questions and quandaries

[glandabulous]

Hi,

I had a Ha and long stent in Dec 2021. put on lots meds ,bisoprolol, Ramipril, statins, aspirin and platelet thinners. was off work for 3/12 competed cardiac rehab course. was going well exercising and healthy eating slowly losing weight.

End of April had an episode of severe chest pain and ended up in A+E, bloods confirmed not heart attack, was put down to b/p being high at time or artery spasm.

All fine again exercising well and getting back to normal life/work. The last month started to feel things weren't right more fatigued again, anxious, dull ache in chest. saw GP did ecg and bloods all ok. Had a couple of minor episodes of chest pain at rest that responded to GTN spray. The last Thursday got sudden onset at rest of chest pain didn't respond to gtn called ambulance and ended up in A+E for 17hrs. whilst in A+E symptoms got worse heavy pressure and tight band round chest radiating into neck, jaw and shoulder blade.

Ecg s ok but was when had heart attack. Blood ok. ruled out fatty clots and aneurisms. Seen by cardio team who added amlodipine and isosorbide mononitrate to my other meds. talked about it being type of angina, ?microvascular and also talked about artery spasm. Arranging more tests, scans with drugs to increase heart rate and to look at small blood vessels?.

Still very fatigued getting dull aches which gets worse and more widespread at times, took GTN spray this morning and it worked.

Heads full of questions:

what tests are they describing?. (because I was so tired I didn't take everything in) and how long am i likely to wait for tests?.

should i continue exercising and walking my dog or do i need to build up slowly again. Pain has never come on with exertion only at rest.

My work have suggested we look at medical retirement as i work in social services which is a very stressful environment. has anyone gone through this process that can tell me what it involves and how long it takes?

Have booked some counselling as having flashbacks now to heart attack and need to talk out, is this common?.

If it is microvascular angina or artery spasm is there anything i can do to reduce things?.

Does the fatigue go away as its like hitting a brick wall and cant function when it comes on.

will i be able to drive with above diagnosis?.

Sorry for long post just need to get some control back and knowledge of others experiences might help.

Thanks

[Blackcatsooty]

Dear Glandabulous

Welcome on board this forum.

Lots of knowledgeable and kind people in here Helped me a lot.

I too get a lot of fatigue.

I get benefit from keeping up with;

Proper good sleep

Sensible diet including alcohol

Keeping Blood pressure at a reasonable level

I take similar medications to you. I do not know if they are causing fatigue, I don’t think so but I don’t know for certain.

I got horrid anxiety and went to relaxation type group classes and that helped a lot.

I got extreme night mares, which I call night terrors, and with good sleep plus relaxation classes these dreams have eased a lot. I use a tinnitus relaxer to help me get to sleep.

I exercise as much as I can and would not stop unless doctor recommended a cessation.

You are not alone

Best wishes

Sooty

[glandabulous in reply to Blackcatsooty]

thanks for your thoughts. im doing the sleep and healthy eating, no alcohol. BP much better now with meds change. started walking dog again.

[Cruiser25]

I, like you only seem to have any discomfort when I'm not exercising or moving about. It only appears in the evening when I'm relaxed, I'm fairly certain it's when I'm really tired/run out of juice so to speak. Have you had an Echocardiogram? There's a possibility you may have a touch of damage affecting the heart, depending what type of HA you had & the time until you had your stents. Not all damage is permanent!!! I had a STEMI HA and Cardiologist is confident I've escaped permanent damage, but this was identified via my 2 echos, 3 months apart.

Keep positive, exercise, (if you're ok to do so), will pay dividends, weirdly, the heart needs rest after a HA (Registrar described it as the heart has been stunned) but it responds really well to exercise bit paradoxical I know.

Good diet, plenty of sleep and be good to yourself and those close to you.

All the best.

[glandabulous in reply to Cruiser25]

i had echo a couple of days after HA. that's interesting to know thank you

[Shellac]

Hi I'm having angiogram on 16th September to check my mircovascular arteries I get severe pain in my heart, burning, squeezing everything you are experiencing my cardiologist put me on ranexa and these tablets really seem to help, I still do some exercise, ask your doctor/cardiologist for ranexa tablets might help you good luck ❤

[glandabulous in reply to Shellac]

thank you will look that up.

[HorsetherapyforHA]

Hi there, one of the tests they may do is an MRI with drugs to put your heart under stress to see how it responds. I’ve had it done and tells them a lot, it’s very safe and I was well looked after.