Had a heart attack

[Milkyway]

So, being brilliantly on the at risk list due to my manic lifestyle imagine my surprise that yesterday, the wife, not me had a heart attack.

Having complained of headaches and chest pains for a few days. She went to doctors and they said it was anxiety and gave her some tablets.

Yesterday she complained of feeling worse and by last night I took her to A&E where after 5 hours she was put on a cardiac recovery unit.

So it seems they think she's had a blockage, and a heart attack and they are waiting to do further tests.


With those who have experience what happens next?

Sorry to hear that. Hope she is recovering well.

You mention these lifestyle things.. what are they? Just curious.
Its a wake up call for everyone, to ensure they adjust their lifestyle to minimise heart attacks and the like.

Are these like: excessive coffee, very less walking / too much just cars, etc?
Specifically I am concerned about my too many "coffees a day" thingy. Maybe I need to completely get rid of that and move to tea.

But others mention people do exercises and still got heart attacks! Very scary that it hits even those with that kind of active lifestyle!

[SueEllen]

You mention these lifestyle things.. what are they? Just curious.
Its a wake up call for everyone, to ensure they adjust their lifestyle to minimise heart attacks and the like.

Are these like: excessive coffee, very less walking / too much just cars, etc?
Specifically I am concerned about my too many "coffees a day" thingy. Maybe I need to completely get rid of that and move to tea.

But others mention people do exercises and still got heart attacks! Very scary that it hits even those with that kind of active lifestyle!

There are a number of factors. The main one is genetics but added to that is things like smoking, too much alcohol, too much stress e.g. not sleeping enough, having too much body fat for your frame and not moving enough.

With the body fat for your frame it's where you store the fat that's important and your waist size which is linked to your ethnic background.

Lots of people have heart attacks and strokes who are active and do everything to the textbook but if you look into their family history they have blood relations who have died of heart disease. So all their healthily life style modifications have done is given them more years of a healthy life.

In regards to your caffeine habit if you are drinking it because you are tired or need a kick then cut down and get more sleep. You will feel terrible for a few weeks.

[WTFH]

Should be a 24hr ECB next. Was it AF or VF?

[MrMarkyMark]

FTFY

Since then I've worried when I get palpitations from snorting too much cocaine, wondering if it's the big one, thinking if it can happen to them then it can to me or anyone once you're over a certain age and have enjoyed life's trimmings to that point.

A wake up call for those fortunate enough to wake up from it.

[OwlHoot]

At my current client two permies have dropped dead from a heart attack in the last year or so. ...

Flip me, where do you work? In a galley, with everyone chained to the oars?

Have to admit I'm a bit overweight, and smoke and probably drink too much. But both the aged Ps are still alive, and pretty fit, in their nineties. So hopefully I haven't inherited any heart problems.

Oh and bad luck about the wife's heart attack MF. But with modern medical care I expect she'll be OK now.

[NickFitz]

Sorry to hear that - hope she's OK.

As MS says above, they'll probably do an angiogram and whack a stent or two in there, like they did with me. It's a very straightforward procedure from the patient's point of view: no anaesthetic required (well, maybe a local where they go in), very little risk, and you're good to go within a couple of days. It's only that long so they can monitor you for a bit, and so the place on the wrist or groin where they cut into the artery can start to heal properly: the stent fixes the blockage instantly. I felt perfectly fine again as soon as they put mine in.

Longer term, she'll probably need to go back within a few weeks for an ultrasound scan of the heart. This allows them to check for any ongoing irregularities. She'll also have one or two assessment sessions with the rehabilitation people, who get you to do things like walk up and down a corridor at increasing speed to check when you start to look like you're about to keel over. If she's reasonably fit now, that won't be any problem.

There'll also be a longer term rehabilitation course which primarily involves doing exercises and occasionally going in for a check up. With a bit of luck that'll mainly be stuff she can do at home; it's just basic physical jerks, really.

They'll probably do a detailed checkup after a couple or three months, and again at six months, and at a year. If everything's progressing smoothly, these will probably tail off into a visit to the GP once a year to have blood taken and sent off for testing, rather than having to go to the cardiology clinic. IIRC I was handed off to my GP by the cardiologists at eighteen months.

Longer term still, she may be asked if she's willing to participate in a medical study or two. These are worth doing, as they usually just consist of having a blood sample or two taken every few months, but it means that you get more frequent contact with the clinical staff in the cardiology unit than you otherwise will, and it's always worth getting to know people you may need to rely on urgently some day

If she smokes then she's giving up now. No ifs or buts. Make sure they provide nicotine replacement therapy (gum, lozenges, or some such) when they discharge her, or get it yourself from a chemist or the supermarket. Sainsbury's keep NRT products next to the condoms for some reason. I think they should sell them at the kiosk next to the fags.

[NickFitz]

Under 40 means it's genetic and a heart abnormality.

Not necessarily. One of the cardiologists in the Coronary Care Unit told me that people from the rougher local council estates start coming in with heart attacks in their late thirties. The reason: they start smoking when they're about eight or nine. She reckoned that, just as a rule of thumb, it takes about thirty years in most smokers that develop heart disease as a result of smoking for the first heart attack to happen.

So the people off the estates start to show up in their late thirties, while the middle class types who took up smoking to look cool at university arrive in their late forties.

[WTFH]

Genetics, diet, exercise, health, luck, they all play a part. If you look at organisations like CRY, you'll see that it's not just 30+ year olds who are at risk.
The Wife (tm) is heavily involved in this. As such we have 6 or 7 defibs at home, some of them need new batteries and pads then we'll be giving them to local charities. We have one that stays in the house all the time in case of emergencies. I've even been a live dummy in a training session once - always a good laugh when you see people's faces as your wife presses the button on a live unit that's attached to your chest. (Most AEDs will only shock if you have a shockable rhythm, so if you're OK they do nothing)

[AtW]

Hope she gets well soon!

[stek]

I've got a defib, it's in my chest!

It's about four years today I was rushed into hospital with a suspected heart attack, aged 51, overweight like most, non-smoker but liked a pint, as it happened I din't have a heart attack, but arrhythmia, a la Fabrice Muamba.

Both my parents died of heart/circulatory issues, Mum has a stroke at 61 and died in her sleep, Dad, 68, blocked arteries caused gangrene in bowel, not nice at all. I was favourite for blocked arteries so they angiogrammed me for that and found I was clear, non-smoker see, my Mum and Dad lifelong puffers....

Tried to ablate my heart rhythm cells - no luck so screwed my defib in there and then. Been ok since apart from anxiety attacks initially cause of the implant and what I'd been told it feels like when it does go off, i.e. liked being kicked in the chest by a donkey....

Trying to lose weight and get fitter but when you've had episodes like these it's the fear of it that gets you, every raised heartbeat, every chest flutter or feeling makes you think, tulip - is this it? the heart is muscle, need to be exercised but when it's you you feel you are straining it!

I suppose at 55 now having what is a minor heart problem is ok, especially when on the bus this old wreck of bloke asked for my seat cos he was so knackered, after chatting to him he was 4 years younger than me and had all sorts of things wrong with him.

Best to get up and get on with it!