Cad and angina diagnosed what now?

[Arty56]

Hi everyone,

Ive been diagnosed with cad and angina, the angina comes on out the blue with no exertion which worries me, my gtn stops it, sometimes I have to use the two lots. Early on a bad episode which wasn't a ha, then Hospital once as gtn didn't work. They say I haven't had a ha. I'm on a feast of meds aspirin, beta blockers, calcium channel blockers, statins. Vit d, citalopram for years, pain meds osteoarthritis in foot. I stay in bed alot. Don't go out much, worried about exercising because of heart and foot pain, (sometimes I cannot walk, this comes on suddenly and is very painful, I have injections for this) basically my life has stopped. My meds keep being upped as my angina doesn't stop. I was diagnosed Jan after tests with cardiology since then been under doc, iv been waiting to see cardiologist for a long time now, it's been chased 3 times by doc so far, fed up with it, What do I do now? Just try to live the best I can and try to ignore my angina attacks take my gtn and fingers x and live with my pain. Scared to go out much, is this my life now, does anyone know, thank you for reading Yvonne ❤️

[Grandma63]

Hi Arty56, I can completely sympathise with how you feel. Last winter I went through a particularly bad spell, lots of angina episodes and I have bad arthritis in both knees, feet and hands. I also suffer from Trigeminal Neuralgia which is horrendous. The cold weather isn’t at all helpful to our conditions. Hopefully when you get to see the cardiologist he can refer you to a pain consultant like mine did, it wasn’t just the physiotherapy side of things, I had a few sessions with an occupational therapist and a clinical psychologist as well. If you get the opportunity to do that then please take it. It has helped me enormously to deal with these conditions.

[Heythrop51]

Sorry I cannot really suggest much. On the heart side I think a chat with the BHF nurses might help. Apparently they are very knowledgeable. The BHF also produce a range of booklets on angina and heart related issues.

[Bettystaff]

Hi Arty, sorry to hear you are having a tough time but it’s time for you to take your life back. Staying in bed will do you no favours and may ultimately be the end of you. Gentle exercise is very important but you must listen to your body. If you are over weight start to address the issue, start a self care, weight loss package, losing weight will help your osteoarthritis and your angina. Are you depressed? Is this part of the reason you stay in bed? If yes see a doctor as soon as you can. A gentle walk to the local shop or round the block will be a good starting point, if you drive park further away so you have to walk slightly further. You may need some medical intervention later so if you can start with self care now it will stand you in good stead. Angina and coronary artery disease is a condition you can live with and make great progress with. Do not let it beat you - decide on some goals and aim to get them done. There is a wealth of experience and support on this forum so you don’t have to tackle this on your own - good luck x

[dunestar]

Hello Arty56. I agree very much with Bettystaff. It's very disappointing that you've been waiting so long to get to see your consultant. Clearly your medication is not working for you. I would hope that when you get to see him or her you could be offered some other kind of medication to see if it helps you more. I have microvascular angina but I'm sure it's the same with other types of angina as well that it's a question of finding which drugs suit you best. There shouldn't be a one size fits all approach.

Winter is especially challenging for angina patients with the cold weather working against us. But my experience is that inactivity makes things worse. You could do very gentle exercise around the house. It gets the heart working which is good for it. Also the body needs to move or muscles get weaker. It can become a downward spiral.

Have hope - we are past the shortest day now!

[Kristin1812 Heart Star]

Hi Yvonne. You have a pretty knotty set of problems, It must be very hard work.

I had to get back up again three times after HAs and found myself feeling pretty helpless and fearful of moving around at all, It was particularly hard to deal with as the angina just seemed to come from nowhere. That was very hard to cope with.

What helped me was getting moving and exercising and lots of juggling the drugs. But I realise you are going to have to be v clever to find some exercise that suits your poor feet, as well.

How about something like Aqua exercise? Your feet should suffer much less, and you can build up v slowly. It might get you moving ....,. ...

I found doing slightly more every day really improved my mood, too.

Let us know how your get on.

[Arty56]

Thank you for your replies and thoughts, I started to write a long reply but realised the bottom line is i have to make myself exercise gently , get out of bed, go out. I have anxiety and depression and take meds, overweight but I dont over eat. I know what to do but I can't even

Dress or shower some days. Scared of having a ha, small steps at a time maybe, if I could speak to my cardiologist might be better but still waiting.

Thanks everyone xxx