Heart Attack Support Group
Heart attack is a serious, sudden heart condition usually characterized by varying degrees of chest pain or discomfort, weakness, sweating, nausea, vomiting, and arrhythmias, sometimes causing loss of consciousness. It occurs when the blood supply to a part of the heart is interrupted, causing death and scarring of the local heart tissue.
Hi everybody. I'm. 44, in shape, non smoker, non drinker. I had a heart attack in mid October due to a large artery which produced a clot. Doctors stented artery but it became permanently blocked. About 10-15% of heart was permanently damaged. My EF after heart attack 7 weeks ago was 48, 2 weeks ago via MRI it was 46. I guess there's a difference between echo and mri readings?
Doctor says I can live a normal lifespan (I think a normal lifespan for an American man) if I take my meds, eat right, exercise, etc.
My question: Am I destined to eventually progress to heart failure at some point? Or can it actually be prevented and not just delayed? Do all EF's eventually start to decrease?
I feel great with no symptoms. I get tired kinda easy. My doctor said "Don't worry about the 10-15% of your heart that was damaged; it's gone...but you don't need it". He said I was fortunate that the heart damage is in the location it is in.
I'd really appreciate some thoughts from others who know about this. God bless you all.
Doctor says I can live a normal lifespan (I think a normal lifespan for an American man) if I take my meds, eat right, exercise, etc.
My question: Am I destined to eventually progress to heart failure at some point? Or can it actually be prevented and not just delayed? Do all EF's eventually start to decrease?
I feel great with no symptoms. I get tired kinda easy. My doctor said "Don't worry about the 10-15% of your heart that was damaged; it's gone...but you don't need it". He said I was fortunate that the heart damage is in the location it is in.
I'd really appreciate some thoughts from others who know about this. God bless you all.
I've read both your posts and you ask some good and common questions. I will try to help based on my experiance. If the damage to your heart is at the back bottom area of the heart, I guess that is the best place to lose muscle if you have to. You should be able to live a normal life span if you do not lose any more heart function. Using EF as a yardstick to measure everything is not a good idea because it does not tell the whole story. There are people with a very low EF that function just fine and some with an almost normal EF that feel wiped out with even mild activity. I'm not sure why this is but it is. How you feel is probably a better indicator but keep in mind some of your meds may keep you from feeling like your old self. This cannot be helped and you need them. Your EF may recover some with time. Part of the reason the EF is only one thing used to evaluate where you are at is because none of us know exactly what our EF was before our heart attack. People are different some have a higher baseline EF than others to start with so our doctors have to estimate our loss of function based on the area of muscle that died during the attack. Congestive heart failure can come from a heart attack but from what you have described I don't think you are at that point nor do you ever have to reach it. Remember all any of us can do is manage our risk factors and keep them as low as possible. Take our meds, exercise and keep our weight down. And manage stress in our lives. The rest is up to fate and the almighty. Hope this helps,
Jeff