avmech

Got done with my weight training yesterday. Felt like crap, sweating profusely and could not catxh my breath. Sat in my truck for about 10 minutes, got worse with pain in my upper left chest and tingling all the way down my left arm. Went back into the gym and had them call 911. Short ambulance ride later, in the cardiac unit having 3 stents put in. Artery was 99.9 % blocked. So have to take it easy for a little while until doc OKs back exercising and riding..

funrover 

Holy cow!! Take it easy and have a full and safe recovery! The bike will be there when you are ready.

goldfinch

Oh man! You are very lucky. Take care and I trust you will be back on the bike soon.

Street Pedaler

Wow. Very glad you caught that. Speedy recovery!

Yo Spiff

Scary stuff. Glad to hear you were smart enough to call for help. Do exactly what those docs tell you and get back on that bike when they say it's safe to do so. Then get that bike engine in shape so it never happens again! We'll all be rooting for you.

Daspydyr 

Glad you went back in! Good decision. Glad your future will be better-SOON! And it will be.

cohophysh

Good thing you recognized the symptoms of a heart attack...well done and glad you are recovering

phread59

Been there, seen it ,done that. Had mine on March 13. Only 1 stent. But I will warn you. DO NOT PUSH IT!!!!! I got out and went back to work 2 weeks later. I work as a line technician in a Dodge dealer. Sledgehammered a wheel bearing out of a GMC pickup. I ended up back in the hospital. You're heart is damaged. Give it time to heal. I swear to you it is very easy to over do it. Please listen to the docs and listen to you're body. It will get better. It will just take time.

I'm 3 months out and it still kicks my arse. I over did it this weekend. Rode too hard Friday and worked on the front steps yesterday. I'm feeling it today. I changed my diet and got a bike and am on my way back. Headed for N+1 this week. So it will get better just take it slow and all will be fine.

Enough of this disjointed rambling. Be careful and get well my freind.

Mark Shuman

BikinPotter

Sorry you're not well. Take it easy. If you read any good bicycling -related books while you're resting up, post your reviews here!

UpL8

Awesome catch that saved your life! As someone else said, it's great that you got help in time. Too many people don't recognize signs/symptoms of a life-threatening emergency...glad to hear that you did! I wish you a speedy, thorough recovery!

avmech

Thanks everyone!

Home now, taking it easy.

As far as the diet and exercise thing: had this happened before we did the change in lifestyle we did, I would have been way worse off. Lost over 50 pounds since October, cholesterol went from around 300 to 133, triglycerides that have always been a big problem with me are at 103. My HDL is a little low at 34 and my LDL is a little high at 79, both numbers that will be easy to remedy. Blood pressure went from marginal high to 115/62 this morning. Sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo: diet change and getting off my fat azz and exercising worked extremely well.

The big thing for everyone to take from this episode: DO NOT ignore the signs!!!!! Total time was under 1.5 hours from when I first started feeling bad to the procedure being finished. Damage to the heart was very minimal, if any.

Again, time IS of the essence, DO NOT ignore the signs!!!

yesthatsteve

Glad to hear the damage was minimal. Be well, and soon.

BikinPotter

Did you have symptoms prior to the episode after the gym?

Rowan

From my experience and knowledge, the heart muscle doesn't heal unless there are some rather radical procedures done. It's why people who suffer major heart attacks are unable to resume their pre-attack lifestyle... too much heart muscle has died.

It is possible, I think, to strengthen the remaining muscle, however, and when there is trivial heart muscle damage (as in my case), the rest of the heart can compensate. Although I suspect I will never to get to win a masters world championship in cycling.

There was a radical procedure developed in South America by which the surgeons removed the dead heart muscle, and the rest grew back in place. I don't think this is a procedure that has been adopted elsewhere in the world.

That's why it is so important to get medical intervention as soon as real symptoms appear. The longer it is left, the more heart muscle dies and the more incapacitated you will be if you get to the recovery stage.

avmech

No, started right at the end of my last exercise. One doc said it is possible I disloged some plaque that went until it could go no more, causing the block.

Gym is around the corner from the station the EMTs came from and less than 3 miles from one of the best cardioo hospitals in the area. It happened under the best circumstances!

Not pushing it till I get the green light from the cardiologist. For now, very short walks, moving very slowly, partly because the top of my right leg where they cathed me is very sore. No way I could ride right now anyway.

Rowan

You will likely take some time to recover from the drain cleaner they probably put into you to help dissolve the plaque, plus you are probably on other medications to avoid clotting and further complications. They do tend to cause you to feel tire excessively tired.

Even after my comparative "blip", I could hardly walk around the block (not a large one at that) in the two weeks after without having to sit and rest three or four times.

I then took up cycling, and haven't looked back since.

avmech

Walked around the grocery store this morning, slowly. Not as bad as yesterday, still tired though. Did not sleep much lt night due to the cath area. Still wY better than the alternative.

Not crazy about the meds, but part of the process, so I press on.

Thanks all for the support and for those passing on their experiences.

Rowan

When they finished with the catheter, did they use a big vice-like thing to prevent the bleeding? The thing they used on me was tightened down hard, I was under strict instructions not to move, and I waited about half an hour (maybe longer) before it was removed.

I understand the reason for it -- you don't muck around when there are incisions in an artery -- but the bruising and discomfort afterwards took a several days to subside.

Mine was only for an inspection of the arteries in the heart itself and to puff the stuff in there that shows what heart muscle damage there might have been. I didn't have to have a stent put in.

It was quite spooky seeing this on a TV monitor -- a wire all the way from the groin up into the heart, and not feeling a thing.

avmech

Yup, they used the big vise like thing..........no movement, and after they took it off, still no movement for about 4 hours. What a major pain in the azz. Have huge black and blue from it.

Today was better, the pain started to subside on my leg, walking almost normal. Prolonged sitting made it stiff though, so I needed to move around some.