NEED MY HGV LICENCE BACK? ANY ADVICE ON STRESS TEST/DVLA WAITING TIMES?

[Ambu96]

I m an HGV driver and had stent fitted 21/1/22.

I've been advised cant drive HGV until DVLA receive medical advice?

I've looked at DVLA website and been sent D2/D4 to apply for new licence ?

Any advice/experiences appreciated

[firstlight40]

Sorry to hear about your condition and glad that you had a stent fitted. I hope you are feeling better now.

For car drivers the rule is you can't drive for one week after stents.

For HGV drivers I believe the absolute minimum period not driving is 6 weeks but could be longer if the cardiac team opinion is it's unsafe. I believe you also have to pass a Bruce cardiac stress test to a certain level.

Have you spoken with your cardiac team to understand about your condition, they should be able to help understand if your case is straightforward or not?

[Challenger2009]

Hi I am in a similar position, in June had a angogram RCA completely blocked and some blockages in other arteries no stent but couldn’t drive hgv for six weeks and also to see if medication would work, fast forward to November received a letter from DVLA to undergo stress test I undertook this start of December, I also had an appointment with my cardiologist in January as things were not getting any better after a heart scan a completely narrowed and diseased arteri was found and also told I had failed the dvla stress test but also due to unstable angina can't drive them at the moment, I would think after six weeks you should hopefully be able to get behind the wheel but will probably be asked to undergo a stress test.

[Ruha]

Replying from Scotland so rules may be different, I had 4 stents fitted after a heart attack and had to surrender my PCV Licence and wait 3 months before having a treadmill test lasting 9 minutes at three minute intervals on different gradients, thought I was going to die on the machine, sweated like you can’t believe and yet passed with flying colours and got my licence back, no one more surprised than me, no issues since.

[Ambu96 in reply to Ruha]

Many thanks for your reply in scotland too, NHS TaysideDid you have stress test recently? Did you have a long wait for it as I thought it could be done after 3-6 weeks?

Glad all went well with you

[Ruha in reply to Ambu96]

No mention of stress test, haven’t heard of it, what’s involved?

[Ambu96 in reply to Ruha]

Hi Sorry stress test is the treadmill test.

How many weeks after stents did you get treadmill? Which healthboard did yours was there a long wait?

[Ruha in reply to Ambu96]

It was three months after my operations, and test was done in Glasgow.I got an operation on the Thursday, one stent fitted, another operation on the Friday three stents fitted and sent home by plane on the Saturday morning at 8 am, on the Sunday I walked 5 miles, on the Monday the same and on the Tuesday I cycled 16 miles, I felt like superman, then walked 5 miles every day from then on, I’ve been told this was not good and really should not have done that by a couple of doctors, but I honestly didn’t feel any issues, perhaps I’m the exception to the rule but it worked for me, it’s now two years on although I have changed my eating habits and more importantly my drinking habits, I haven’t lost an ounce of weight, ( I have continued my exercise regime) I was 17 stone when I had my heart attack and I’m 17 stone now and I I’m really a bit pissed of, when I came home I was on 80ml atorvastatin, 5 ml bisopralol, 80ml furosemide and one 75ml aspirin a day, the side effects were not good, pains in my long bones ( upper legs ) and joints, after reading up on statins I decided to half my dose and the pains went, then I was diagnosed as pre type 2 diabetic ( incidentally this is a potential side effect from statins ) so I stopped them completely and had my bloods done 6 months later, only to find there was no longer any issue with diabetes and my cholesterol was also fine so now I’m taking 5 ml bisopralol 75 aspirin and 80 ml furosemide, I’ve now decided, after reading up and researching on bisopralol and furosemide to cut this to 2.5 bisopralol and 40 ml furosemide and see what happens, I’m not under any circumstances recommending this for anyone, it’s just my choices and we’ll see where it goes, my decisions, I just feel that these drugs are messing me up and I’ll play around with them for a while and see where it goes, I take my blood pressure twice a day and so far it is coming up in the normal range, obviously if this changes then I’ll re assess.

I guess I should also stress that I had an echocardiogram done and the guy said he was surprised that there was very little damage to the heart muscle, so maybe I was just very lucky, but still 4 stents required so who knows, if things change I’ll post again as I go through this but please don’t think you can do the same, read as much reviews as you can and try to relate as much as possible to your own circumstances, make the best of every moment and remember life is short in the scheme of things, let’s make the best of what time we have.

I hope this is of some help, but please, this is not advice to anyone to do the same, these are my choices and I own them.