Hi Everyone.
I had a heart attack in 2012 aged 48. The left circumflex artery was completely blocked. I had a stent fitted and they saw no evidence of any problems with the other arteries.
A lifelong smoker, I stopped at that point. I did all of the cardiac rehab classes and the phase 4 gym sessions etc, but slowly I let it all slide. In the intervening years I've abandoned all exercise, put on a couple of stone and my alcohol intake has increased.
This week I suddenly had a slight crushing pain in my chest that lasted a few minutes then went. Two days later I was driving home and my car broke down in heavy traffic on a bridge. I got out and pushed the car across the lanes into the hard shoulder - slightly uphill too! Immediately the crushing pain returned but stronger than before and lasting about five minutes or so.
The AA came and got me going again and I felt it coming on again as I was driving home - which by this time was about 2h after the first pain. I took two squirts of GTN (which I've always carried 'just in case' - it's not prescribed for me though), and the pain subsided.
I knew then it was cardiac related pain.
Later, I decided to go to A&E to get it checked. My ECG was normal and my two troponin tests were both 19, three hours apart, which is apparently indicative of heart damage but the doc said that as I had no other symptoms like sweating or nausea etc, it was very unlikely that I'd had another heart attack but that it was stable angina. I'm being referred to the Rapid Access Chest Pain Clinic but I think the waiting list for that is about three months! So much for "rapid".
Anyway, I'm scared now. I'm scared to go to sleep, every twinge of any sort I'm worrying it's the start of another heart attack. I'm worried that this angina, if that's what it is, has come on so suddenly. About six months ago I went on my running machine for 30 minutes, at a fast walking pace without any problems. Tonight, I did a test to see if the chest pain would start with exercise - and it did, but at a far slower pace than I had walked six months ago with no problems. I took GTN and the pain went.
I'm scared that maybe this isn't angina in the normal sense but maybe one or more of my arteries have clogged like the first one did - or are about to clog - or they've misdiagnosed me in the ridiculously busy A&E dept - after all, a troponin level of 19 is in the 'grey area' but it's definitely higher than the 'no heart damage' ideal of 14.
I'm scared that through my own complacency over the past decade I've now got myself into a place where a second, and possibly fatal, heart attack is increasingly likely.
I'm worrying that because I'm at the mercy of the NHS waiting lists, something might happen before I even get to the Rapid Access chest pain clinic.
Sorry for the long post. I'm just writing a stream of thoughts as they happen!
Thanks for reading this far.
Kev.