qcpmsame 

Allll RRRRRiiightttt!

jlstrat

Feel like some of the emotional stuff is catching up.

Maelochs

I don't know if that is good or bad, just from your post ... but either way, "this too shall pass."

jlstrat

I got the go ahead for cycling so I went out on Friday and Saturday, half hour each time. Tired today, maybe because it was 36 degrees on Friday and 41 yesterday. I felt pretty warm bundled up plenty. Anyway, it felt good to be out and to see the sun.

ModeratedUser17082018

I won't speculate about your situation, but I had some emotional melt-downs following my extreme heart attack. I won't bore you with the details. Thanks to a tolerant family and friends we got thru most of it ok.

Don't hold onto any negative stuff - just let it be part of the healing and keep moving forward as much as possible. I've learned to monitor my thought processes and restrict my brain from wandering down the dark paths. I have an approved list of thoughts I invoke when needed.

Best to you.

Maelochs

Same here. it does pass.

Awesoome?

Right after my surgery, I literally could not sit up at work a keyboard for 15 minutes. I couldn't focus a thought well enough top type a sentence and after 15 minutes I needed to lay down and rest. I felt rpetty good at three weeks and was starting to actually do stuff at five weeks.

Oldguyonoldbike

Glad to hear you've made through and are back on the bike. Here's hoping the emotional roller coaster doesn't last too long.

wnl256

March 10, 2015. I posted about it here a year ago in a different thread:

Heart Attack ? - nope ! (long'ish)

So I've been there and I understand what you are going through. If you were a regular cyclist before the heart attack then your recovery will be that much easier. Your heart is strong: it's your arteries that failed you.

My rehab was three times a week for two months, as that's all the insurance would pay for. I found the monitored physical exercise to be immensely helpful. Not only did it serve to start building up my stamina again, but it also gave me the mental and psychological confidence that I wasn't going to experience cardiac arrest again when I started pushing my body to climb hills. I was anxious to get started on the road to recovery. Unfortunately due to other issues I wasn't able to start rehab until 2 months after my heart attack. It was a very frustrating two months! The educational aspects of rehab were somewhat helpful as well. But the nutritionist that came in every other week was a complete waste of time. She and I did not get along at all.

After two weeks? That's awesome! It was about 2 to 3 months before I could get back on the bike.

Yes it will. What happened is surprising and very humbling. Don't take it as a personal failure, because it isn't. Face it as a challenge that must be overcome. It completely sucks. But you can't let it define you or defeat you.

ModeratedUser17082018

That was my experience as well. I was fearful that if I did anything at all, the heart attack would start up again. The monitored cardio class got me past most of that.

jlstrat

I'm glad I shared my experiences. I find theses posts to be very helpful. So far, the rehabs are good, but the workload is pretty light. Also, I think the blood pressure meds make me a little tired, so I'm hoping that the cardiologist will modify them when I see him on Tuesday.

Maelochs

Yeah, I didn't find out until almost two months after surgery that there was a variety of different drugs I could take ... and the one I was given had some side-effects. The doctor never told me (there is a certain relationship between doctors and pharmaceutical salesmen) but the nurse was really helpful.

Myosmith

Here's hoping for a speedy recovery

I've had two AMIs, the first in the proximal RCA and the second in the proximal LAD. Both had minimal symptoms but were still caught early. Each got a stent. I've got a horrendous family cardiac history with multiple male members on both sides dying of heart conditions in their 50s and 60s. I'm 54 now, had my first dysrhythmia in my early 40s and my AMIs at 51 and 52. Unfortunately, I can't completely blame genetics as I spent most of my teen and adult life obese with poor nutrition and high-stress, low to moderate activity jobs. I got in decent shape a few times but it never lasted for more than a couple of years until I started cycling.

I had been an avid cyclist for about three years when I had my first heart attack. I was back on the bike within a couple of weeks (recovery rides). I rode all the next summer but had another heart attack in the following November. A lot of people made comments (mostly behind my back) about how cycling didn't do me any good or even that avid cycling "gave" me a heart attack. On the contrary, my cardiologist, cardiac PA, cardiac rehab tech and physician all concur that those thousands of miles of cycling may actually have saved my life and definitely had a lot to do with my speedy and complete recovery. After both stents I surpassed the discharge goals on the first day of rehab and was back to work in two weeks (the shortest time allowed).

As far as statins are concerned, I was on Atorvastatin for about a year before my first heart attack and in between my heart attacks. After the second heart attack I switched to Crestor but both of the statins caused significant side effects for me, even at low doses. I'm no longer taking statins and am working on controlling cholesterol, triglycerides and other risk factors through diet and lifestyle changes. Statins may be beneficial for many people, but they aren't chicken soup, nor are they effective in preventing heart attacks and strokes in everyone. I'm not anti-statin in any way but do encourage people to talk about the risks and benefits, as well as other options, with their physician.

It's important to remember that every person and every case is different, so talk with your medical team on a regular basis as you work out what is right for you. Be very cautious about information gleaned from the internet. You can drive yourself nuts with contradicting information, opinion stated as fact, and outright BS.

Many people have periods of depression following major medical events. Don't bottle it up, talk about it with loved ones and professionals. It will pass, but don't be afraid to ask for help as treating depression is just as important to recovery as treating hypertension or metabolic syndrome.

wnl256

Atorvastatin has done wonders for me, and has helped me get my cholesterol down around 110 (yes, that's total cholesterol). Diet change also contributed. However, now my glucose is creeping up. So ... yeah ... I did some Internet research and I blame the statins for bumping up my glucose. I started on COQ10 which is supposed to help with this along with having other benefits, and I will be checking in with my doctor again soon to see if it has made any difference.

Myosmith

Yep, elevated blood glucose is one possible side effect that affects many statin users.

For me it was a combination of constant mild flu-like symptoms (fatigue, body aches, general feeling of not being well) combined with more concerning cognitive impairment (memory problems, difficulty focusing/concentrating, and struggling to find my words). The symptoms improved by 90% within a short time after stopping the statins, but I don't think I ever got back to my previous baseline. My total cholesterol improved but both my LDL and my HDL decreased, so mixed bag there.

I know people who have had excellent results without side effects, and some who have had terrible side effects.

rideorfly

Hope the CoQ10 helps! Statins block both cholesterol and CoQ10 production, so supplementing with CoQ10 may help counteract some of the potential statin-side effects. I've met a lot of healthcare providers who swear by it for their statin patients.

jlstrat

Feeling better. Did some rides this week, plus Cardiac Rehab. My mood is better. Thanks for all the good wishes and support!

qcpmsame 

Those are still offered up, great news from you and keep it up!

Bill

pcf

I'm a year post op quadruple bypass. Started riding again on a regular basis earlier this summer. Feel as strong now on the bike as I ever have, did 42 miles yesterday.

Statins don't help, and have terrible potential side effects. Know what the difference is between absolute and relative risk. See what the real data on them says here: https://proteinpower.com/drmike/2013...ow-difference/

The overriding factor for hear disease is heredity. It dwarfs all other reasons combined. Stay active and enjoy life. You can't change the genes you were born with.

Classtime 

People inherit clogged arteries? You can only enjoy life if you are alive. I admit it is easier for me because I'm married to a vegan but to continue enjoying a dangerous lifestyle? Really?

qcpmsame 

Of course clogging up arteries from dietary choices and habits isn't genetic, but the bodies ability to easily form plaque and to have a propensity to have malignant hypertension can be genetically caused. I became a vegetarian as my response to kidney failure for the third time, due to a host of factors (Stage 3B.) My BP, HDL and kidney function numbers were horrible, and I have a fraternal history of heart disease and early cardiac event death, including my father at 49.

I have to watch things, and coreg, twice daily, is part of the plan to combat things. If you have the genetic background it takes extra vigilance to ward things off, but now I am in the excellent range for all of my lab blood work indicators as well as my kidney function. But its easy to see them go south with just sort backslide of dieter habits due to the way my body is wired from my genetics.

Bill

wnl256

People inherit the propensity to develop plaque even on a normal diet. For others it would not be considered a "dangerous" lifestyle.

I'm married to a vegetarian, but that doesn't mean I follow her diet.

Are you suggesting everyone should adopt a vegan diet because its safer? Wouldn't it be safer to stop riding bicycles on roads that have automobile traffic, too?

Classtime 

I'm suggesting that if someone has a propensity to develop plaque, they should go vegan. If I had a propensity to tip over on my bicycle, I would trade my bike for a trike or take up power walking.

pcf

It is my experience that diet has no affect.

I had a heart attack in July 2015, and I was fortunate to receive immediate medical care and suffered no damage. Two stents were inserted.

After this event, my diet consisted of the following:
- No meat, sugar, wheat, or alcohol
- Nothing cooked above the boiling point of water. Anything cooked was poached or boiled. This means nothing cooked in oxidized oil
- Mostly raw food was eaten
- Fish was consumed, however not cooked in oil

Fast forward to August 2016, I lost ~ 20 lbs and had outstanding blood chemistry according to the AHA recommendations. But even on this extreme diet, I developed massive blockage in between the stents that were inserted a year earlier, and had to undergo a quadruple bypass.

Heat disease typically shows up after the reproductive years, so it is not eliminated from humans genetically.

No one has a good answer or predictive ability on how to prevent heart disease.

Stay active, maintain proper weight, and enjoy things in moderation. The rest is genetic.

Classtime 

Fish is meat. It makes a difference whether you believe the research or not.
As you were. Food is a very big part of life for some folks. The males in my family are on meds for cholesterol and blood pressure. They love their BBQ and have cold cuts and cheese for lunch. They are enjoying some part of their life i guess.
I eat to live and ride. I don't live to eat.

Maelochs

Could be there is some confusion about Type of "risk factor" here.

Sure, nothing gets you out of bad genes. But genes aren't a "risk factor," they are just a "factor." I mean, increasing age is also directly related to loss of health and fitness ... is Old Age a "risk factor"? How would I go about mitigating it?

Risks are things you can either mitigate (reduce risk) or not (risk, gamble, take a chance.) How each person chooses to gamble ... considering the inevitable outcome ...

Look, for a person whose greatest happiness is sitting in front of the TV and eating pizza and ice cream all day long, being a highly active vegan would be similar to taking that highly active vegan, chaining him down on the couch in front of the TV, and force feeding him nachos and Philly cheese steaks.

Most of us choose some balance ... a little extra risk, whether it be road-riding, off-road riding, a little fatty food, whatever ... we all find the balance that suits each of us.

Putting down others for being different than us is pretty silly.

There is always the anecdote about the health nut who died at 57 in excellent apparent health, and the 97-year-old who lives on bacon, whiskey, and cigarettes. And in any case, you could fall in the bathtub no matter what.