Sudden dull ache.

[stef2504]

Hi, I had a heart attack and a stent fitted almost 6 months ago. I had my heart clinic follow up in October and have a follow up consult with the cardiac surgery team in a week or so. I also have a Drs. telephone consult next week. The only lingering thing i have had since my stent had been shortness of breath after exerting myself so thought i was doing pretty well. Over the last 2 days however i have had what i can only describe as a dull ache in my chest in the same areas i had the severe pain when i had my attack. I have used my GT spray, for the first time, twice since this started. Does anyone have experience of similar and is it something i should bother 111 with or is it my stent still bedding in and i should obviously mention this to my Drs? Sorry for the long winded first post! Thanks in advance for any advice.

[Hidden]

Hello

I am pleased you have all these appointments coming up where you can go into more detail about how you feel

It could be the sent settling in but I would maybe phone 111 and ask for their advice

Let us know if you do how you get on x

[stef2504 in reply to Hidden]

Thanks, I've just spoken to the cardiac clinic who advised me to pop down to Urgent Care if i am overly worried or if it gets any worse.

[Hidden in reply to stef2504]

Hello

I am glad you got to speak to someone

What do you think you will do ? x

[ChoochSiesta]

If you move your body to a different position can you relieve the pain?When I had a heart attack, it didn't matter what position I was in, absolutely nothing relieved it. For me, that's what was different.

[stef2504 in reply to ChoochSiesta]

Thanks, I know what you mean about the heart attack pain🤦🏻‍♂️. It does ease if i move around, it seems to be more when sitting down.

[DaveSpice]

Call 111, no question, you need to get that checked out, anything that comes on suddenly when exerting yourself. When it comes to heart pain it is never a waste of time and stents dont suddenly bed themselves in. The key is that you get pain when exercising, so get on the phone.

[stef2504]

Thanks for the replies and advice. I've spend the day at 2 different hospitals having blood taken and ECG's. Nothing out of the ordinary has shown up and everything seems to be as expected. They think it may be more muscular than heart related but all my tests will be passed onto my consultant who i have a telephone appointment with in just over a week.

[RailRover]

This is what they tend to say. They can't detect anything cardiac, so they assume it must be muscular. I wouldn't like to say one way or the other to be honest. You tend to get used to what is the new normal for you. In the first 3 months after HA and stent, I was rehospitalised 3 times because I followed the guidelines, calling emergency in the event of pain for 15 minutes that doesn't respond to the Nitro spray. I very soon realised that if I carried on doing this, I would never be away from the place, and I started to relax into it a bit more. 18 months later (9 months ago) I had triple bypass, but still get aches and pains and weird sensations that I put down to the heart being a bit stupid.

I find cardiologists can be quite dismissive of concerns they don't understand, or effects they can't immediately diagnose. When I was doing cardiac rehab, a cardiologist gave us a helpful lecture and spoke eloquently about his subject. I did take strong issue with him though, when he said that some people never seem to want to stop coming for appointments for random non-specific 'minor' symptoms, "like they enjoy seeing us". I told him that he needed to walk in the shoes of people who have been down this road, before being so glib about those who are still suffering from sensations they don't like and are worried about. I don't think anyone had challenged him like that before. It quite took the wind out of his sails.

[Vanbob101]

I have just been looking through old posts because my mother continues to have mild dull chest pains after her heart attack, I'm trying to find clues as to what might be going on. It's been 5 months. It affected her quality of life and makes her really anxious. The doctors say it's muscular or nerve pain , not cardiac, the same as you stef2504 . Not sure what to make of that. RailRover I'm really glad you said something to that doctor, what an absolutely ridiculous thing for him to say!