Hello everyone, I am new here and very new to the diagnosis of angina. I didn't have it until a couple of months ago and now I seem to have it with only very moderate exertion... is that similar for others?
The discomfort of angina: Hello... - British Heart Fou...
The discomfort of angina
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Billy_Bedstead
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30 Replies
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Hello Billy_Bedstead
Welcome to the forum, not somewhere you ever thought you would be joining! I don’t have angina my heart issues are I have had Aortic valve replaced and bypass. Members on the forum have a range of heart issues, and have gone through heart event’s.
Someone will be along who as angina to help with any questions you might have.
In your bio you mention eating broccoli, have a look at the Mediterranean diet that BHF recommend lots of us on the forum follow that.
It comes as a huge shock when our bodies let us down I remember thinking this can’t be happening my body had never let me down before 😩 I was 68 at the time, but here I am 4 years on from my open heart surgery and my life is back on track.
So again welcome we are a merry band of Hearties, and are here to listen if you need to talk or a shoulder to lean on if that’s what is needed.
Best wishes Pauline
Thank you so much for your reply, Pauline, that is so sweet of you. You seem to have had a lot of things going on, I hope you are bearing up. In my bio I was being a bit ironic about the broccoli... I quite like to eat it but I'm going to miss less healthy things! I will look at the Mediterranean diet, I have started to explore the healthy options. I will try to be good...at least most of the time.
I will try to live up to the real heroes like you!
Thank you again for your reply, I really do appreciate it. Speak soon, Neil
Oh dear is Broccoli not good for you then!! I eat a lot of it and I was reading something the other day which said you should not eat Broccoli and there were other vegetables that you should not eat. I must say I thought they were mistaken.
Hello
Re broccoli, I was replying to a comment from Billy_Bedstead about eating more broccoli ( said tongue in cheek) and said he should look at the Mediterranean diet that lots of us follow on the forum. He was looking to start eating healthier diet.
The only heart patients who have to watch their vegetables are those taking Warfarin.
Pauline
Hello Billy, when I first got angina I found it hard to believe. I woke up one night with chestpains and lay very quiet till it went away. It started again when I was getting ready for work, of to hospital.
It took quit a while to get sorted but 6 months later I had a stent put in and was amazed at the difference it made to me. Only a month earlier I had been walking on holiday in the alps I did get out of breath then, but I always did so did not think anything of it.
It had been 5 years now and I am doing fine, but at times I have come back to this forum and have found it very useful and been given lots of advice. Sure you will find that too.
All the best, Anke
Hey Anke, thank you so much for your reply and encouragement, I do find it very reassuring. I feel very lucky that there are great people on here like you, who spend time to give reassurances. I hope you continue to do well - and I hope you get more walking holidays in the Alps when we are allowed to travel again!
Stay safe
Neil (Billy)
Hi Billy. You don’t write about your treatment. My angina was treated with a stent which was in my case necessary but also an array of drugs and most importantly my GtN spray. It took a while to get my drug balance right but two years on I have no symptoms, I’ve lost some weight and back in the gym. Good luck.
Thanks Clerkenweller, I really appreciate the reply. I need to add a bit more info to my bio. Ive been on antihypertensives for about 10 years, ramipril and amlodipine, and a statin for 6 months. The discomfort started a couple of months ago and I put it down to indigestion. I get what I can only describe as a nebulous, not sharply defined ache in my neck and jaw. I need to lose weight but I quite like walking (I love Shropshire) but at the moment the discomfort is present even with level walking and quite gentle exercise.
I am now taking aspirin, a beta blocker and have a GTN spray which I have yet to use.
I am due a CT scan on the 4th November.
It's great you have no symptoms now and that you were able to persevere with the regime. I will take heart form that... no pun intended. Good luck to you too!
You know you should use the spray when you are about to do some exercise. Before I had the stent put in I sprayed in the morning a couple of squirts and I never had pain again unless going up a very steep hill. It opens up the arteries to allow blood to pass through. Or you can just use it when you start to get pain. But it helps wonderfully. Read the instructions.
Thank you! Sorry for the tardy reply. Hope all is well with you.
This is really useful for me who has just been newly diagnosed. I usually just have a dull ache but recently it goes down my arm and up into my throat even when sedentary. So I should take it as a preventative? I’m also on a nitrate tablet but it’s making me feel poorly
Another angina sufferer here......at first i experienced chest pain as a one-off episode while walking up hill, the second time was more serious (but at least a year later) and I started going down the medical route. Have had several scans/tests etc and all have shown that my main arteries are relatively clear. So the suspicion is that I have microvascular angina which means that the small arteries in the heart no longer open up properly.
Now I am resigned to having chest pain on exertion but the first exercise of the day is the worst - sometimes even on almost level footpaths, etc. Once I get through that I can continue o steady uphill climbs with only a little pain. I'm on several medications but I don't know if any of them make any difference! Microvascular angina is little understood and there is no specific treatment for it. Hopefully that will change in the not too distant future.
The main advice i would offer is - get the tests you need, and remember it's not the end of the world......
Hey Jerry, thank you for the reply. Your history is really interesting, how the pain started and how you have got to where you are now. I do find your story really helpful. I have read about microvascular angina but I'm not familiar with it. (About a million years ago I qualified as a nurse but it is such a long time ago I can remember very little of what I learned.)
I am due more tests and will pretty much do everything the medics tell me.
Thank you for your encouragement and good luck to you!
Neil (Billy)
My meds are the same as yours. I was originally put on bisoprolol but suffered badly from dizziness, although that could have been a co-incidence as I am prone to dizziness anyway....... But I was able to discontinue that and take amlodipine instead to reduce my BP. The GTN spray doesn't seem to work for me so I don't bother with it.
Good luck!
Hiya and welcome! Everyone is different including how they experience angina pain. The following is my experience with it:
I have multiple heart conditions (check my profile but I warn in advance it's a bit on the very boring side
) including what is now deemed by my cardiologist to be 'angina with normal coronaries' and he says he strongly suspects I have microvascular angina after several tests including echocardiograms and an angiogram, and receiving regularly sent emailed spreadsheets logging my twice daily vitals (blood pressure, heart rate, ox-sats, temperature, symptoms leading to use of GTN).
Unfortunately the queue for the microvascular angina gold-standard test (angiogram with acetylcholine provocation) is months and months long and I am at the back of the queue.
Fortunately my angina is currently nicely controlled with a morning Bisoprolol 1.25mg+300mg aspirin, some lifestyle adjustments, and a prophylactic hit of the GTN (NitroLingual 400) before doing anything strenuous including potentially contentious discussions or reading/listening to the televised news. So, no rush for the test - there are many others ahead of me in the queue with far more serious symptoms and I am very happy to continue being bumped to the back to give way to someone with far greater need than mine.
Until your scan is done, you're best not overdoing anything even though you report your angina pain is occurring with moderate exercise - you don't mention how painful it is on exertion so I'm assuming it's not bad enough to drop you to your knees (hope I'm right on that!). Mine is only on exertion and can be moderate pain to the point I have to think about it - 'Is it really the angina?' but then it can progress to 'OH MY WORD OUCHIE! Maybe this is the big one - am I having a full-on heart attack?!' so it really is better to not provoke an attack if you can avoid it. Saves you the added stress of worrying about the angina attack.
Listen to your body - if it hurts and/or makes you short of breath, stop and rest and if recovery (from pain and/or shortness of breath) takes longer than a half-hour, it's time to telephone the medics.
If it hurts, try your GTN per instructions from prescribing medic and the package leaflet, and it is safe to use it before you try to exercise or do a supermarket shop or when you think you might be headed for a stressful confrontation (or watching the news - yes, it can induce angina pain!).
The GTN can cause some unpleasant side effects the first few times you use it (dizziness, whomping headache, nausea, intestinal disturbance) but after you use it several times the only 'side effect' is near-immediate relief from the angina pain. I use it before I exercise (some home warm-ups then 2 miles walking level ground twice a day+about a half hour indoor exercise) and am very grateful the effect means I can carry on being active without the worry of an angina attack.
Finally, although you don't have to report yourself to the DVLA, it's probably best to stop driving until your scan results are in and you're on a treatment regime for whatever the results disclose.
Again, welcome, and be sure to keep us updated.
Thank you Sunnie2day! Yes, you're right, I experience a discomfort, not what I would describe as pain. It is uncomfortable but manageable but I'm not going to push it. I have some tests in a few weeks so I will talk to the medics and do as I'm told. Thank you so much for your advice on the use of GTN, I will try it when things get bad. I want to exercise but don't want to stretch myself.
I don't drive too much so it's not much of an issue to stop for a while. Thank you for your thoughtful comments - I am listening!
Good luck to you too: look after yourself
Billy
What does your pain actually feel like please. I know when it’s really painful but often just have a dull ache (which I’ve been ignoring). Thank you x
Hiya My angina pain varies depending on which of my multiple heart conditions is being more heart conditionie
Most often, owing to my having recurrent pericarditis, it's a 'dull ache' and the slight increase that becomes more like a constant light squeeze is my signal I might be going into a flare. Using my GTN spray helps - quickly most of the time.
Even when the GTN and meds are doing the job, though, on exertion or if it's hot and humid in the house or outdoors, I get a variety of pains.
Sometimes it's more like a slow squeeze in my left breast area, sometimes (especially on exertion or trying to climb inclines/hills/stairs it's a sharp pinching sensation. Sometimes it lingers and radiates to my left shoulder and into my jaw, and when I'm in an acute flare of my recurrent pericarditis the pain hits left breast-left shoulder, left side of my neck and jaw, and around to my left back area.
Welcome to the group here - we don't bite and welcome new Hearties to the club you hoped you'd never join. I'm now following you so if you start a discussion I'll get an email notification - angina is manageable but managing it takes work as a team with your medic(s) and you. I'm posting a link to the BHF angina booklet download (scroll around on the publications page after you grab the free download - there is a lot of information on there!) and also to the contact details page for the BHF Heart Helpline cardiac nurses who are so helpful to so many of us!
bhf.org.uk/informationsuppo...
bhf.org.uk/informationsuppo...
Again, welcome, and keep us posted on how you get on.
Hello Billy sorry you are here, but there are lots of people who will help you out on this site.
I pain when I walked up small hills. I used my spray whenever I had to go up an incline. I have now had a stent put in so I do not suffer that any more. But my worst event was the first time I had experienced angina and I was only walking on the flat!!
Hey Surreychica, thank you for your reply! I am really glad of this site and for people like you who have spoken to me. Your experience sounds very similar to mine. I must say if I need a stent in the future I will be very happy to have one. I feel so lucky and privileged to be looked after by our health service.
Good luck to you
"I am new here and very new to the diagnosis of angina. I didn't have it until a couple of months ago and now I seem to have it with only very moderate exertion..."
Hello Billy, welcome to the forum.
You may not have been aware of the symptoms of angina until a couple of months ago, but atherosclerosis, the underlying condition that causes most angina, is something you've probably had for many, many years. It's one of the odd effects of restrictions to the coronary arteries, you're not aware of a problem until there are quite severe blockages, and almost overnight it goes from being a non issue to being life limiting.
There's no cure for atherosclerosis, all you can do is slow down the progress of the disease with life style changes and medication. Of the two it's probably life style changes that will be most effective for most people.
You're right to identify excess weight as a key cause, especially if its fat around your middle or, even worse, blankets of fat around internal organs. As well as BMI some authorities say a better guide is that your waist should be less than half your height. I recognise that losing weight is particularly difficult when exercise is restricted, but it's absolutely critical for your future wellbeing that you crack your weight problem as quickly as possible.
Good luck!
Thank you Chappychap! Yes, I realise things have changed for good now. I will take it seriously and do what I'm told. I do understand the chronic nature of the problem and although the last coupIe of weeks have been a bit of a whirl, I am trying to do the right thing. worked for many years in the NHS and for some of those years as a nurse so I am more used to talking to patients rather than being one. But I'll try to adapt!
Thank you so much for your encouragement, and the best of luck to you too!
Neil (Billy)
Sorry to hear of your diagnosis I dont need to do anything to get an angina attack . Been like this for a few years now luckily I've not felt that it's got worse in the past few years .good old GTN spray
Hey Stupi, thanks for your reply and sharing your experience. I haven't yet used my spray but I will go for a very easy walk over the weekend and will take it with me. I hope you continue to do well, and the very best of luck for the future!
What I don't like about GTN is it doesn't half burn under my tongue for a while
Does it give you a headache too?
It does for me but it soon subsides. The tablets give me a stomping and consistent headache which resembles a migraine 😔 I’m told I have to persevere for a while as I’m newly diagnosed.
Hi Worvera, I hope it settles soon. I didn't use my GTN spray much but I understand headaches are common, particularly in the early stages of taking it.
I had a quadruple bypass 12 weeks ago and so far haven't needed the spray since although I may well need it in the future.
This site has been really helpful for me, there are some great people on here
Good luck!
Hi Billy. You have some very good advice already here so I apologise if I am repeating something already said. I started getting mild angina symptoms end of summer last year (due to coronary heart disease) but it quickly developed into unstable angina that would be set off just by stepping out into the cold autumn/winter weather. Sadly I pretty much ended up house-bound till my heart bypass but I did find a GTN spray very effective. The spray did give me some stonking headaches though!
Hey J-D, how are you doing now? I hope all is well with you, or at least as good as it possibly can be. I do appreciate your reply. I will try to be as good as I can be and do what the doctors say.
I am embracing a plant- based diet and easing up on the alcohol (I do like a single malt now and again).
I feel so lucky to have support on this forum but also to have the best healthcare in the world - and free at the point of delivery. I will fight for that as long as my heart beats...
Take care
Billy
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