10 minutes after I logged off PH I had a heart attack
Discussion
A week ago on Friday, 31st March I was working from home as usual.
Knocked things on the head at 5:30pm, did my usual post-work surf of 'My Stuff' then logged off, went downstairs and, with my wife and 2yo son out, decided to be a dutiful husband and tidy up the warzone that is our living room covered in toys.
That's when it happened. I needed to sit down, twice, because I was out of breath. It struck me as utterly bizarre - I'm reasonably active, I walk as much as I can, do a bit of cycling, did a half marathon 6yrs ago with little training, the odd sprint triathlon. I shouldn't have been out of breath for no reason.
It concerned me, because a few weeks earlier we had been cycling along the Thames with our son in the seat on the back of my bike, I had got uncharacteristically out of puff on the flat. I made a point of mentioning it at the time to my wife , I didn't want to worry her, but at the same time if anything drastic did happen I wanted her to know that I had known about it in advance, bizarre as that may sound. I subsequently had a cough for a couple of weeks, we had joked between us that it was man-flu likely to morph into pneumonia.
So, concerned that something properly serious was happening on Friday, I popped round to see my mate next door, an ex-soldier, now copper, I knew he'd done first aid training in both jobs.He took one look at me and called an ambulance.
Fast response car was there within three minutes. He wired me up to an ECG machine, did his tests and advised a trip to A&E. I popped back home (30yds walk) to grab my coat and iPod expecting a long wait in A&E, only to return out of breath again. He then called a proper ambulance and before you know it I am being wheeled in via the back door of Royal Berkshire Hospital A&E.
Blood tests and a chat with an A&E doctor followed, and by 10:30pm he sat me down and said "really sorry to tell you this, but you've had a heart attack, we're admitting you to Cardiac Care". The shock of that sent my pulse racing and I needed a shot of GTN spray to open up my arteries and get things stabilised.
Then it got a little more awkward. I was admitted to a resuscitation unit, which (unknown to me) was the very same bay my late father-in-law was admitted to 12 months ago when he died of cancer. My poor wife was there having kittens, thinking her dad and husband were going to croak in the very same spot within a year - I had no idea, and she didn't want to tell me in case the pressure of that sent my ticker into overload!
I was kept in that night on a cocktail of drugs to get things under control, at one point my heart went into a different rhythm for a few seconds and hit 127bpm, but then stabilised. At 1pm the next day I had an angiogram which revealed one almost closed coronary artery, I had a stent fitted and was lying in my bed recovering by 2pm. Not afraid to admit that I cried tears of joy to still be alive. I cannot thank the NHS enough for saving my life.
It has come as a huge shock. I'm 44, with a 2yo son, I was a reluctant dad, but now I am a father am a totally doting one. I desperately want to see my son grow up. I look back at my pre-attack life and I tick plenty of risk-factor boxes - overweight (6ft, 16st), diet heavy in ready meals/lacking in fruit and veg, drank too much (although had cut out drinking Mon-Thurs since January), a bit of family history of heart disease, stressful job (a lot of it self-imposed), busy lifestyle - always running around doing something, social diary full, constantly running from A to B.
On the plus side, I've never smoked, and my cholesterol and blood pressure were normal before it happened. I'll probably never know which one thing caused it, but there are lots of things in my lifestyle I can change. My biggest issue is that I stopped doing any kind of regular exercise when I got married four years ago simply because of not having the time, or rather not making the time, to fit it in. This (to my layman's mind) has probably been the biggest factor in my undoing.
I'm now on a bucketload of drugs (blood thinning, cholesterol lowering, beta blockers) and awaiting a Cardiac Rehab course. I've taken two weeks off and am going to ease myself back into work gently.
The purpose of this post I guess is to get this down on paper, to thank the NHS from the bottom of my mended heart for saving my life, and to hopefully get some reassurance from others who have been down the same road as to what may lie ahead. I feel like a bullet dodged, but really need to change my lifestyle for the better.
Anyone 'been there, done that'?
Knocked things on the head at 5:30pm, did my usual post-work surf of 'My Stuff' then logged off, went downstairs and, with my wife and 2yo son out, decided to be a dutiful husband and tidy up the warzone that is our living room covered in toys.
That's when it happened. I needed to sit down, twice, because I was out of breath. It struck me as utterly bizarre - I'm reasonably active, I walk as much as I can, do a bit of cycling, did a half marathon 6yrs ago with little training, the odd sprint triathlon. I shouldn't have been out of breath for no reason.
It concerned me, because a few weeks earlier we had been cycling along the Thames with our son in the seat on the back of my bike, I had got uncharacteristically out of puff on the flat. I made a point of mentioning it at the time to my wife , I didn't want to worry her, but at the same time if anything drastic did happen I wanted her to know that I had known about it in advance, bizarre as that may sound. I subsequently had a cough for a couple of weeks, we had joked between us that it was man-flu likely to morph into pneumonia.
So, concerned that something properly serious was happening on Friday, I popped round to see my mate next door, an ex-soldier, now copper, I knew he'd done first aid training in both jobs.He took one look at me and called an ambulance.
Fast response car was there within three minutes. He wired me up to an ECG machine, did his tests and advised a trip to A&E. I popped back home (30yds walk) to grab my coat and iPod expecting a long wait in A&E, only to return out of breath again. He then called a proper ambulance and before you know it I am being wheeled in via the back door of Royal Berkshire Hospital A&E.
Blood tests and a chat with an A&E doctor followed, and by 10:30pm he sat me down and said "really sorry to tell you this, but you've had a heart attack, we're admitting you to Cardiac Care". The shock of that sent my pulse racing and I needed a shot of GTN spray to open up my arteries and get things stabilised.
Then it got a little more awkward. I was admitted to a resuscitation unit, which (unknown to me) was the very same bay my late father-in-law was admitted to 12 months ago when he died of cancer. My poor wife was there having kittens, thinking her dad and husband were going to croak in the very same spot within a year - I had no idea, and she didn't want to tell me in case the pressure of that sent my ticker into overload!
I was kept in that night on a cocktail of drugs to get things under control, at one point my heart went into a different rhythm for a few seconds and hit 127bpm, but then stabilised. At 1pm the next day I had an angiogram which revealed one almost closed coronary artery, I had a stent fitted and was lying in my bed recovering by 2pm. Not afraid to admit that I cried tears of joy to still be alive. I cannot thank the NHS enough for saving my life.
It has come as a huge shock. I'm 44, with a 2yo son, I was a reluctant dad, but now I am a father am a totally doting one. I desperately want to see my son grow up. I look back at my pre-attack life and I tick plenty of risk-factor boxes - overweight (6ft, 16st), diet heavy in ready meals/lacking in fruit and veg, drank too much (although had cut out drinking Mon-Thurs since January), a bit of family history of heart disease, stressful job (a lot of it self-imposed), busy lifestyle - always running around doing something, social diary full, constantly running from A to B.
On the plus side, I've never smoked, and my cholesterol and blood pressure were normal before it happened. I'll probably never know which one thing caused it, but there are lots of things in my lifestyle I can change. My biggest issue is that I stopped doing any kind of regular exercise when I got married four years ago simply because of not having the time, or rather not making the time, to fit it in. This (to my layman's mind) has probably been the biggest factor in my undoing.
I'm now on a bucketload of drugs (blood thinning, cholesterol lowering, beta blockers) and awaiting a Cardiac Rehab course. I've taken two weeks off and am going to ease myself back into work gently.
The purpose of this post I guess is to get this down on paper, to thank the NHS from the bottom of my mended heart for saving my life, and to hopefully get some reassurance from others who have been down the same road as to what may lie ahead. I feel like a bullet dodged, but really need to change my lifestyle for the better.
Anyone 'been there, done that'?
No, I've probably been lucky - so were you.
The good thing is that you're alive and should be able to have a full life with your family. The trouble is that, over time, it's all too easy to just gradually slide back into your old ways - and yet you've readily identified a number of high risk factors that were present.
You only get one life, this isn't a rehearsal, so do something to ensure you stay around for the longer term.
All the best.
The good thing is that you're alive and should be able to have a full life with your family. The trouble is that, over time, it's all too easy to just gradually slide back into your old ways - and yet you've readily identified a number of high risk factors that were present.
You only get one life, this isn't a rehearsal, so do something to ensure you stay around for the longer term.
All the best.
Oh dear, sorry to hear this but you came through and things are looking positive.
I'm not a Dr or anything but can one ask why you're on medication for cholesterol and blood pressure when your readings were okay? Or do they automatically give you everything in an attempt to stabilise everything?
I have a genuine interest because like you, there's a lot of heart trouble in my family and I'm doing my best to live healthily.
I'm not a Dr or anything but can one ask why you're on medication for cholesterol and blood pressure when your readings were okay? Or do they automatically give you everything in an attempt to stabilise everything?
I have a genuine interest because like you, there's a lot of heart trouble in my family and I'm doing my best to live healthily.
Edited by MYOB on Wednesday 12th April 22:38
PurpleTurtle said:
A week ago on Friday, 31st March I was working from home as usual.
Knocked things on the head at 5:30pm, did my usual post-work surf of 'My Stuff' then logged off, went downstairs and, with my wife and 2yo son out, decided to be a dutiful husband and tidy up the warzone that is our living room covered in toys.
That's when it happened. I needed to sit down, twice, because I was out of breath. It struck me as utterly bizarre - I'm reasonably active, I walk as much as I can, do a bit of cycling, did a half marathon 6yrs ago with little training, the odd sprint triathlon. I shouldn't have been out of breath for no reason.
It concerned me, because a few weeks earlier we had been cycling along the Thames with our son in the seat on the back of my bike, I had got uncharacteristically out of puff on the flat. I made a point of mentioning it at the time to my wife , I didn't want to worry her, but at the same time if anything drastic did happen I wanted her to know that I had known about it in advance, bizarre as that may sound. I subsequently had a cough for a couple of weeks, we had joked between us that it was man-flu likely to morph into pneumonia.
So, concerned that something properly serious was happening on Friday, I popped round to see my mate next door, an ex-soldier, now copper, I knew he'd done first aid training in both jobs.He took one look at me and called an ambulance.
Fast response car was there within three minutes. He wired me up to an ECG machine, did his tests and advised a trip to A&E. I popped back home (30yds walk) to grab my coat and iPod expecting a long wait in A&E, only to return out of breath again. He then called a proper ambulance and before you know it I am being wheeled in via the back door of Royal Berkshire Hospital A&E.
Blood tests and a chat with an A&E doctor followed, and by 10:30pm he sat me down and said "really sorry to tell you this, but you've had a heart attack, we're admitting you to Cardiac Care". The shock of that sent my pulse racing and I needed a shot of GTN spray to open up my arteries and get things stabilised.
Then it got a little more awkward. I was admitted to a resuscitation unit, which (unknown to me) was the very same bay my late father-in-law was admitted to 12 months ago when he died of cancer. My poor wife was there having kittens, thinking her dad and husband were going to croak in the very same spot within a year - I had no idea, and she didn't want to tell me in case the pressure of that sent my ticker into overload!
I was kept in that night on a cocktail of drugs to get things under control, at one point my heart went into a different rhythm for a few seconds and hit 127bpm, but then stabilised. At 1pm the next day I had an angiogram which revealed one almost closed coronary artery, I had a stent fitted and was lying in my bed recovering by 2pm. Not afraid to admit that I cried tears of joy to still be alive. I cannot thank the NHS enough for saving my life.
It has come as a huge shock. I'm 44, with a 2yo son, I was a reluctant dad, but now I am a father am a totally doting one. I desperately want to see my son grow up. I look back at my pre-attack life and I tick plenty of risk-factor boxes - overweight (6ft, 16st), diet heavy in ready meals/lacking in fruit and veg, drank too much (although had cut out drinking Mon-Thurs since January), a bit of family history of heart disease, stressful job (a lot of it self-imposed), busy lifestyle - always running around doing something, social diary full, constantly running from A to B.
On the plus side, I've never smoked, and my cholesterol and blood pressure were normal before it happened. I'll probably never know which one thing caused it, but there are lots of things in my lifestyle I can change. My biggest issue is that I stopped doing any kind of regular exercise when I got married four years ago simply because of not having the time, or rather not making the time, to fit it in. This (to my layman's mind) has probably been the biggest factor in my undoing.
I'm now on a bucketload of drugs (blood thinning, cholesterol lowering, beta blockers) and awaiting a Cardiac Rehab course. I've taken two weeks off and am going to ease myself back into work gently.
The purpose of this post I guess is to get this down on paper, to thank the NHS from the bottom of my mended heart for saving my life, and to hopefully get some reassurance from others who have been down the same road as to what may lie ahead. I feel like a bullet dodged, but really need to change my lifestyle for the better.
Anyone 'been there, done that'?
No, but good to hear you're up, about, and talking about it.Knocked things on the head at 5:30pm, did my usual post-work surf of 'My Stuff' then logged off, went downstairs and, with my wife and 2yo son out, decided to be a dutiful husband and tidy up the warzone that is our living room covered in toys.
That's when it happened. I needed to sit down, twice, because I was out of breath. It struck me as utterly bizarre - I'm reasonably active, I walk as much as I can, do a bit of cycling, did a half marathon 6yrs ago with little training, the odd sprint triathlon. I shouldn't have been out of breath for no reason.
It concerned me, because a few weeks earlier we had been cycling along the Thames with our son in the seat on the back of my bike, I had got uncharacteristically out of puff on the flat. I made a point of mentioning it at the time to my wife , I didn't want to worry her, but at the same time if anything drastic did happen I wanted her to know that I had known about it in advance, bizarre as that may sound. I subsequently had a cough for a couple of weeks, we had joked between us that it was man-flu likely to morph into pneumonia.
So, concerned that something properly serious was happening on Friday, I popped round to see my mate next door, an ex-soldier, now copper, I knew he'd done first aid training in both jobs.He took one look at me and called an ambulance.
Fast response car was there within three minutes. He wired me up to an ECG machine, did his tests and advised a trip to A&E. I popped back home (30yds walk) to grab my coat and iPod expecting a long wait in A&E, only to return out of breath again. He then called a proper ambulance and before you know it I am being wheeled in via the back door of Royal Berkshire Hospital A&E.
Blood tests and a chat with an A&E doctor followed, and by 10:30pm he sat me down and said "really sorry to tell you this, but you've had a heart attack, we're admitting you to Cardiac Care". The shock of that sent my pulse racing and I needed a shot of GTN spray to open up my arteries and get things stabilised.
Then it got a little more awkward. I was admitted to a resuscitation unit, which (unknown to me) was the very same bay my late father-in-law was admitted to 12 months ago when he died of cancer. My poor wife was there having kittens, thinking her dad and husband were going to croak in the very same spot within a year - I had no idea, and she didn't want to tell me in case the pressure of that sent my ticker into overload!
I was kept in that night on a cocktail of drugs to get things under control, at one point my heart went into a different rhythm for a few seconds and hit 127bpm, but then stabilised. At 1pm the next day I had an angiogram which revealed one almost closed coronary artery, I had a stent fitted and was lying in my bed recovering by 2pm. Not afraid to admit that I cried tears of joy to still be alive. I cannot thank the NHS enough for saving my life.
It has come as a huge shock. I'm 44, with a 2yo son, I was a reluctant dad, but now I am a father am a totally doting one. I desperately want to see my son grow up. I look back at my pre-attack life and I tick plenty of risk-factor boxes - overweight (6ft, 16st), diet heavy in ready meals/lacking in fruit and veg, drank too much (although had cut out drinking Mon-Thurs since January), a bit of family history of heart disease, stressful job (a lot of it self-imposed), busy lifestyle - always running around doing something, social diary full, constantly running from A to B.
On the plus side, I've never smoked, and my cholesterol and blood pressure were normal before it happened. I'll probably never know which one thing caused it, but there are lots of things in my lifestyle I can change. My biggest issue is that I stopped doing any kind of regular exercise when I got married four years ago simply because of not having the time, or rather not making the time, to fit it in. This (to my layman's mind) has probably been the biggest factor in my undoing.
I'm now on a bucketload of drugs (blood thinning, cholesterol lowering, beta blockers) and awaiting a Cardiac Rehab course. I've taken two weeks off and am going to ease myself back into work gently.
The purpose of this post I guess is to get this down on paper, to thank the NHS from the bottom of my mended heart for saving my life, and to hopefully get some reassurance from others who have been down the same road as to what may lie ahead. I feel like a bullet dodged, but really need to change my lifestyle for the better.
Anyone 'been there, done that'?
I think we think it always happens to someone else. Good luck PT and best wishes. (There's plenty wrong with the NHS, but in situations like yours, there's plenty right too.)
PurpleTurtle said:
I look back at my pre-attack life and I tick plenty of risk-factor boxes - overweight (6ft, 16st), diet heavy in ready meals/lacking in fruit and veg, drank too much (although had cut out drinking Mon-Thurs since January), a bit of family history of heart disease, stressful job (a lot of it self-imposed), busy lifestyle - always running around doing something, social diary full, constantly running from A to B.
56, overweight (6ft4, 16st), diet heavy in ready meals (although I'm tackling the lack of fruit & veg thing currently), drink too much (have failed miserably to cut out drinking Mon-Thurs, or any other day, not heavily but one or two a night), no real family history of heart disease although my 83 year old Pa has been very sick recently and his heart was quite stressed at the time, busy albeit not overly stressful job, stupidly busy lifestyle - mostly self-imposed if I'm honest but always running around doing something, constantly running from A to B, that's me.
Immediately before reading this I was googling Halfords for cycle tyres, I'm going to recommission my pushbike this weekend and then try and commute by bike a couple of days a week (that'll be about 8 miles each way). If I can knock the weekday booze on the head, and use the NutriNinja more, the combination of all of those should bring the pounds down a bit.
Glad to hear yours had a good outcome. The rest of us need to pay heed and avoid getting there in the first place.
Blimey. I know PH can be bad for your blood pressure at times, but that's taking it a bit far!
Glad to hear you are on the mend and this is a great wake up call for many of us who are likely in a similar risk profile.
Hope you recover quickly and I'd be having a bit longer tha. 2 weeks off personally.
Glad to hear you are on the mend and this is a great wake up call for many of us who are likely in a similar risk profile.
Hope you recover quickly and I'd be having a bit longer tha. 2 weeks off personally.
PurpleTurtle said:
Anyone 'been there, done that'?
Glad you're still with us. 
I've been through similar though in my case I had a heart attack without knowing it, it can happen, apparently. The only way my heart damage (99% and 75% blocked arteries and muscle damage) was discovered was during a pre-op assessment for surgery for prostate cancer and to cut a lengthy story short, I had three stents fitted last July, did a short cardic rehab course and I'm on a cocktail of beta blockers, ace inhibitors, statins and anti-coagulants.
I'm gradually losing weight, now 111 kgs down from 121, but really must get off my arse and exercise more often though I've improved my diet; less 'stodge', less processed stuff, much more home cooked food. I don't smoke, don't drink much (just a bottle of red over a weekend) and life is as unstressed as I can make it - being retired helps.
Apart from the pills making me tired, I feel absolutely fit and I do all the things I did previously which is all I could want I suppose - life continues.
I had my heart attack 6 years ago when I was 36 years old.
I took 2 months off work and should have taken more, as my insistence on returning to work ultimately slowed my recovery.
My advice is to take at least a couple of months, and consider making it 3 months.
This is time you can never take again once you've returned, so make sure you're properly recovered before returning.
You'll be surprised at just how difficult it can be to do really simple things in the first few weeks - I could barely walk 200 metres at one point and my GP told me not to drive for 6 weeks.
I took 2 months off work and should have taken more, as my insistence on returning to work ultimately slowed my recovery.
My advice is to take at least a couple of months, and consider making it 3 months.
This is time you can never take again once you've returned, so make sure you're properly recovered before returning.
You'll be surprised at just how difficult it can be to do really simple things in the first few weeks - I could barely walk 200 metres at one point and my GP told me not to drive for 6 weeks.
Ugh, this thread has hit me right in the feels. I'm a little younger than yourself but up until recently was a smidge off 18 Stone.
I'm currently 15st 5lb but I have a history of big swings in weight (anywhere between 3 and 5 stone) which I know isn't healthy or sustainable.
Really glad you're on the road to recovery.
P.S. Come join us in the PH Phatfighters Q2 thread
I'm currently 15st 5lb but I have a history of big swings in weight (anywhere between 3 and 5 stone) which I know isn't healthy or sustainable.
Really glad you're on the road to recovery.
P.S. Come join us in the PH Phatfighters Q2 thread
Glad to hear you're ok and you took all the right precautions and got the right care! Heart attacks are a serious thing! My gf's cousin had similar to you aged 40 and thought it was just a bit of indigestion or something.
Last year I was assisting in teaching a martial arts class when one of the guys collapsed and started foaming at the mouth.
We put him in to the recovery position and called an ambulance. I kept and eye on his breathing, pulse etc. When I couldn't get a pulse I made the decision to start CPR.
I haven't done CPR for around 15 years, but was a National Pool Lifeguard for around 9 year and had to train every other week.
No idea how long I was going for (could have been 2 minutes, could have been 20) but the other lads managed to flag down a passing ambulance, I carried on until the Paramedic took over. The got the defibrillator out and then after some time got him in the ambulance.
The paramedic said that he had gone into sudden cardiac arrest, aged 44. He was not overweight or in bad health, exercised regularly and also had a 5 year old daughter.
The other instructor went to pieces and I was faced with getting hold of his wife and telling her what happened. At the hospital the rushed him to surgery and then put him in to a induced coma.
My brother is a physio and works in a hospital and said that the chances of surviving sudden cardiac arrest outside a hospital without immediate defibrillation was very low and that there was a good chance that if he did recover, he would be brain damaged.
Unfortunately that week my gf's father had passed away and I went to the funeral with a mate in a coma. They tried to wake him a few times, but he was non/minimally responsive. After a week or so they brought him out and he was responsive and when I visited him he recognised people, but was having trouble talking.
2 weeks later they discharged him and he has since made a full recovery and hopes to come off medication this year!
Sorry for the mini hijack, but it's just to highlight that it can happen anytime and anywhere. Thankfully for my mate, it was with someone who knew what to do and also just before he was about to get on his motorbike to ride home.
Last year I was assisting in teaching a martial arts class when one of the guys collapsed and started foaming at the mouth.
We put him in to the recovery position and called an ambulance. I kept and eye on his breathing, pulse etc. When I couldn't get a pulse I made the decision to start CPR.
I haven't done CPR for around 15 years, but was a National Pool Lifeguard for around 9 year and had to train every other week.
No idea how long I was going for (could have been 2 minutes, could have been 20) but the other lads managed to flag down a passing ambulance, I carried on until the Paramedic took over. The got the defibrillator out and then after some time got him in the ambulance.
The paramedic said that he had gone into sudden cardiac arrest, aged 44. He was not overweight or in bad health, exercised regularly and also had a 5 year old daughter.
The other instructor went to pieces and I was faced with getting hold of his wife and telling her what happened. At the hospital the rushed him to surgery and then put him in to a induced coma.
My brother is a physio and works in a hospital and said that the chances of surviving sudden cardiac arrest outside a hospital without immediate defibrillation was very low and that there was a good chance that if he did recover, he would be brain damaged.
Unfortunately that week my gf's father had passed away and I went to the funeral with a mate in a coma. They tried to wake him a few times, but he was non/minimally responsive. After a week or so they brought him out and he was responsive and when I visited him he recognised people, but was having trouble talking.
2 weeks later they discharged him and he has since made a full recovery and hopes to come off medication this year!
Sorry for the mini hijack, but it's just to highlight that it can happen anytime and anywhere. Thankfully for my mate, it was with someone who knew what to do and also just before he was about to get on his motorbike to ride home.
Wow, glad it all ended ok, I think sometimes if these things dont kill us it can be a great wake up call, you seem to be treating it positively.
I was 18 st 2 at 6ft, 46, drank too much, ate ok but too much and quite a bit of crap, down quite a bit and exercising a lot more, I started cycling to work about 9 years ago and to be honest, I think I may have had a heart attack of be dead if I hadn't, also, having a dog helps as you have to go out for a walk, so many people do absolutely nothing, does make me wonder how some keep going, a guy at work is 30 stone and 5 ft 6 or so, drinks every night, lovely, lovely bloke but, and I sincerely hope I am wrong, he wont make sixty.
Part of my reason for getting in shape was hearing about a guy who was in better shape than me on the face of it having a heart attack, another one had a stroke and is now a pale shadow of his former self, his brain is still the same in terms of intelligence but he cant do anything for himself, I think for me, part of it is trying to avoid these things in middle age and then if it does happen, imagine being stuck in a wheelchair wishing you had done more when you could, that scared the s
t out of me so at least now if it happens I wont feel like that whilst being fed soup via a straw.
Seems to be a think the arteries getting blocked, some screening would be good I guess, my dad had some screening for some big vein in his breastbone area or something. Even my skinny running enthusiast neighbour had stents fitted,
I suppose you just dont know, my thinking is that currently I have a resting pulse in the mid fifties and regularly get it to 170, I am as confident in it as any 46 year old bloke can really be, we just need to put ourselves in the position of our potentially seriously diminished self and have a go at avoiding it.
I was 18 st 2 at 6ft, 46, drank too much, ate ok but too much and quite a bit of crap, down quite a bit and exercising a lot more, I started cycling to work about 9 years ago and to be honest, I think I may have had a heart attack of be dead if I hadn't, also, having a dog helps as you have to go out for a walk, so many people do absolutely nothing, does make me wonder how some keep going, a guy at work is 30 stone and 5 ft 6 or so, drinks every night, lovely, lovely bloke but, and I sincerely hope I am wrong, he wont make sixty.
Part of my reason for getting in shape was hearing about a guy who was in better shape than me on the face of it having a heart attack, another one had a stroke and is now a pale shadow of his former self, his brain is still the same in terms of intelligence but he cant do anything for himself, I think for me, part of it is trying to avoid these things in middle age and then if it does happen, imagine being stuck in a wheelchair wishing you had done more when you could, that scared the s
t out of me so at least now if it happens I wont feel like that whilst being fed soup via a straw.Seems to be a think the arteries getting blocked, some screening would be good I guess, my dad had some screening for some big vein in his breastbone area or something. Even my skinny running enthusiast neighbour had stents fitted,
I suppose you just dont know, my thinking is that currently I have a resting pulse in the mid fifties and regularly get it to 170, I am as confident in it as any 46 year old bloke can really be, we just need to put ourselves in the position of our potentially seriously diminished self and have a go at avoiding it.
Thanks for the replies and good wishes folks.
I should add that my two weeks off work is then with agreement to go back and do as much or as little as I want, from home if necessary (I do at least two days a week at home as it is). That is obviously very helpful - a lot of the stress was caused by my commute rather than the work itself - but the complicating factor is having an energetic 2yo at home in a relatively modestly sized house - he is full of beans (but no more or less than any other 2yo) and it's not ideally suited to proper R&R. My wife has done her best to make scarce this last two weeks, but a lot of things they normally do during the week have shut down for Easter holidays, so the house has been busier than usual.
I am a self-employed contractor - whilst I've got savings to pay the bills, I can't realistically take months off. As I write I've just had a chat with my client co - they aren't putting me under any pressure to go back and would indeed like me to take a bit more time off, so I think best to do that.
We've also had to have a frank and honest chat about how things run at home; wife didn't go back to work after maternity leave as her commute was 90 mins each way, but I try to be a hands-on Dad by getting our son up in the morning, changing and dressing him whilst she showers. This was my wife's idea, but I've never been happy with it - whilst it gives me great interaction time with our son, it continually makes me late for work. I find that I'm leaving the house stressed, hitting heavy traffic, getting worked up before I've even got there. It's only half an hour, but it's half an hour I could really better employ by getting to work earlier, finishing earlier, playing with him at home then. It might sound trivial, but it's the one thing about our day to day life that drives me nuts, so we've agreed a total change when I go back to work full time. My wife comes from a family who are persistently late for everything, my family are totally punctual - the two philosophies don't sit well together. We're adults though, we can work it out.
The cholesterol reducing/anti-clotting drugs I'm on are to allow the stent to 'bed-in' to the artery without further clots forming at the same place. It's all standard stuff that everyone who has had an attack gets.
My first cardiac rehab appointment has been confirmed for 2 weeks' time. Part of me is chomping at the bit to get on with it, I know I've neglected my fitness and want to do something about that, but I guess I do really need to take it easy. The fact that my stent has got the blood flowing again means that I feel like a new man - like I've had a shagged out old fuel filter changed for a shiny new one - but on the other hand it's a fairly major life event to have gone through.
I'd encourage anyone who thinks 'that could be me' to do something about it. I got married at 40 and because we didn't live together previously I stopped the limited amount of exercise that I used to do in my own time (five-a-side once a week and a bit of cycling when I could fit it in, occasional 5k run) simply because I didn't want to be seen to be off doing something else when our priority at the time was to get my wife pregnant pronto - time was not on our side in that respect. It sounds stupid in hindsight - Mrs PT took on the role of domestic goddess and always made sure dinner was on the table at a set time, then we would settle down on the sofa for a night of TV, every night. We used to joke that we had become 'smug marrieds', then crack open another bottle of Sauvignon Blanc. Exercise went out the window completely. A year prior to that we both did a half marathon in two hours - five years later I'd struggle to run a mile. Sobering thoughts in hindsight.
Onwards and upwards though!
I should add that my two weeks off work is then with agreement to go back and do as much or as little as I want, from home if necessary (I do at least two days a week at home as it is). That is obviously very helpful - a lot of the stress was caused by my commute rather than the work itself - but the complicating factor is having an energetic 2yo at home in a relatively modestly sized house - he is full of beans (but no more or less than any other 2yo) and it's not ideally suited to proper R&R. My wife has done her best to make scarce this last two weeks, but a lot of things they normally do during the week have shut down for Easter holidays, so the house has been busier than usual.
I am a self-employed contractor - whilst I've got savings to pay the bills, I can't realistically take months off. As I write I've just had a chat with my client co - they aren't putting me under any pressure to go back and would indeed like me to take a bit more time off, so I think best to do that.
We've also had to have a frank and honest chat about how things run at home; wife didn't go back to work after maternity leave as her commute was 90 mins each way, but I try to be a hands-on Dad by getting our son up in the morning, changing and dressing him whilst she showers. This was my wife's idea, but I've never been happy with it - whilst it gives me great interaction time with our son, it continually makes me late for work. I find that I'm leaving the house stressed, hitting heavy traffic, getting worked up before I've even got there. It's only half an hour, but it's half an hour I could really better employ by getting to work earlier, finishing earlier, playing with him at home then. It might sound trivial, but it's the one thing about our day to day life that drives me nuts, so we've agreed a total change when I go back to work full time. My wife comes from a family who are persistently late for everything, my family are totally punctual - the two philosophies don't sit well together. We're adults though, we can work it out.
The cholesterol reducing/anti-clotting drugs I'm on are to allow the stent to 'bed-in' to the artery without further clots forming at the same place. It's all standard stuff that everyone who has had an attack gets.
My first cardiac rehab appointment has been confirmed for 2 weeks' time. Part of me is chomping at the bit to get on with it, I know I've neglected my fitness and want to do something about that, but I guess I do really need to take it easy. The fact that my stent has got the blood flowing again means that I feel like a new man - like I've had a shagged out old fuel filter changed for a shiny new one - but on the other hand it's a fairly major life event to have gone through.
I'd encourage anyone who thinks 'that could be me' to do something about it. I got married at 40 and because we didn't live together previously I stopped the limited amount of exercise that I used to do in my own time (five-a-side once a week and a bit of cycling when I could fit it in, occasional 5k run) simply because I didn't want to be seen to be off doing something else when our priority at the time was to get my wife pregnant pronto - time was not on our side in that respect. It sounds stupid in hindsight - Mrs PT took on the role of domestic goddess and always made sure dinner was on the table at a set time, then we would settle down on the sofa for a night of TV, every night. We used to joke that we had become 'smug marrieds', then crack open another bottle of Sauvignon Blanc. Exercise went out the window completely. A year prior to that we both did a half marathon in two hours - five years later I'd struggle to run a mile. Sobering thoughts in hindsight.
Onwards and upwards though!
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