Heart Attack Survivors Support Thread (pain, cold, blood pressure, depression)

[no kudzu]

two weeks ago today I had a heart attack:http://www.city-data.com/forum/healt...wednesday.html

I think we all could benefit from hearing how other heart attack survivors have handled life after.

Did you go to Cardiac Rehab? What is that like?
What life style changes did you make and how did you do it?
Have you experienced the common depression after?
How did your friends and family help or hurt your recovery?
How has your outlook on life changed if at all?
Are you afraid you will have another one anytime soon?
Are you diabetic?

I'm scheduled for orientation for rehab next week and I'm looking forward to that. I've made some dietary changes but I know if I do something drastic I won't stick with it so for two weeks I'm concentrating on salt and upping my raw veggies. I'm also counting my carbs better as I had gotten pretty lazy about that.

I've had a touch of depression the first week but it has dissipated lately.

The biggest impact it has had on me is wanting to downsize our possessions and even our home DRASTICALLY. As I lay in the hospital bed I thought about how angry my husband and family would be having to deal with a huge house full of "stuff" while mourning my death. I'm renewing my e bay account, we have listed about 10 things so far for sale on our neighborhood site, taken bags of unused clothes to the PTA thrift shop and tossed out a bunch too. I'm determined to get serious. We also have looked at over 55 condos with no yard work but still a nice courtyard to do a little gardening. I'm ready to sign the contract but DH is the voice of reason and we are doing some more study.

Please share so we all can help ourselves and each other.

BTW my chest fullness and NO PAIN was probably due to neuropathy from Diabetes. I had only heard of peripheral neuropathy but it is possible insides have nerve damage to the degree a heart attack has no pain.

[Mikala43]

That is really interesting and thank you for starting this thread.

[Mikala43]

Do you think you ignored any symptoms early on? My late husband complained about chest pain and asked me what to do. I told him to go to the doctor is it was concerning him. He had a single, massive heart attack and died instantly (wasn't diabetic).

I always worry that a pain in my chest is coronary related. I have tons of inflammation body wide, used to smoke and all that. I also have fibromyalgia so I have pains everywhere, I can't go running to the doctor with every unusual twinge.

I love that your rebound has manifested in downsizing. I've been in that mode...sometimes followed by shopping mode. /lol

On that subject, my late husband was way on his way into hoarder territory, and it took about 40 truck loads to get rid of stuff, in addition to selling a bunch. I thought about that too, if I died, would my Mom / Sis / Husband be like what is all this crud?!!

I think the same advice I had as a widow applies here: make no major decisions for a year

What changes have you made to your lifestyle?

[no kudzu]

I'm a 69 year old woman married to a "difficult" man for 40 years (he would call me the same ) with 7 kids, two of whom are 14 and still at home so you betcha I ignored many unpleasant twinges, aches and pains! Teenagers are a major pain!

But I can't say there was any specific incident I ignored. I have since found out the marker enzyme only shoes up around a heart attack and doesn't linger or stay in your system so I definitely experienced a heart attack whose only symptom was a fullness in my chest and pain radiating up the back of my neck.

A funny story I tell on myself is that I was watching my favorite soap opera I had TIVOd (Y&R) and a character I detest was having a heart attack. Or faking one and he was really angry and screaming and red in the fAce. So while I simply could have turned it off to watch later, I decided the fullness and discomfort in my neck was only my reaction to Victor Newman being such a JERK. I turned off the TV and after a minute or two I decided to call my husband and was so surprised to hear a voice come out of my mouth saying "You need to take me to the hospital cause I think I'm having a heart attack." It really was an out of body experience and I'm very grateful for it.

I explained more in the link in my first post: I had a heart attack Wednesday. It doesn't show up very well so you might have missed it.

[billl]

Thanks for starting this thread! I have been looking for a place on-line to connect with other survivors so that we can share stories, thoughts, fears. I haven't found much. This is long ... sorry.

I had a heart attack one year and 7 days ago. I told my story as part of your thread:
http://www.city-data.com/forum/43270933-post61.html

I just went to see my cardiologist yesterday morning for my "1 year" checkup. He said he is very happy with my recovery. All my numbers look good and I feel as healthy as ever. My BP at the doctor's office was 112/80! He has scheduled me for an echocardiogram to take a close look and make sure there aren't any hidden surprises. I am all for that!

Yes I went to cardiac rehab. I had to delay starting it for almost two months due to some complications from my original event. But I started in May and my insurance paid for a total of 24 visits. I went three times a week for 8 weeks. We would attach a 3-lead remote heart monitor to ourselves and one of the nurses would watch all the monitors at a central station while we did workouts. We also had BP readings taken before and after the workout. Diabetics had glucose taken before each workout (I am not diabetic). Each day was about 70% cardio and the rest would alternate between weights and education. The nurses would help put together an exercise plan that would get our heart rates in the right range. Slower rates during the earlier days of the program then increasing the intensity towards the end of the 8 weeks.

Education was either one of the nurses or a nutritionist. The sessions with the nurses were usually very informative and gave us a chance to ask health-related questions. I was less impressed with the nutritionist. She taught us how to read nutrition labels (not hard .... I've been doing that for many years) and would give us diet ideas and recipes. One day she was explaining the differences between various kinds of ground meat (beef, chuck, round, etc.) and which ones would be good for a heart healthy diet! I was not in the best of moods that day and finally had had enough of her. So I asked her in front of everyone else: "isn't it better just to not eat ground beef at all?" To which she replied "well of course but that's just not practical." And my response to that was: "Having a heart attack isn't practical. For years the only ground beef I've had was 93/7. And yet ... here we are." I didn't see much of her after that.

Other than the useless nutritionist I found cardiac rehab to be very beneficial. Not only did it give me a controlled program to build up my heart, but it also gave me the confidence that I wasn't overdoing it, since I knew the nurses were watching heart rate and ECG. They would know right away if there was a problem. At the end of the 8 weeks one of the nurses did a mini-bootcamp workout with me. Prior to my attack I would do those twice a week and I was concerned that it would overstress my heart. So she and I did it together instead of the usual cardio. I was the only time I saw her worn out! That was fun.

As for lifestyle changes: before my heart attack I was already watching my sodium and fat intake. I exercised regularly (I'm an avid cyclist), saw my doc twice a year, and was on medicine for high blood pressure. I knew my cholesterol was routinely high, but it was never outside the acceptable range. It was usually between 175 and 195. Since the heart attack I have eliminated nearly all cheese, eggs, and most dairy, eliminated all red meat (except a once-a-month splurge), increased non-shell seafood, and I have reduced sodium intake even more. I have also tried to adopt what's called a "mediterranean diet", which is heavier on the fruits and vegetables. I can't say I follow it strictly, but I am much better than I was. Between that diet and the Lipitor I've gotten my cholesterol down below 110. But man do I miss cheese!

My wife has been fantastic throughout all of this. She's a real trooper. I cannot imagine what she went through during the days that I lay unconscious in the hospital. She didn't know if I would ever wake up, or how I would be mentally once I did. She has been ultra supportive and has never complained about any of it. She is my rock. My co-workers have all been great too, but I do sometimes get tired of them asking me (even to this day ... a year later): "how are you doing? are you feeling okay?" I am still in touch with two of my three rescuers, which is great!

Yes I've gotten depressed. Sometimes for days at a time. Which is just stupid because I'm one of the luckiest people on the planet. I should not be alive, but I am. Everything worked together to bring me back to life, and I have had zero long term physical issues. But I still get overwhelmed by it all, and sometimes it is just too much. I have found that exercise is usually a good remedy for those times. The more physical I get the better I feel.

Am I afraid I will have another heart attack? Every day. I had plenty of warning for the first one, even though I chose to ignore it. I may not have a warning for the second one. My wife and my oldest daughter (in her 20s) have both taken CPR classes, and are ready to help me should there ever be a need. I have my nitro in a small airtight pillbox that I usually carry with me (always when I'm riding). I have an ID necklace that I used to wear every time I left the house, although not so much recently.

Life is short and unpredictable. Hug the people you love.

[billl]

Originally Posted by Mikala43

Do you think you ignored any symptoms early on? My late husband complained about chest pain and asked me what to do. I told him to go to the doctor is it was concerning him. He had a single, massive heart attack and died instantly (wasn't diabetic).

I ignored mine for most of the day. I woke up feeling discomfort. But it wasn't pain. It was just annoying. On a scale of 1 to 10 it was about 1/2. So I thought it was just the beginning of a chest cold or some other funky virus. And I went on with my day. But it kept getting worse. Until I finally decided it was serious, not because it was painful but because I had never felt anything quite like it before. I called my wife and we talked about it a bit but I guess we were both in denial. When I finally decided to pay attention to my body and turned the car towards the hospital it was already too late.

I always worry that a pain in my chest is coronary related. I have tons of inflammation body wide, used to smoke and all that. I also have fibromyalgia so I have pains everywhere, I can't go running to the doctor with every unusual twinge.

That's the problem with chest pain. It can be caused by a dozen different things. Some of them are very minor but some of them can kill you.

I think the same advice I had as a widow applies here: make no major decisions for a year

Yeah that sounds good. Things we used to obsess about (like money ) we just chose to put out of our minds for awhile. Instead, we decided to do more things together and enjoy each other. We took a family vacation to Universal Studios last November, and we enjoyed every minute of it.

[no kudzu]

Thank you so much Bill for sharing your story. As this thread gets more active i hope you will chime in often.

The thing similar about our HAs is the no pain. That scares the pee willikers out of me. I can't call EMTs every time I have discomfort but I certainly will stop and LISTEN to my body more often.

We could not be more dissimilar in other ways. I'm female, 69, sedentary but only because of serious foot issues related to diabetes, I was awake and alert through it all. In fact I was bored.

HAs come in all forms and to all sorts of people in every stage of life. I am aghast at the young people who have them with no warnings or adverse lifestyles. Apparently picking the right parents is something we all overlook.

[Mikala43]

Bill was the cholesterol you listed a total number or your LDL?

[Mikala43]

My late husband died 2 days after his 43rd birthday. Overweight and smoker
A friend died of a heart attack in parking lot a year later. Late 40s, good shape.
An acquaintance's husband died about a year back. Late 40s, paddler (did the Molokai Channel). Only those in great shape do that.
My husband's Lt. died last year, early 40s? Just came back from FBI training (top of the line fitness requirements. Died running track at work. But he had cardio incidents he was ignoring.

For obvious reasons and I am completely neurotic about this.

[billl]

Originally Posted by Mikala43

Bill was the cholesterol you listed a total number or your LDL?

Total! An LDL of 190 would freak me out I think.

My last lipid panel (in October) was 51 LDL, 48 HDL, and 10 VLDL for a total of 109.