icyclist 

The climb up to the Hollywood Sign and the summit of Mt. Lee, which tower over Los Angeles, is one of my favorite rides. I've posted about the ride before (like here). It's a dreamscape. So I joined the L.A. Wheelmen on their annual ride up to the sign a couple of weeks ago, looking forward to another great ride. Just as the climb started, though, I felt some chest pain.

I grabbed a nitro tab from a fellow rider (luckily I heard him talking about his heart condition on the ride to the base of the climb and the nitro he had in his jersey pocket). Swallowing that little pill brought instant relief, which meant I was having a problem supplying blood to my heart. (Of course, I'd been hoping the pain was just my imagination.)


Knowing I had at least several minutes of protection for my heart, I finished the ride with a strong pull to the top of the sign. In fact I finished first, competing BF style, that is, no one else knew we were racing. After returning home, I headed to the hospital. Instant admittance, and a day later I had two stents in my left coronary artery (the Widow Maker), which was 80-90% blocked by plaque in two places. My chest pain was the result of too little blood reaching my heart for the work it was trying to do. Theoretically, I should have felt pain walking up the two steps into my house.

The operation was fairly simple - a dye was injected into my veins, then a thin wire was run from a hole cut into my groin up to my coronary, the blockage then cleared. I was out of the hospital the next morning, and on my bike three days later for an easy ride. Moral of story: chest pain isn't to be trifled with. Anyone under 50 is probably not going to experience that pain, but it is a force that needs to be reckoned with if it does occur. If you're on your bike, headed toward 13% slopes, you might, unlike me, consider turning around.


Above: I had fun teasing my nurses and they had fun torturing me.

Last Friday, eleven days after the stents were placed and after finishing slightly more difficult rides, I pedaled back up to the Hollywood Sign, 20 miles round trip, 1500+ feet of climbing, most of it in the last two miles. I was seriously out of breath by the time I reached the top of Mt. Lee - just the way I like it - but I felt no chest pain. Resurrection had never seemed so sweet.

Above: Aerial view of the Hollywood Sign.



Above: One more photo before the top.

Above: Beginning the return trip, with the city of Glendale and the San Gabriel Mts. in the distance, coastal haze already sucked in over the landscape by the interior heat of desert lands to the east.

Atol

Great write up and photos I can't really believe went up that climb with chest pains and still raced to the top

Do you happen to have a route map of the climb you went on? I definitely wanna do this climb next time I'm in LA.

youcoming

Wow

Nachoman

Great story. And fantastic job winning the race even when hindered by a heart condition!

ridethecliche

You're a lucky lucky lucky man...

jfmckenna

Nice shots man. You're a bit crazy though
Glad you made it.

icyclist 

>And fantastic job winning the race even when hindered by a heart condition!<

Yes. Then again, no one but me knew it was a race.

Nachoman

Give yourself some credit. It's always a race.

deepakvrao

Amazing. Crazy, but amazing nonetheless. Well done.

mhamm

Very nice story about your recovery! what does a nitro tab exactly do? My father passed away at 56 with that same heart condition.

pacificaslim

Great story. You're an animal! Sorry you had to go through that but thanks for posting it to remind us all to pay attention to our hearts.

FR4NCH1SE

Thats awesome, man its great to see the landscape people of places all over the states have to see, when they ride.

raduray

Congratulations on the positive outcome, but with due respect, you were very lucky. I don't think this should serve as model for others behavior under similar circumstances.

Three weeks ago, on a solo bicycle ride in rural Ohio where I was visiting family, I experienced severe chest pain as I was reaching the top of a long uphill. At first, I thought I had heartburn, but after pulling over and giving it a few minutes, it was clear that it was something different. Significant pressure across the upper chest above the nipples, but no pain radiating down the arm(s). So, feeling somewhat foolish, I called 911 using my cellphone. The local fire/rescue squad showed up within minutes, hooked me up to an EKG machine and determined I had a heart attack. Nitroglycerine, blood thinners (aspirin, heparin, plavix) and morphine, transport to the local regional hospital ER and subsequent helicopter transport to University Hospital in downtown Cleveland where I underwent heart cathetarization to identify and stent blocked artery. Other arteries were OK. Two days later I was out of the hospital and my prognosis is good. I had recently ordered a Specialized Roubaix Expert triple due in late September and asked my new cardiologist if I should cancel the order. His response was that this was the model that he rode and expected to see me spend a lot of time on it after my initial recovery.

Throughout this episode, everyone emphasized that my timely call to 911 had prevented any significant damage and that delay would have had dire results. The CICU nurses all wore T-shirts with a clock logo captioned "Time is Muscle" meaning that timely response saves heart muscle. It's far better to call 911 and find out it's heartburn than to not call and wind up with debilitating heart damage, or worse. Six years ago, my 46 year old brother in law ignored chest pain and died. My experience was a painful reminder to the family of what might have been. Be safe!

Pharmr

Great post!!!

riff

Great post & pics!

I agree with raduray that you were lucky. BTW, excellent blog as well - I've bookmarked it!

DrPete 

No offense, but continuing your ride after you've popped nitro for chest pain is dumb with a capital F.

Glad you're OK, though.

agarose2000

In the future, stop IMMEDIATELY after those nitro-relieved chest pains. You could seriously have died very quickly out there!

I'd also take it on the easier side in the weeks of recovery, and stay monitored closely by your docs. I'd even question riding up that mountain again in the next month, if not two, but I'll led your cardiologist make that call.

But dang - great recovery, and hardcore props for keeping at it. Just do it safely!

Flatballer

No kidding. That was incredibly stupid.

But at least you lived through it.

cyclefreaksix

You sir, are on tough mofo.

JacoKierkegaard

I really hope I'm as much of a badass as you are when I'm 50. Great story and pictures.

C_Heath

Great Post, bad smog. Keep spinnin!

Vermont22

Especially after "swallowing" the nitro. They are sublingual tabs.

DrPete 

I actually missed that the first time through. Wow... Just... wow.

ImRael

I would not have even taken the nitro (what if it was just a gas pain?)

Glad everything turned out ok, though.

Nice pics, btw.

icyclist 

>what does a nitro tab exactly do? My father passed away at 56 with that same heart condition.<

I'm sorry to hear about the early death of your father.

When coronary arteries are constricted, as in my case by the growth of plaque, they don't efficiently transport blood, with its oxygen - to the heart. If the heart needs lots of blood - .e.g when riding a bike up a steep hill - chest pain can occur, and after that, a heart attack could occur. If the arteries are very constricted, walking up a couple of steps can cause chest (or angina) pain.

Nitroglycerin relaxes the walls of arteries and veins, letting more blood and oxygen flow to the heart. This isn't something anyone should do when they don't have coronary disease, or when they don't feel chest pain. But a tab of nitro can save a life if taken when chest pain does occur; even if a heart attack isn't imminent, nitro can relieve chest pain. Until my own father's sucessful bypass surgery - a long time ago, before the invention of stents - he popped a lot of nitro for his angina pain.