A nasty surprise...

Fastlad
Fastlad Posts: 908
edited January 2011 in The bottom bracket
Hi everybody. I haven't posted for a while but i'd like to share my story.

I've always been a keen recreational road/mountainbiker and hillwalker. I consider myself to be a fit 42 year old who is anything but overweight. Anyway, i was enjoying a ride around my local lanes when i suddenly had a strained feeling in the tricep area of my left arm. I thought it very strange but rode through it. That was in October last year. I continued to ride and do a physical job and slowly the twinges were becoming more random, across my chest, side, back. I decided to get myself to the doctor sharpish. They referred me to the rapid access chest clinic. I was given a treadmill stress test, hooked up to monitors.
I exceeded the estimated time by 2 minutes BUT my recovery showed an abnormality on the graph. So the cardiologist decided it wise to take me for an angiogram, a procedure where they cut the artery in the wrist and feed a tube up and inject dye into the coronary arteries.

Well, i had the angiogram last friday and within minutes of lying on the table the surgeon found a narrowing of one of the main cardiac arteries. He immediately fitted a stent to open the narrowed section. I was totally sh!t scared throughout the entire 50 minute procedure.

I am now at home convalescing for 7 days as i'm not allowed to drive or lift anything over 5 kilos. I'm sure it has saved my life but i'm very afraid that all my passions in life i'e the bike and the hills will never be the same. My job is also on the line as i work in the building trade and it requires hard efforts.

I'm trying very hard to hold myself together as i always thought i was too fit and too young to be afflicted with anything as serious as coronary artery disease. It just goes to show you!!!!

cheers. john.

Comments

  • pneumatic
    pneumatic Posts: 1,989
    sorry to hear it; I can understand how you would feel frustrated (being an active person) and anxious.

    All I can say is that I know one or two people who have had cardiac issues at quite an early stage in life who have gone on to live long and active lives thereafter (in one case without being particularly careful about lifestyle, if you know what I mean.)

    Stay positive and talk it through with people close to you.

    I hope that helps.

    Fast and Bulbous
    Peregrinations
    Eddingtons: 80 (Metric); 60 (Imperial)
  • flipp
    flipp Posts: 52
    hi John .
    really sorry to hear what you have gone through.I have a heart murmour which although not deemed to serious often catches my breathing out when pushing on a bit(dont let the wife know)so there is always that little niggle in your mind.On the plus side they found the problem before anything serious happened.Best of luck for a full recovery which should be easier as you say you're fit anyway.YOU WILL GET THROUGH THIS !
    regards Phill.
  • Crapaud
    Crapaud Posts: 2,483
    Sorry to hear of your plight, fastlad.
    Fastlad wrote:
    ... I am now at home convalescing for 7 days as i'm not allowed to drive or lift anything over 5 kilos. I'm sure it has saved my life but i'm very afraid that all my passions in life i'e the bike and the hills will never be the same. My job is also on the line as i work in the building trade and it requires hard efforts. ...
    Have you been told this for certain or are you maybe surmising and jumping the gun?

    By chance I bumped into a couple of friends today and both were working themselves into a tizzy over their circumstances - one has just been diagnosed with cancer. Both were making rash assumptions based on no knowledge whatsoever.

    The point is, speak to your doc, consultant, etc before writing off your cycling and job. I know plenty of folk who've had major illnesses and gone on to have active lives. One, a cyclist, who had a quadruple heart by-pass and still belts about on the bike. He must be approaching 70 now.

    Take it easy and GWS.
    A fanatic is one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject - Churchill
  • Fastlad
    Fastlad Posts: 908
    Cheers guys. I'm going out for my first walk today as i have to slowly build up to normality. As well as the physical element, i never realised just how much you can suffer psychologically. You imagine all sorts of things :lol: Another strange thing is the increased blood flow. It sounds daft but i now have 3 arteries supplying a full flow, instead of 2 and a wee bit!! Maybe, in time, i'll be better on the bike!!! Now that would be really something!! :)
  • bails87
    bails87 Posts: 12,998
    Speaking from an NHS, (but NOT clinical) perspective, exercise is an important part of cardiac rehab. Once you're recovered your body should be able to cope with everything you were doing before, in fact it should be easier because you're no longer struggling to get blood through a narrow artery.

    As already said though, speak to your doctor/consultant/rehab person to ensure that any exercise you're doing is ok. But I'm sure that they'll all be happy for you to be active and healthy, it's lack of exercise that causes a lot of these problems in the first place (not saying that for you of course, but on a general population level, more active lifestyle=less heart disease).

    Anyway, good luck and get well soon, and be grateful it was found now and not when those 'twinges' turned into something a lot more serious!
    MTB/CX

    "As I said last time, it won't happen again."
  • 2Phat4Rapha
    2Phat4Rapha Posts: 238
    Look at it this way. The artery that was blocked is now opened up. And the meds you will almost certainly be now on will help to keep your blood flowing freely and your arteries dilated. You will now be an “at risk” person which means you’ll be called in every 6 months for blood tests to see if everything is still stable. So you’re in the system and they’re watching YOU.

    Many a fit and healthy person has keeled over on a marathon or other strenuous exercise because they haven’t “been in the system” - no apparent need to as they are “fit and healthy”. So take comfort from the fact that you’ve been caught and got over it. (Incidentally, your heart probably grew a bunch of compensatory “colaterals” in the region of the problem artery as the blockage grew. These are fine filament-like blood vessels, rather like you find in the roots of a pot plant when it grows too big for its pot.)

    You will soon learn to read your own body again and there is probably no reason why you shouldn’t get back on the bike (I say shouldn’t because I am not a doctor). I’m 60 this year, had an MI in 2002. I do 3000 to 4000 miles on my bike a year (www.wheelingwrinklies.co.uk) and I ski. (Which reminds me, travel insurance is now a little bit trickier. You probably won’t be able to get any for 6 months after your incident. But thereafter, provided you are under no other investigation than your routine meds, you can declare your condition as “previous and stable”. This will escalate you up the insurance company’s interrogation process but it should get you through with only a marginal increase in your cost. BUT YOU MUST DECLARE IT!

    Smoking, diet, ethnicity, heredity and exercise are the 5 factors that are usually quoted that probably led to your condition. Sounds like diet and exercise are fine, hopefully you are not one of those filthy smokers. If you are, just stop. Claim your lungs back. Smoking is just THE most stupid thing you can do to your body. That leaves ethnicity (Indians are more susceptible to coronary heart problems ) and heredity,neither of which you can do much about other than taking account of them.

    So cheer up. It’s a kick up the bum for sure but it aint the end, it’s a new beginning. :)
    I may be a minority of one but that doesn't prevent me from being right.
    http://www.dalynchi.com
  • Crapaud
    Crapaud Posts: 2,483
    2Phat4Rapha wrote:
    ... hopefully you are not one of those filthy smokers. If you are, just stop. ...
    Thankyou for your compassionate tolerant and caring atitude. Hopefully you're not one of these self-rightous, finger wagging, moralising, authoritarian zealots. If you are, just stop... and mind your own business.
    A fanatic is one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject - Churchill
  • gethmetal
    gethmetal Posts: 208
    Crapaud wrote:
    2Phat4Rapha wrote:
    ... hopefully you are not one of those filthy smokers. If you are, just stop. ...
    Thankyou for your compassionate tolerant and caring atitude. Hopefully you're not one of these self-rightous, finger wagging, moralising, authoritarian zealots. If you are, just stop... and mind your own business.

    +1. Sanctimonious Tw@t.
  • Fastlad
    Fastlad Posts: 908
    Thankfully, i'm not and never have been a smoker. Went to see my GP earlier today and he has prescribed medication to lower my cholesterol even though it's only 4.2!! He wants it much lower :shock: He also says there is no reason why i can't get back to full fitness, in time. So it looks like the hereditary, poor diet in my teeens and twenties and big helping of stress are probably all factors! So from now on it's no to burgers, pastries, cakes etc! It's just not going to sit right with my head, or my heart from now on!
  • tebbit
    tebbit Posts: 604
    Best of luck and hope to hear your on the mend soon :D
  • red dragon
    red dragon Posts: 263
    Hi Fastlad, I went through a similar experience exactly four years ago. Angioplasty and two stents, like you I was cacking myself. However four years down the line I am now at sixty three, retired and a regular gym member been to the gym this morning and out for twenty miles on the bike this afternoon. Pace yourself listen to the Doctors and your body and you will get there,and the very best of luck.
  • flipp
    flipp Posts: 52
    Hi john,glad to hear things and yourself seem a bit more positive today.good luck ,phill

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