After a CT of my head and neck he isn’t as worried about my vertebral carotid being partially occluded. I grew collaterals there too in addition to the ones on my heart.
I will get a nuclear stress test in 3 months so I guess I will live at least that long! 😄
He cleared me to ride again as long as I don’t go all out like in a race. I tend to mainly stay in zone 2. As long as I know to rest when I get tired.
The weather here has moderated a lot and the weekend and next week look to be great. Finally.
I will go for a ride in the morning and see just how out of shape I am.

Great to hear. And hope you find a vast improvement for your performance and stamina.

Though I might wonder that if you do have better performance and stamina, that we all will be wanting to get stents whether we need them or not. It might be the next performance enhancing craze!

Maybe something the UCI should look at.

No stent. So far he has only diagnosed the blockages.
I will be only back to where I was before seeing him.
We will know more after the stress test. He did say the treadmill wasn’t for me so he is concerned about something.

Oh, I just assumed that you had the stent put in. I should have followed more closely your other thread.

So yes, you'll eventually get back to where you were before. Which is about what I just did since recovering from breaking my ribs in June. I'm finally back to the performance level I was at in early May of this year. Which definitely isn't as good as I can and should be.

He wants to wait until the stress test to decide if he needs to try to break through the blockage and place a stent- possibly damaging the artery in the process.
If the collaterals are supplying enough blood to my heart fir daily living he probably won’t just to allow me to attempt a century. 😄

Good news! Congratulations.
After the nuclear test, you will be able to set off alarms in safety deposit vaults.

Whichever way you and the doctor decide to go. I hope it's the best outcome for you. I've people in my extended family that have had stents. Some multiple times. Most good results. Some not so good.

How cool would it be if I could wirelessly charge my phone and bot need lights on my bike? 😄

Good for you on getting cleared to exercise again. After I was cleared to exercise and ride I had to learn to not push my limits.
As an athlete growing up I was always pushed for "just one more", "Push, push just a little more to crest that hill". I had to force myself to stop when I got tired.
It takes some getting used to.

That is going to take time to get used to.

Good to hear you can ride again. What are the symptoms of the occluded vertebral artery? Asking for a friend.

I had no symptoms of that or a 100% blocked RCA. That is really scary too.
This was found by accident after another doc mentioned seeing calcium in my coronary arteries from an unrelated ct scan. I pushed for a calcium study then an angiogram. A carotid doppler study found a vertebral carotid had no flow.
Apparently I grew my own bypasses on my heart and carotid. I guess I don’t like to wait. I still need to see if the collaterals are able to support the needs.
Also I am prone to other arteries becoming blocked. Lifestyle changes should precent that and I am committed.

Bicycling is a very good aerobic workout for the heart. And aerobic activity is probably why your collateral's developed their capacity. So I'd think you doctor will at least want you to keep cycling. As long as the rest of your heart is healthy, I'd think that you'd be able to ride as hard as you care to.

But not being a doctor, you shouldn't trust my opinion. If I were in the same situation I'd ask several heart doctors. Particularly if your heart doctor doesn't operate as a cardiac care team as do the several heart doctors that I see on a rotational basis for regular checkups.

I didn’t get out this morning. I mowed my weeds yesterday and one of my knees was stiff this morning.
It got up to 102° and will be mid 90s tomorrow.
Saturday may have some rain but the high will only be 77° so I will be out sometime.

That's great!

I am happy for ya, ride on!

Had storms last night so I waited until 4pm so the path could dry.
Did a 6 mile lap around the lake. Sunny 77° and it felt great to be out.
I did leave it in low range and took it a little easy. Averaged just under 12mph- I was just out for the ride and that path has too many obstacles to worry about speed.
I feel great!

Hit another snag. All last week I was having bad pain in my trapezius muscles and upper back. It moved into my neck and was bad enough my wife took me to the ER.
I’m on a pain med and muscle relaxer so no riding.
I may go walk on a trail somewhere

YEAH!
You are still on the green side of the grass!
You are riding your bike!

Please, do not screw this up.

fat biker

This is weird. I didn’t do anything.
My first thought is my cardiologist had put me on a statin then upped the dosage. My LDL is 77 but he wants it under 55. My HDL and triglycerides are good. He just worries I am prone to getting plaque in my arteries. I am eating healthy but didn’t always- obviously.

Another figured out what’s going on. I have some arthritis in my neck that caused inflammation in the surrounding muscles. A muscle relaxer and an opioid pain reliever did nothing- a shot of morphine did nothing either.
Fortunately I responded very quickly to an oral steroid.
I should get back out very soon.

Did a 6 mile loop around the lake this morning. Not pushing for speed- which this path isn’t really designed for anyway. Finished feeling good so I will probably be out again tomorrow morning.