Going back to work or not!??

[Alexa445]

Hi all!Someone could tell me how long you need to stay home without going to work after having a heart attack and an angioplasty?My partner cant wait to go back to work,he is going to Cardiac Rehab and it will be like 10 weeks,i dont know if he need to stay at home during this all 10 weeks or he can start before.He is 28 years old and its been 3 weeks since he had the HA.We have appointment with GP on friday, but i dont know if he can tell us exactly when he can start working.His job is factory worker,no very heavy liftings,its more manual job but you need standing for few hours!Thank you!😊😅

[Gail1967]

I went back to work during my rehab after bypass. There were other patients back at work after stents in the rehab too. Getting back to normal is part of recovery. Your dr should be able to give you advice based on his circumstances re event & job- so be guided by them.

[Alexa445 in reply to Gail1967]

Thank you very much for your answer!I hope everything it will be fine and he can go back to work soon😊

[NorthantsSteve]

Hi Alexa. I went to work after 6 weeks but could have gone back after 4 (heart attack + stent age 55). I went back on a phased return. Half days for a week or so and then building up to full time after a month. It takes more out of you than you think so it’s best to take it easy and negotiate a slow return. If you doc is like mine he’ll take your husband’s lead. But it is best to go back once rather than bite off more than you can chew and then get signed off again due to exhaustion and stress.

[Alexa445 in reply to NorthantsSteve]

Thanks a lot for your replay.Yes its better to take it slow,im telling him everytime,cause he is insisting that he feels like never had this problem,defenetly we will take it slow.Best wishes to you!

[NorthantsSteve in reply to Alexa445]

He’ll feel like a 16 year old on work experience when he goes back! He’ll be shattered by lunch-time 😄

[Hidden]

It varies... I'm 55 and have had 5 stents. I'm going back to work in a couple of weeks time but have made the decision that I'm doing no more than 3 days a week which my work are I think agreeing to. I've been off for 9 months altogether. Work is only important for money and I'd suggest a really good look at his life. You get one and companies these days use people as cogs in a machine, which is fine if you want to spend your life being a drone. Spend time together and work out what you want, then do it. Good luck x

[SPV123]

Hi Alexa, i did the same as Northants Steve, ( actually, we are very similar, I'm 55 had stents, my name is steve and I'm in Northants, !!! ) but also had 4 weeks off, then started back part time, and my Rehab classes were always after work hours, Hope he gets better soon.

[Hidden]

This is quite an individual question. My mum had a ‘minor’ heart attack last year (so minor that it was only because of a very cautious A&E reg that she was kept in) - when they finally managed to get her angio done a few days later, she needed 4 stents and was told it was an actual miracle she hadn’t dropped down dead: one of her arteries was almost totally blocked. Bearing in mind she’s normally a whirlwind, she was off work for almost 3 months, and went back on a phased return, but 6 months down the line, she admits that she probably went back too soon. She very definitely feels she returned to full time too soon, but she does have a very stressful job (senior HR in a large organisation currently making loads of redundancies), so that may be part of it for her. A decent GP will to some extent be guided by the patient as to when they’re ready to return work, but not everyone has the luxury of occupational sick pay like my mum did, and SSP isn’t a lot. I think your partner needs to weigh up how he feels in himself with the demands of the job and the circumstances generally, and make sure that when he does return to his job, his employer organised a phased return to ease him back in and evaluate how he’s really doing.

[Andyman]

I was stopped from going back to work for 5 months. My job entailed long haul flights around the world and my company didn't want me back without a doctor's aproval and the doctors and cardiology refused to give that letter for 5 months. Wasn't a problem to me. As it allowed me to get fitter and mentally prepared and most significantly I was getting full pay. But I have to say getting back to normal should not be the goal. The old normal was what gave us a heart attack. We need a new normal.