cold weather and anti-coagulant

[Taviterry]

Mindful of the recent thread about taking care in icy conditions, I ventured out yesterday in the brilliant sunshine, wearing four top and two bottom layers. Most of the time I was in the sun which was pleasantly warm, and the only time I had to take care was where the path had slush on it. But I had real trouble walking up hills, needing to pause for breath rather too often.

I'm putting this down to the Clopidogrel I'm on and my thin blood. Has anyone had much the same experience?

Last Friday I happily walked 20 minutes on a chilly, not icy, morning to my GP surgery for blood tests and wondered if the temperature affected these - though the results did show slight improvements compared with October.

Likewise on Tuesday I happily walked 25 minutes to see a private haematologist. (A nurse at the hospital was very taken with my 1959 duffle coat, pointing it out to a colleague.) He seemed surprised that his NHS colleagues (with whom he had worked several years ago) had arranged an iron infusion in May, was puzzled by my symptoms and talked of referring me to a red-blood-cell specialist. He also doubted his colleagues' diagnosis of cardiac haemolytic anaemia, though they themselves say that my blood readings don't explain the periods of deep fatigue I have from to time. (This morning at 6am I feel good.)

[MichaelJH Heart Star]

When you had your TAVI did they check your main heart arteries for signs of narrowing (Atherosclerosis ). The reason I ask is that before my quadruple bypass my walking distance was limited by angina. However, once the temperature dropped I really struggled as the cold caused narrowed arteries to narrow further. Have you tried putting a scarf over your nose and mouth?

[Taviterry in reply to MichaelJH]

I've just looked at all the readings taken before my op, and I guess that some of them do indicate atherosclerosis. It was almost exactly two years ago that I went to my GP about slight chest pain when starting a walk, but a week before my TAVI in July I managed a six-hour walk without difficulty. And two Sundays ago I did a four-hour walk without too much problem. It seems that thin blood can cause problems when it's cold, and I've been reading of the potential problems facing most people of my age when exercising in the current sort of weather.

Another problem is slight breathlessness, and I don't suppose that wearing a scarf would help this. I'm having a heart monitor fitted on Monday and am wondering whether I can put up with wearing a mask when the nurse or whoever gets up close and personal. (None of the staff at the private hospital was masked and I was relieved that the cardiologist didn't need to examine me.)