How long

[Bartie123]

Nine weeks today since I had my angioplasty and one stent. People I spoke to who had stents fitted all said they felt fantastic afterwards - I don;t. I am depressed, tired, sometimes have palpitations , and most of all am short of breath. As it was the shortness of breath that took me to the doctor in the first place (angina) it is pretty gloom-naking to not feel much better. I am on the usual bisoporol, statins, aspirin ticelgror and rampiril. Had to stop monomil as well (GP advised) and GKNN spray as I reacted so violently. GKN spray had me back in a and e as I passed out. Any helpful comments?

[MichaelJH Heart Star]

Hello and welcome to the forum! A couple of things first i) do you still get angina and ii) have you been referred to cardio rehab?

No rush to answer as I will be offline for a couple of hours now.

[humph3]

It takes time to recover don't give up yet - I found that the Linus Pauling therapy helped a lot (high vit C and l Lysine) in fact I am still on this therapy 3 years after 2 stents fitted

[mrgrumppy]

Hi Bartie

I had a HA in April 2019 and had three stents fitted but still got shortness of breath I also had another three stents in November 2019 and still find I still have shortness of breath I also had another three stents fitted today.

I am putting it down to that the body takes time to adjust to these things

Sometimes your medication can cause shortness of breath as mine was changed but made no difference

MG

[Clerkenweller]

We’re all different and react in different ways especially to the medication regime. I developed angina had a mild HA and 1 stent a year ago. It took 6 weeks and Cardio Rehab (make sure you get on a course). It took me 6 months to get my medications and dosages right. That was in May. I now am sympton free and fit. Work with your GP and Cardiologist being clear about how you feel. If anxious talk to the excellent BHF nurses. You’ll be fine. Good Luck!

[LavenderBee]

Hi Bartie - welcome to Healthunlocked - you’ll find it really helpful, I know I have. I think from what you’ve told us you may feel a bit down because you’ve experienced a trauma. How you bounce back will depend on many things - I felt huge relief at first after my stent as I was being misdiagnosed and dismissed as low risk until I paid for an angiogram which showed a 99% blockage. I was also relieved as I could get back out being active without the severe angina symptoms hindering me. Cardiac rehabilitation is not necessarily what you think may help but for me it was super. I felt like I had a purpose to be somewhere twice a week and that the staff were there to build me up whilst checking on my BP and heart rate etc. From what you’ve said - and I think I also expected this - you thought you’d be back to 100% ok after the procedure. I’ve spoken to lots of fellow cardiac patients and the trauma, shock, call it what you will, often comes up high on the list of problems in recovering after an event. Everyone is different but if you can find some techniques to help you deal with this your mood may improve. For me at first getting out walking for a good couple of hours a day listening to informative pod casts really helped me when my mood felt like it might dip. This became a habit and I’m back running now which really boosts me. I’m quite strict about a routine as well - this stops me dwelling or overthinking. It’s whatever works for you really. Hope this helps.

[Bartie123 in reply to LavenderBee]

Thank you so much. You have really helped.

[Gillymaccy]

Hey there think it’s time and fear in your head all the time . I had a new defibrillate 3 week s ago still not got my head around it going off 61 times in 5 hours . Just takes time I think, all the best

[LavenderBee]

Bartie - the one thing about this forum is you’ll get very kind advice from members - we all have varying degrees of experience in our event and recovery. Something about being able to air your worries without medicalising them to your nearest and dearest really really helps. Hope today sees you able to get out and quell some of your concerns. It’s might even lift your mood a little. Take care