Newbie

[driverbadges]

Hi everyone I am new here and I am so glad to have found this forum. I am 65 and never had a heart problem in my life until March this year. I was at work and had a heart attack. While in hospital I had another heart attack. I was moved to another hospital where I had an angiogram and angioplasty. After 11 days I was sent home with meds and I thought was doing alright. In May I was admitted to hospital again and, I had to have an urgent triple heart bypass. I am 10 weeks into my recovery and just had the results of my echo test while I was in hospital . My EF is 40-45 I am learning and reading about my condition but I am still in the dark. I am now waiting for a heart failure nurse and not sure what happens next.

[Barb6374]

Hi , welcome.Im sure someone will be along soon to answer your questions.

I too had a heart attack last dec, stayed in hospital for 10 days , had angiogram, sent home to wait for bypass .

My op was due 24th July but was cancelled. I'm hoping my new date will be early Sept .

Are you in touch with cardiac rehab nurses ? , gp etc ? , maybe they could explain what happens next x

[driverbadges in reply to Barb6374]

Thank you for your input and I am sorry your heart bypass was cancelled I hope you get it soon. I did have a cardiac nurse that rang a few weeks at a time but, since my echo result I have not heard anything but I will be sure to talk to her next time. Thank you and, I do hope your not waiting that long.

[Qualipop]

I'm no expert but EF of 40-45 sounds pretty good. It is possible to increase it with lifestyle changes such as diet, alcohol, smoking and exercise when you can. I'm sure others with more experience than I will soon reply far better than I can. Sudden heart problems come as an enormous shock; I would guess that a huge number of people on here could also say they'd never had heart problems until a heart attack out of the blue. If you are struggling to come to terms with it, do ask for cardiac counselling. It can really help when doctors tell you next to nothing. After my HA I was just given tablets and told nothing at all. My discharge letter needed a medical degree to understand it so I asked my GP to go through it in detail which helped a lot.

[driverbadges in reply to Qualipop]

Thank you for your reply. I am going to tackle my diet and exercise sooner rather than later. I have not smoked for 35 years and I gave drinking up not long after that. Now it is the junk food that has to go. The only thing I understood on my discharge letter was my name and docs name. I am now learning a lot more and I now definitely do not feel alone after finding this brilliant community. Thank you

[Qualipop in reply to driverbadges]

Lots of excellent recipes on the main BHF website and get your GP to explain that letter in detail.

[Sewing19]

Hi driverbadges. I too am new to all this. I ‘found’ this forum a few weeks ago and everyone has been so helpful. I think that whatever worries/problems you have there’ll be someone in this group who has been there too. I had an ‘out of the blue’ heart attack on my 68th birthday, 19 May this year😱🎂 I was fortunate to get a triple bypass just 7 days later and my recovery is going well.

I was able to contact the cardio nurse whenever I needed to after I left hospital but I don’t know if I’ll ever get a follow up appointment with my cardiologist. I’ve left several messages with the secretary but not had any reply. 🤦‍♀️Cardio rehab also hasn’t restarted in Cumbria so I’ve booked some personal training sessions in September at my local gym with someone who is cardiac rehab trained. (She would have taken the classes if they had been running)

I still get swollen ankles, especially on hot days so I put my feet on a stool at night.

It took me 6 weeks to be able to sleep on my side too. I go through stages of getting twinges around my chest wound and in my chest but after a chat with the cardiac nurse I was reassured that this was normal healing and would take a year.

12 weeks post op and my BP rocketed but another medication was added to the mix and it’s under control again.

Hope this helps and reassures you and you continue well with your recovery.

I’ve just read somewhere that we are now in the Zip Club 😄😄😄❤️