I can’t give any advice on the medications you’re taking. It’s a good thing however that they are doing the necessary testing to see what exactly is going on with your heart.
I noticed you said “is there a life after this”. As you mention that you’re already quite active, we had a member on here who had a blockage which triggered a heart attack in his early 50’s I believe. He has gone on to run a number of different marathons, including one associated with the Olympics quite recently actually. His name was Joe, and he was an inspiration to those hearties that thought it would not be possible to get back to being fit and healthy again, and to be able to challenge themselves within the scope of fitness and health despite having had a heart attack.
So the answer is yes, you can have a life after this, and sometimes, even a better one!
Good luck.
Tos
There is always life, your present fitness will be a great help to you, your life will always be changed now especially mentally, but I promise you it will still be a fantastic life and who knows it maybe even better for you.
First thing I'd say it that I'm unsure how someone can say "you've got full house heart disease" from a telephone consultation!!
If as your GP believes it is coronary artery disease drugs can make a massive difference as can stenting....there is definitely life after this!!
I attended an hours Fitsteps class this morning and in a few minutes I'm setting off for 3 hours of ballroom dancing
Tomorrow I'm doing a 5 mile walk up hill and down dale on the cliff tops near home.....I'm 71 in October and I can assure you that I'm planning on staying active for quite a few years.
I was diagnosed with angina 10 years ago and had a heart attack 2 years ago when had 2 stents fitted to my LAD (widow maker according to the cardiologist) and I can hand on heart say that I feel better now that I have for years
I’ll qualify this further. I work in major trauma. So the cardiologist called me while at work and looked at my case notes. In the wider context, I was diagnosed with sarcoidosis in Q1 2016 with granulomas on my mediastinum. Now in remission since 2018. In April of this year I had a fall while on holiday and damaged my rotator cuff. This has caused an inflammatory process which may have triggered some kind of sarcoid inflammation. Which I’m waiting for rheumatology to call, they think this is entirely sarcoid related and nothing to do with the heart. In the last three weeks however, I’ve experienced significant chest pain on exertion which is relived by GTN. With diabetes, >BMI, > BP, and age are all significant boxes ticked for CHD. Which is why he said “full house.” Just not sure where the clinical diagnosis is going to head. But just wanted some personal experiences from people who have been definitively diagnosed and living with this condition.
Hi Butcherboy, I have a family history of heart disease and had been monitoring my blood pressure and cholesterol levels. Both were treated with medication. I have always been reasonably fit and active. Then in 2011, at the age of 52, I experienced angina. I was referred immediately for an exercise ECG. During the recovery stage a small blip was picked up on the ECG trace so I was then referred for an angiogram. This picked up a severely blocked LAD and this was stented during the same procedure. No time to worry about anything!
Post stent I have no angina pains at all, although every little niggle used to set off alarm bells in the brain, (a common occurrence in many of us!).
Medication now is bisoprolol, perindopril, rosuvastatin and aspirin.
Only the bisoprolol has any noticeable side effects. These are cold hands and feet when I’m inactive and a runny nose often brought on by eating food. Both are acceptable given the heart benefits of the medicine. I’m now 65 and run 5km every second day (28 minute pace). Winter exercise is long days skiing throughout the season. Summer exercise mostly alpine hikes of 4-5 hours at elevation of 1,500m - 2,500m. I can get my maxHR up to over 150 but most of my exercise is zone 3 or 4 (109-139bpm) so maybe not comparable to your spinning or HIIT.
These activities were taken up after the stent so I have no “before” with which to compare them but looking at the “after” I’ve never felt better.
My exercise upon exertion went when i lost weight and did a bit of exercise.My BMI was thirty now it's 26-27.People say how skinny i am and need to put healthy weight on.I'm 5'10 and twelve stone.
However because they had begun testing i ended up having to go through all of it.I am still trying to get back to running etc.Unlike the guy above my heart doesn't go much above 100.
I use a treadmill and walk on an incline.I also take all the drugs mentioned above and i believe these make exercise harder.
I had a STEMI heart attack aged 46 while I was doing a HIIT session on my spin bike in September last year. PPCI Stent fitted to LAD artery. Now on bisoprolol along with all the other meds. I still spin daily including HIIT, so yes there is life after. I find that the bisoprolol takes about 25 beats off my rate, so I now rest in the 50’s and max out at 160 as opposed to 70’s and 185. It does not appear to impact my output in any way I can discern. I can push my rate up to 160 first thing in the morning just after taking meds, but at lunchtime only about 150 once they have kicked in, but again no difference in the power output achieved. I don’t really understand why as you would think that lower rate means lower power output, but it doesn’t seem to work that way. You’ll be fine I’m sure. All the best.
Do you have any other symptoms? eg breathlessness?
For what it's worth, some years ago:
I was getting chest pain and was breathless at times when I shouldn't have been. I was prescribed various drugs, the pain didn't go away, nor did the breathlessness. Eventually, after nagging, I had an angiogram. One artery vitually blocked and another heading that way.
When, after stenting, I said I had just missed a heart attack, the consultany didn't disagree.
My conclusion: chest pain without an obvious cause needs investigating, but it was the breathless symptom aswell at the same time that seemed to get the GP to refer me to a specialist.
To echo what others have said yes there is definitely life after joining the club, welcome by the way.
I’m relatively new to it but experienced angina on excursion after a chest infection in March and a CT Angiogram found 70% block in my LCx being the main culprit.
Post that I’m on the usual cocktail of beta blocker, statin, asprin and mononitrate. These seem pretty standard and you might also be on similar before too long.
There are side effects to these but mine have all been pretty mild and have all but disappeared apart from light headedness when I stand. We are all different through.
Yesterday I ran 14km home from work and walked 3km to the train station (like an idiot on a strike day!) this morning. No dramas.
Three differences these days.
First I have to warm up slowly. It takes me about 2km to get running. I start with fast walking, do some squats, walk / run and finally get going.
Once running I feel fine, great even, but am less concerned about pace these days.
Secondly I get a bit breathless walking. It doesn’t happen when I run but I’m feeling beyond my 50 years puffing along sometimes. I’m not sure if it’s meds or the blockage.
Third I’m sleeping more. I used to be a 6 hour a night man and it’s now 8 every night. More crackered in the evening.
Could be meds, not sure, I’ve currently got the BP of an Olympic Athlete (medically induced of course)!
Other impacts to life are eating a strictly Med diet, zero crap food, losing weight and feeling good.
Sticking to 14 units of alcohol a week is a bit of a drag tbh but I’ve accepted it’s probably going to do me good in the long run.
150 minutes of exercise a week is hard to fit in with two small kids but it sounds like you might already be doing this.
If I’m honest, for me, the most difficult new thing to contend with is anxiety. Many people here, including me, have chalked up A&E visits that turned out to be panic not heart attacks.
I’m learning what that feels like and getting better at isolating it but it seems it only takes the smallest chest murmur for me to get quite stressed.
So yeah there is life. Some even better than before, some easily accommodated and some challenges but all possible to deal with in time and a bit of support.
This is a great reply. I appreciate it. I think the anxiety is killing me the most (pun not intended.) and I work in major trauma. I see people in resus all the time having heart attacks. I never thought ignorantly that this could now be me. Getting my head around this possibility has been really tough for me to rationalise.
I’m in london for a day out and walked 200 metres and got chest pain. I listened to the advice of a friend of mine. “Take the GTN as soon as feel pain.” I did and the pain has gone completely. And had a trouble free day.
I have my treadmill test tomorrow. Perversely, I’m looking forward to it. I want to stick a label on it and move on.
Okay. So completed the treadmill test. Although it was cut short because of chest pain. There’s an indication of narrowing on the ECG. However can’t be confirmed. So I’m booked for an angiogram. Which will be up to six months to a year before I get to see and interventional radiologist. Prescribed Bisoprolol and an 80mg statin along with GTN.
Holy smokes, 6 months to a year seems like quite a wait given you are presenting clear symptoms.
That said I have had a CT angiogram and the result is quite similar prescription to what you have now.
The only differences are I am on 40mg of a statin and have a long release version of the GTN going in daily.
I couldn’t get my next appointment, a chest X-ray, even booked after seeing the GP in March l so I got a private CT angiogram myself. It cost £1.4k and I’m very grateful to have that option as it turned out to not be a waste of money.
That’s been enough to get some gears moving and I have a referral to an NHS cardiologist booked in Oct, and strangely enough a double session booked in Nov. No clue what that’s for.
So Mar to Nov is 8 months, the average of your wait, I’m on similar drugs to you and a not insignificant chunk of change poorer.
I’m a little surprised at how little info I’ve got from the medical establishment be how much I’ve had to gather myself tbh. For the most part it seems most people can be stabilised with meds. The statins are there to stabilise the plaque as well as lower cholesterol.
As Milkfairy says you can make the lifestyle adjustments yourself straight away regardless of when your appointments are.
There seems to be some contention as to the correct diet so that one you are going to have to decide for yourself but no smoking , 14 units of booze, reduced salt and 150min of exercise a week seems to be adopted by many. Many of us have BP machines and are getting familiar with health apps on our phones etc. Some do find the stats can induce stress and some get into it. Something to consider.
The exercise part while not contentious is easier for some than others. I’m grateful to be able to continue to run, albeit with a crazy long warm up, and I take my GTN spray with me. Everyone’s situation is different with that one.
So here you are in the club familiarising yourself with lots of info you’d rather not read, thinking why are the appts so far away, I have bloomin chest pain! It’s a familiar scenario, take comfort in the fact that stable angina is just that, stable - and this is probably part of the reason the appts are the frequency they are.
Most people can manage the stress (most of the time) using techniques like box breathing and mindfulness practice. Most people do get to a place where they use the spray infrequently but the advice you have already is do use it when you get pain. If symptoms persist, use it again after 5 min and if they still persist go to A&E or call an ambulance. No messing around, just do it.
Take your meds and any paperwork with you. It’s not an amazing experience sitting in a waiting room but even if it turns out to be stress you won’t be alone in enjoying that fun way of spending your spare time!
You might even get to see a cardiologist, who knows?
Thanks for your answer. I’m a medical professional myself and work in a hospital. I was amazed how flippant the cardiology physiologist was. In fact, they were quite dismissive, I felt like I was intruding. The registrar who I personally know, told me to bleep him once the test was done. They said this wasn’t normal practice and wouldn’t be doing it.
I then bleep him myself from their phone. The realisation I was a member of staff suddenly dawned on them. And thank god. The ECG was a huge red flag. I mentioned this to him. He hung around after I left to have words.
I struggled to sleep last night. I mean, I’m crazy active and work in trauma. So I know implicitly how the cardiovascular system works and understand succinctly the path I am now walking. I feel robbed with all those early morning swim and spin session I do. The £500 Apple Watch I wear in the hope of picking something up untoward.
Fear, anxiety spread through me while I was trying to sleep. I think I cried. Not sure. I sure did this morning when I woke and chatted to my wife.
It’s the change of life I feel I don’t need to make which is going to be the biggest wrench for me. I walk close to 50miles a week. Spin, HIIT. Watch what I eat. And now this. It’s nuts. All the intensive care doctors I work with have checked my bloods, chest X-ray and they universally said I had post-viral chondritis. I’ve eve got a tenner on this with one which reluctantly, I’m going to relive him of on Monday.
I’m going private. The anxiety in waiting for the angio will to much to bear. I can’t believe this waiting list so long.
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