exercise after heart attack

[SAngell]

I am a 53 year old female. I am type 2 diabetic which I had in remission through diet and exercise. I lost six stone (still another three to go) but on bank holiday Monday I had a heart attack. I was fitted with two stents and told my cholesterol was very high. I was sent home with a lot of medication and little advice other than walk five minutes a day then build it up to ten minutes the following week. This feels really vague and I have had no other advice. I feel like I could walk longer than that. Does anyone have any suggestions going forward to get me moving again please?

[JessicaRed]

Hi

You've done really fantastic with getting fitter so very unfair to have gone through this ! I'm also type 2 aiming towards remission and bank hol I was on my 2nd Hospital admission , mine turned out to be a valve problem and tachycardia, undiagnosed for my 67 years !

I'm newish here but would have thought you'd have been offered a lot more support from yr hospital and Gp

There are cardiac nurses on here that you can speak to and no doubt more people will be along soon this eve with their advice and support

[Survivor1952]

When I had my PCI, AVR and CABG I was told to exercise daily and aim for walking 20 minutes non-stop by the time I was going to physical rehab.

I did far better than that although the first couple of weeks I was struggling to get further than the end of the road I live in. I set myself a target number of steps (I have a smart watch) and increased that every three or four days by 200 steps.

I'm at 13 weeks and covering 3 miles in a single session, going for my first ever park run in the morning (that's 5km or just over 3 miles by the way). I was keen, at first, to up the distance, like you, but found the body was weak even though the spirit was willing.

I'd recommend you take it easy, listen to your body and increase the distance slowly.

[Chinkoflight]

Hi, so sorry to hear your story, bummer being rewarded for your brilliant efforts to improve your health with a HA. It may be the hospital team thought you were sufficiently motivated to help yourself. And to be honest you may be better off just getting on with it.BUT you're right to think there must be a bit of structure to an exercise programme. Given they suggest that walking is the place to start that was probably sound advice. They could have pointed you to

NHS Active 10 Walking Tracker

This is a guided programme based in an APP and is progressive.

As a follow on you might look to

NHS COUCH to 5K also recommended by another reply here also APP based using well known voices as companion support.

There is a forum in Health Unlocked for C25K. Your GP may have access to Exercise on Prescription with support for runners on C25K which takes 9 weeks.

Then you might look to finding your local Parkrun/Parkwalk if you get hooked! This is a weekly 5k course generally based in a local park, which starts all over the UK (and the world) at 9.00am on Saturday. Google Parkrun. It is free and entirely run by volunteers. It's just a wonderful experience, with people of all ages, body shapes, fitness levels. You are individually timed, if you are bothered and want to 'get better' . You can also become a Parkrun tourist, it's a very popular hobby!

My journey was stroke, brilliant NHS response,, discharged as a walk out, so no follow up support.

Found C25K and Parkrun 18 months on looking forward to meeting up on my local run tomorrow morning!

Did it for myself having found C25K on the BHF website. I asked my GP if it was okay for me to do and he said yes. Started one month after my stroke. It's done wonders for my self esteem and health recovery.

I'll leave you with one piece of advice. Both the NHS programmes are very well structured. Just go with the programme for the duration even if you feel you can do more , and whatever exercise you do make sure you can do it at a conversational pace. If you are breathless you are overdoing it and harming not helping yourself.

There is also a forum on Health Unlocked for Strength and Conditioning. I'm not so keen on this but know it's important. Pilates is very good and recommended.

Cheers, find your #chinkoflight!

[devonian186]

Did you get given notes when you left hospital as I would have thought that would have included advice on exercise levels and diet.

[SAngell in reply to devonian186]

No just a bag of tablets 😏

[devonian186 in reply to SAngell]

We are all different so difficult to advise you, but I feel you should have been given some formal advice in writing as to how to proceed, together with perhaps an invitation to attend rehab.

Two stents is not trivial and for all they know you might think it ok to run a marathon next week!

I would suggest you speak to the cardiology dept of the hospital where you had the treatment and ask if you should be following any particular fitness routine. You don't want to do too much too early and ruin your recovery, but on the other hand if you do too little, recovery will become harder.

[DWizza]

Hi , did they not mention any rehab program ? You should have access to a supervised cardiac rehab program , usually they contact you after a couple of weeks, however post my quadruple bypass I found that I wasn’t on any list and had to get myself reinstated. I have my induction for rehab on Monday. I was given a lot of info on discharge , same info as you about walking , but in the paperwork were phone numbers including cardiac rehab section. Wishing you a comfortable and speedy recovery.

[EU95PTM]

Hi there, I’m sorry to hear that you suffered a HA. I’m not too dissimilar in age to you and I had a heart attack too. I was offered and completed a cardiac rehab programme, it started about 2 months after my HA and was supervised group exercise sessions for 6 weeks. I was the youngest there and the only female so felt out of place to start with but the staff were so supportive and encouraging. Do ask your GP if this is offered in your area. It really helped build my confidence and 18 months on I walk briskly for around an hour each day. Wishing you all the best with your recovery.

[Flowerfanatic]

Hi and well done on getting as far as you have in your weight loss and fitness journey so far but sorry you’ve had a heart attack and stents fitted - that must have been quite a shock for you. There’s a wonderful person called Angela Hartly who runs a group doing rehab cardiac exercises over Zoom. I joined her (company is called Healthy Hearties - you can google it) after my aortic valve replacement operation 2.5 years ago and I am still doing the classes as I love them so much. Plus the group all support each other - we do them all together via zoom 3 times a week. It is private but definitely worth the small outlay. And I know Angela would let you join in for one or two to see if you like it for free. Good luck. (Angela is also a trained cardiac nurse as well so we always feel we are in good hands and she knows exactly what we have all been through). Tell her I have suggested it if you decide to give it a go.

All best wishes

Sarah S