heart troubles are sneaky. many times the problem doesn’t show up until an angio is done. i’m glad your doctors kept up the testing and found the problem.
may you have many healthy years to go!
My dad had a serious blockage (narrowing plus a blood clot), which was treated with drugs alone, and he’s made a complete recovery. He lives in France, and I thought it was very interesting that he was sent on a month long residential rehabilitation program with extensive education on exercise, diet and lifestyle. Were you offered anything like this? What would you think of the idea if you weren’t?
Oh, they love to do zipper jobs!
I think that sort of thing could be very valuable.
Unfortunately, it’s probably only practical is a country with Universal health care - I think it would be a hard-sell here, where the Insurance companies run our medical system.
I will have some meetings over the next few weeks with various rehab professionals.
There is also a group called “Mended Hearts” that offers all kinds of different services. They seem to be like an “AA” for Cardiac patients.
My uncle (78 at the time) had to go to a bigger city to get some tests, just normal stuff that the smaller health district he was in couldn’t handle. They basically told him ‘be here tomorrow morning, you’re going for a quintuple bypass’. Not quite what he and my aunt expected.
Being a farmer that already survived prostate cancer, he was back on the farm shortly after. They did have to sell the cattle though.
Farmers that can avoid accidents don’t die on the farm. They die after they pass the farm on down the family line and move into town.
How bad were your symptoms before you sought medical advice?
I had vague symptoms (mostly fatigue, and very long recovery periods after lifting weights) for many years before I went in for my first stress test, which showed nothing amiss. Three years later, I had what I thought was a “panic attack” - tight chest, etc.
Then I started to have mild chest pain upon exertion, which would go away within seconds after resting. With these new symptoms, I started the current year-long series of tests and medicine “shotgunning,” which lead to the operation.
My guess would be that I have had heart disease for at least a decade, maybe more. I’m requesting my complete report, to see if the surgeon mentions any congenital abnormality.
Just driving by, but there is two cents that I can throw in.
I was a runner all my life, and ate only the “right” foods, until I ended up in the ICU. While recovering, I was told the following story:
To make a long story short, the diet-leads-to-heart-disease, and exercise-is-healthy theory apparently is not the whole story. And may, in fact, be wrong.
Apparently, some research was done about 20 - 30 years ago in which it was found that it didn’t make any difference how much cholesterol there was in your blood, or clogging your arteries; you could still get a heart attack.
The people who did this research took tissue samples from the arteries of people who had died of heart attacks, and found that 100% of them had a particular bacterial infection in the tissue.
According to them, the bacterial infection inflames the arteries. The body reacts to this inflammation by depositing cholesterol over the inflammation. If the inflammation is big enough, it precipitates a blood clot. If the blood clot breaks loose, this can cause a heart attack or stroke.
This theory seems to be substantiated by the fact that stents that are impregnated with antibiotics are more effective and last longer than those without.
Similarly, the pattern of heart disease apparently follows a pattern characteristic of those caused by infective agents. Ie: the incidence of heart disease peaked in the early 1970’s, and bottomed out about five years ago. It is now on the rise again.
I am not qualified to say whether this story is right or wrong, but it was told to me by a very prominent cardiologist as I was lying in bed hooked up to a whole bunch of machines and drips. Worth thinking about.
Did you have palpitations or a fast resting heart rate?
Yes to both.
Could you “feel” your heart and vessels beat obviously in your chest beforehand? Not in a normal “I’ve got a heartbeat” way, but in a “Christ, I’ve got a live frog in there or something” way?
Glad for your good news! How are your spirits?
I used to get PVCs (palpitations), which all the doctors said were normal, and nothing to worry about. I could feel my hear beat when I laid in bed, but not otherwise. It will be interesting to see if the PVCs go away, now that I’m re-plumbed.
My spirits are pretty good. I’m sleeping slightly better as the chest pain subsides. My wonderful wife has been taking very good care of me, and keeping things positive.
The dogs are a big help, too.
My husband has just been put on medical leave due to an incident at work (firefighter.) He has pneumonia, but the doc want’s him to have a full cardiac eval. I’m scared to death. He has similar symptoms to yours, except the chest pain. He has a persistant high heart rate, diaphoresis, (sweating) and lethergy.
I hated working in cardiac care, because its so sneaky. People come in, say “my stomach’s upset,” then die.
I’m glad you’re doing well.
It’s far, far better to get it fixed now, than after a heart attack. Hopefully it will be something benign.
Best wishes to you two.
Someone better tell Marley to take your name off “In Memorium”.
[Obi-Wan] I’m not dead… Not yet. [/Obi-Wan]
Glad to hear it. Keep your chin up and get some rest.
My brother had angioplasty when he was in his 40s. He was never fat, exercised and swam, watched what he ate and drank moderately. He was back to normal in a about 3 weeks. The doctor told him that was what he got for being in otherwise good health. He has a fast and complete recovery. The problem was most likely genetic.