although I am on antidepressants they don't seem to be doing much! I have had some awful dreams where I have screamed loudly! I count the steps around the bed to get to the door to go to the toilet, but Monday night lost the plot and ended up in the wardrobe! with hubby shouting at me , hadn't a clue where I was ! Now been laying on the bed for an hour, came up to clean bedrooms , put ironing away, told you iam loosing the plot!x
sending you private message - wait a few minutes and it will be there!
also should have said try plug in nightlights - I have one beside bed and one on landing - saves the bother of counting steps! Aldi a good source of cheap ones....
Oh I so totally get this and am considering doing the same. I literally had 10 minutes prior to being wheeled into the cath lab with a very pressurised intern who to be honest frightened me to death with talk of higher than high cholesterol and needing to be in lifelong anti platelet and anti coagulation. I pressed for a referral back to local cardiologist who I saw 4 months after who didn’t have my notes and could say very little. My GP if I get to see one is not keen on changing meds and certainly wouldn’t sanction taking me off clopidogrel but I have done 12 months and I do worry about risk and benefit which has never been discussed... from what I’ve read risk of cardiac problems slightly less but risk of bleeding more 🤔 Plus I have to take PPI to reduce risk of bleed which causes other problems - I feel like the old lady that swallowed a fly!!!
Anyway one of this adds to your post but I do think we are somewhat abandoned and it’s a very sorry reflection on things
I’m 61 - 66 and a quarter for me too 😕
My GP was the same - loathe to stop the Cloppy dog - after I had been to the consultant it was no problem as he told me I only needed a year on it. GP happy to stop the repeat prescription because he had a copy of the letter which said it could be stopped. Otherwise I think I would have been on it for another 6 months. I have gastro resistant aspirin so was also able to stop the PPI which made me so ill - I;d stopped it anyway but it was good to have it approved so to speak.
Grandmotherofalovelyyoungman
have been on Clopidogrel for nearly 14 years now! Was advised by a brilliant doctor that I
should take it forever. I know the guidelines suggest 12 - 18 months, and that it was an
expensive drug. Talk to your cardiologist again. I'm fine I hope!
Thank you I’m not worried about the clopidogrel in isolation but taking that along with Apixaban is a concern. I realise the benefits of anti platelet medication
Hi Redsea. Sorry to hear you’re feeling so rubbish. Clearly you need to get to the bottom of your health concerns but I also wondered if it might help to ask the Doctor about counselling/talking therapies. That might help you to handle the anxiety that’s being created by the other issues. Just a thought. Take care.
Hi Redsea. I’m 68 and was very fit and healthy pre heart attack. I hate this dependency on people, drugs, walking stick etc. I felt so ill I thought it was my heart causing it till my GP informed me it’s the statins that are causing it. I stopped taking them and felt like my old self. I was prescribed a different statin after a couple of weeks of freedom and at first was ok but I started feeling crap again so I’ve stopped them again. GP referred me to endocrinologist because my parathyroid readings high. Got another GP appointment next week to discuss. Hope you feel better and get sorted soon.
Hello Redsea, What ever you do Don't ever let negativity get the better of you as seems to be the case. I appreciate at such times it is hard to feel positive but you must adopt that mindset, if you don't, you will only spiral deeper to submission.
Think back to when you were most active and happy ( I appreciate for some this could be quite far back in life) however, you set this as your goal to achieve against all odds and as near to it as is physically and practically possible.
As for going private, if you can afford it give it a go it's your health at stake. But personally I would keep badgering my GP till he/she listens, failing that bug your cardiology department until some one does take notice. My dear mum god bless her always used to say "If you don't ask you won't get" and I go a step further " If you don't keep asking you will be ignored"
Good Luck and drag yourself out that hole you're digging!
So fed up, after CABG worse off.
heart attack at 38
Confused and fed up
Extra beats and fluttering 
Following up 
