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 all
I have enjoyed reading through your experiences and gaining valuable insights into various burning questions about my own situation.
It compelled me to join up and post this, so that my experience to date may in turn answer some questions for someone else.
I was 43 last feb 2013 when I had my MI. I was ambulanced to hospital in a small town where they diagnosed a heart attack. Unfortunately the small hospital had no cath lab so they tried clot busting drugs which didn't work. 3 Times the chopper tried to get me but was turned away by fog each time. Eventually I was flown to a city hospital with a cath lab where they used a stent on my 100% occluded LAD. This was 14 hours later.
So lucky to have survived, unlucky timing to be fogged in.
One year on and my 30% EF has not moved, prompting my doctor to politely suggest that I have heart failure.
Two weeks after my MI I was back at work, for half days, but another two weeks later I was back to full time, long hours, 60-70 per week with no problems. I run a company with 150 employees so luckily its not a physical job for me.
It took me a few months to start to feel well, but I have felt well pretty much ever since then. I am quite limited in my physical activity, I cant run more than about 50m without blowing like a clydesdale, but I can walk a fair distance, certainly on the flat.
I have a regime of drugs, though probably different in name in New Zealand to what you are used to, Cilazapril, Bisoprolol, Atorvistatin, Warfarin, Aspirin, and I also have tidied up my diet a fair bit. Like most I went through periods of wondering about long term prognosis, worrying about a repeat MI etc etc but time is helping with that.
I hope this helps someone, somewhere, and I'm happy to answer any questions about my situation.
Cheers
I have enjoyed reading through your experiences and gaining valuable insights into various burning questions about my own situation.
It compelled me to join up and post this, so that my experience to date may in turn answer some questions for someone else.
I was 43 last feb 2013 when I had my MI. I was ambulanced to hospital in a small town where they diagnosed a heart attack. Unfortunately the small hospital had no cath lab so they tried clot busting drugs which didn't work. 3 Times the chopper tried to get me but was turned away by fog each time. Eventually I was flown to a city hospital with a cath lab where they used a stent on my 100% occluded LAD. This was 14 hours later.
So lucky to have survived, unlucky timing to be fogged in.
One year on and my 30% EF has not moved, prompting my doctor to politely suggest that I have heart failure.
Two weeks after my MI I was back at work, for half days, but another two weeks later I was back to full time, long hours, 60-70 per week with no problems. I run a company with 150 employees so luckily its not a physical job for me.
It took me a few months to start to feel well, but I have felt well pretty much ever since then. I am quite limited in my physical activity, I cant run more than about 50m without blowing like a clydesdale, but I can walk a fair distance, certainly on the flat.
I have a regime of drugs, though probably different in name in New Zealand to what you are used to, Cilazapril, Bisoprolol, Atorvistatin, Warfarin, Aspirin, and I also have tidied up my diet a fair bit. Like most I went through periods of wondering about long term prognosis, worrying about a repeat MI etc etc but time is helping with that.
I hope this helps someone, somewhere, and I'm happy to answer any questions about my situation.
Cheers
Your MI sounds much like my husband's, except he did get to the hospital within 2 hours or so and had a cath and stent. He is 40 and had a 95-99 percent blocked LAD. His EF was down to 40 percent. He is having an ultrasound in may to see how it's doing. I'm praying for improvement. He is in cardiac rehab. He went back to work a week later. He is also the boss of about 100 people in the corporate world. However, he has had no physical symptoms and had felt fine. On face he said he feels better and has more energy then pre-MI. I'm hoping that's a sign his EF is improving. Diet has been a challenge. Though a thin guy, he was a major junk food eater... Did doctor think your EF may improve??? I'm glad you got to the hospital at least in time to save your life!!
If he has more energy than before the MI, I would guess thats a great sign that he is improving.
I've had my EF tested by echo 4 times now, every 3 months and always 30%, and I think for me there is little hope of improvement in EF and my tolerance for physical activity, although my understanding is that with me it is all down to the length of time it took to get the bloodflow back working. I simply cant push myself physically at all really, but i feel pretty good otherwise.
Bring on the Stem Cell research and any other medical advances, thats where my hopes lay !
I do believe that your husbands outcome looks to be as good as can be expected out of such an event, a serious wake up call that's for sure, but with the chance to reform. At least he now knows exactly where his heart health is.
Being nervous about the future is absolutely normal, but it eases with time, the important thing about that is to remain vigilant on the meds, diet, exercise I guess.