post angioplasty advice

sidrhino

Greetings
I am 3 months past my angioplasty when I was given 5 stents in one artery. This was after complaints of chest pain similar to angina. I have since been to the cardiac rehab and have had some sessions on the spinner at home. These were from 30 to 45 minutes and from easy to medium intensity. I am having problems to get a clear advice on what I can do and what I'm not supposed to. When I have asked my GP I can clearly see that he is not sure. I did the cardiac rehab with other patients who were older and happy with a few short sessions. What I Would appreciate would be some advice on how hard can I go and if someone could recommend a cycling coach who might be qualified for this advice. I am 50 years old and use a spinner at home during the bad weather and use my bike during the good weather.
Cheers

ut_och_cykla

Wouldn't like to advise you really - except make anything you do long term and progressive and very easy to start with. Get back to the cardiac people for more qualified advice? A good coach might be able to guide you but you need clearance from a doctor who knows your case first I think! good Luck!

cyco2

I think that any medical person would not want to stick their neck out. Quite rightly too. It's like a motorist asking if it's okay to go over 50mph with a split in a tyre. Unless they were able to do an autopsy on you they would not know whether their advice was well informed. I do know from experience bypass surgery does enable an athlete to perform at a high level again though.

cyco2

How yar doin Sidrhino ?

sidrhino

I thank both cyco2 and ut_och_cycla for your responses. I'm not sure what I was expecting to hear but I was frustrated with the lack of response from the professionals. Cyco2 you were very honest in your analogy which truth be known hurt a little but I suppose it's the truth and something I need to get my head round.
But not using my spinner or my bike in the summer will not be an option as in this miserable world it excites me and makes me happy. So for now I'm laying off any high intensity sessions and trying to do 30 to 45 minutes on the trainer and can't wait for the annual caravan to France and days on my bike (minus the hills).
I still would be grateful to hear from anyone who may have some useful tips about training with this condition.
Cheers all

keef66

Presumably if they've streched the arteries and the stents are keeping them open, and you've recovered from the surgery you're as free as the rest of us to really go for it on the bike??

cyco2

I would advise you to post on a runners forum as well because there are more of them. Bear in mind that what advise you get is only anecdotal and if somebody has climbed Mt. Everest with stents then I would say good luck to them. Plenty of information on google about stents. Your desire to cycle for recreation is a good thing and I wish you a long life.
A request....Your post is very interesting and if you do find out some more then get back on here.

ajmitchell

Hi sidrhino

Glad you are recovering and I appreciate you are trying to improve the best you can. There are some very useful studies on this topic showing that exercise helps outcomes after angioplasty and is generally safe. However you should be a little careful about high intensity workouts. In the early rehab phase it may be best to have someone else nearby, but i see you are some months post-surgery. Re exercise, the key study was the ETICA trial (Exercise training intervention after coronary angioplasty). In the ETICA trial it was cycling that was used for exercise. FYI the protocol was gyms sessions supervised by a cardiologist, three exercise sessions per week for 6 months at an intensity of 60% of peak oxygen uptake (VO2). After a 15-min phase of stretching and calisthenics, patients pedaled on an electronically braked cycle ergometer at the target work rate for 30 min. It is difficult to be sure is this is the ideal intensity. It is quite possible that more is better, but you would have to look in detail at some of the more recent studies.

Hope that helps, best of luck.

http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/112/15/2354.full [nice review]

http://content.onlinejacc.org/cgi/conte ... f_ipsecsha

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1238 ... t=Abstract

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11401128

sidrhino

It is humbling to have received these responses and I am truly grateful for the time and effort it has taken to do the research. I have found the following website with a useful video
http://www.heartrehabilitationexercise. ... ds-access/
As a result I have introduced a 15 minute warm up followed by a 30 minute medium TT style ride followed by a 10 minutes cool down on the spinner. I'm hoping to continue with that for now and just walk on other days. But can't help feeling a little unsure and scared. But, "KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON " will be my guiding light.
Thanks again

CYCLESPORT1

I have only one stent in so I can't realy say with you having five , but if the hospital said you are o.k. start riding the bike again.