Working after heart attack

[Dustjacket1]

Hi all I had a heart attack four weeks ago due to a totally blocked Right coronary artery, luckily I had gone to A+E with chest pain and aching in my arms and collapsed in the hospital. Two stents later I’m waiting for a stress MRI to assess severe disease throughout my Lcx and severe Ostial disease in my D1. The Cardiac Rehab Nurse phoned and when asked about retuning to work said just ease yourself into it and she would call back in about three weeks! I am self employed and have to do a lot of lifting in my work so am a bit worried until I have had my scan for which I have no date yet.

[EmmyLaury12]

I had a HA a year ago And mine was blocked RCA 1 stent .

I had 6 months off work I think it depends on the individual but I wouldn’t rush back really especially if it is heavy work you do .

Take care and welcome to this forum x

[Dustjacket1 in reply to EmmyLaury12]

Thanks for your reply,I won’t rush back and luckily I have lots of support at home

[Hidden]

Same boat kinda as you , ha six weeks ago now , not working at present due to my trade of being a chef . As you can imagine with everything opening back up all the job pages are full off chef posts so it’s like a candy shop out there for me . I have zero income and zero in my bank account and belive me the stress that is causing me is worthy of another heart attack. I did have an interview planned for last Thursday and was told by cardiac rehab that it was far too soon for me and to cancel it . So I did . So I’m sitting here wondering weither to have the dust from behind the fridge or the sink for breakfast today . Cus frankly it’s ridiculous

[Dustjacket1 in reply to Hidden]

Yes, I feel a bit in limbo at the moment!

[Chappychap]

I haven't had a heart attack, but I have had open heart surgery for a bypass operation. And when I attended the cardio rehab course (face to face in those days) there were other patients who had had both a heart attack and open heart surgery.

We all received the same advice, you should expect to return to work about six weeks after being discharged from hospital if you did an office based job, and after eight weeks if you did a more physical job. There were still cautions about lifting heavy weights, but that was more about the risk of opening up the still heeling breast bone, which had been cut for the open heart surgery.

For people who had a heart attack but without open heart surgery the advice I've seen is for an office based job you can normally return to work after two weeks. The NHS isn't so clear for more physical jobs, but they do say you're okay to have sex four to six weeks after a heart attack, I'll leave you decide the relative physicality of your job and your sex life!

In Canada, where I also have had heart treatment, the advice is that most people can expect to back at work two to four weeks after a heart attack.

However, you should, of course, treat all this as internet chatter. Either seek guidance from your GP, or failing that talk to one of the experienced cardiac nurses at BHF (the sponsors of this forum) who can be contacted for advice by telephone.

Good luck!

[Dustjacket1 in reply to Chappychap]

Thanks for your reply,I am looking forward to a long and happy life after this blip!

[Hidden in reply to Dustjacket1]

I would add that they are the recommended ‘earliest’ that you should return to work, we are all different and some, as already stated, take a lot longer.