Any survivors on here, cardiac arrest, heart attack, cancer....

[numbnuts]

Well had my angiogram they found I have one completely blocked blood vessel couldn't even get the wire through it, but it supply only 2% of blood to the heart so they have put me on medication and hopefully will do the trick so now I can get back to cycling again got to take in slow to start with, but I'm getting there .

 

[david k]

Well had my angiogram they found I have one completely blocked blood vessel couldn't even get the wire through it, but it supply only 2% of blood to the heart so they have put me on medication and hopefully will do the trick so now I can get back to cycling again got to take in slow to start with, but I'm getting there .

Glad they found it, what medication are you taking? Will it improve?

I had my follow up from my heart ablation, been all signed off as it's worked well. It may return in time but if I keep the weight off, cut out alcohol and gentle exercise I have a good chance of that being a long time off, poor life choices will make it return quicker.
Consultant also told me not do do lots of exercise as it can be bad for me, only gentle exercise and not push it too much, difficult to know what is too much? I'm doing low tempo over long time, so been walking for a few hours, cycling when the weather improves will be the same, aiming for good distance but slow and steady

Anyone advice on this?

 

[Colin_P]

Glad they found it, what medication are you taking? Will it improve?

I had my follow up from my heart ablation, been all signed off as it's worked well. It may return in time but if I keep the weight off, cut out alcohol and gentle exercise I have a good chance of that being a long time off, poor life choices will make it return quicker.
Consultant also told me not do do lots of exercise as it can be bad for me, only gentle exercise and not push it too much, difficult to know what is too much? I'm doing low tempo over long time, so been walking for a few hours, cycling when the weather improves will be the same, aiming for good distance but slow and steady

Anyone advice on this?

I also suffer from arrhythmia (VT, VF and Torsades de pointes, the deadly ones) and mostly limit myself to <10 mile rides at a sedate pace. Once you accept your new normal and that there has to be a new normal you can move forwards.

The advice of not doing "lots of exercise" isn't terribly useful is it, but I'd most certainly take heed to that advice, which it sounds like you are doing.

Instead of doing 70 miles on a Saturday morning, do 10 miles a day over seven days. I like to set myself lower and slower goals and find off road cycling much better and more interesting doing so. The added bonus offroad is there are fewer people to laugh at you whilst you crawl up a hill at 3mph.

Another good one if you have the kit is to try and keep your in ride heart rate below a predetermined number, say below 110bpm. You'll be surprised how difficult that can be to put into practice and the focus it requires, particularly on the hills. Slower can be more difficult than you realise when you impose a low max heart rate. Slow is my new fast

 

[Colin_P]

Well had my angiogram they found I have one completely blocked blood vessel couldn't even get the wire through it, but it supply only 2% of blood to the heart so they have put me on medication and hopefully will do the trick so now I can get back to cycling again got to take in slow to start with, but I'm getting there .

Now you are having had your plumbing chemically dyno-rodded you'll be unstoppable and should actually feel better as a result when the drugs start doing their thing.

I know of cyclists who have recovered from heart plumbing issues who have come back much stonger than they were before.

.....but, please, don't go mad and build up slowly!

 

[david k]

I also suffer from arrhythmia (VT, VF and Torsades de pointes, the deadly ones) and mostly limit myself to <10 mile rides at a sedate pace. Once you accept your new normal and that there has to be a new normal you can move forwards.

The advice of not doing "lots of exercise" isn't terribly useful is it, but I'd most certainly take heed to that advice, which it sounds like you are doing.

Instead of doing 70 miles on a Saturday morning, do 10 miles a day over seven days. I like to set myself lower and slower goals and find off road cycling much better and more interesting doing so. The added bonus offroad is there are fewer people to laugh at you whilst you crawl up a hill at 3mph.

Another good one if you have the kit is to try and keep your in ride heart rate below a predetermined number, say below 110bpm. You'll be surprised how difficult that can be to put into practice and the focus it requires, particularly on the hills. Slower can be more difficult than you realise when you impose a low max heart rate. Slow is my new fast

Thanks Colin, great advice.

I was almost at this point before my ablation, I found high tempo would make me feel ill afterwards, even if I could manage it on the ride. So I would ensure I kept to a steady pace, average 11-12mph on a flat ride.
Also, since making some improvements in diet and general life choices a few years ago I haven't felt the need to balance out bad choice by long fast rides. Leaving exercise to be enjoyed rather than enjoured(spelling?) .

I'd like to ride less distance more frequent but job and life means that's not likely, when the weather improves I'll build back up and let my body guide me, but definatley wont be pushing the tempo but want to build up miles

Edit. I had atrial fibulation and atrial flutter

 

[Fab Foodie]

Well had my angiogram they found I have one completely blocked blood vessel couldn't even get the wire through it, but it supply only 2% of blood to the heart so they have put me on medication and hopefully will do the trick so now I can get back to cycling again got to take in slow to start with, but I'm getting there .

Just catching-up on this, glad all has gone well!
Tou'll probably start to feel an improvement very soon.
Have they offered you Cardio rehab? I found that very useful indeed. Allows you to start excercising under medical supervision.

Otherwise, allow everything to settle-down for a few weeks and then start slowly. An HRM is not a bad investment to help keep the rate low initially say under 110 as I was advised. Nowadays I just listen to my heart and know when I'm overdoing it....which is most of the time :-)

 

[Alan O]

Consultant also told me not do do lots of exercise as it can be bad for me, only gentle exercise and not push it too much, difficult to know what is too much? I'm doing low tempo over long time, so been walking for a few hours, cycling when the weather improves will be the same, aiming for good distance but slow and steady

Bearing in mind this is not medical advice (I'm just some bloke on the Internet), I agree with others who suggest its probably the intensity of exercise that's more important here than the duration, and that you should be keeping your heart rate modest rather than anywhere near max - that would certainly fit with my own cardiac rehab experience. I'd also second the suggestion of getting a heart rate monitor - some of the fitness bands that can do it are not expensive these days.

One thing I will strongly suggest is that, if you're unsure what they mean exactly by "not do do lots of exercise", ask. I've always found the cardio folk very willing to explain things in whatever detail is needed. In fact, a friend of mine doing cardiac rehab recently had a bit of a scare by not doing as he was told - instead of the gentle settings and paces he was supposed to be doing on the exercise machines at his rehab sessions, he was cranking it up and pushing hard because he didn't think the gentle stuff was doing the trick.

That ended in a panic when he was quickly observed, stopped, and wired up to all the machines to check he was OK. And then he got the proper explanation, that gentle aerobic exercise that kept his HR above normal but not too high is what was needed. I'm sure your consultant will be able to quantify the recommendations - on what HR range is good for you and for what durations.

Alan

 

[numbnuts]

Tablets I'm on I think I rattle -

Ipratropium bromide inhaler
Omeprazole 20mg
Atorvastatin 80mg
Glyceryl trinitrate spray
Ramipril 2.5 mg capsules
Aspirin Tablets 75mg
Bisoprolol 5mg
Amlodipine 5mg
The last 2 weeks I walked 24 miles, haven't tried cycling as yet maybe next week, as I'm in no hurry the only two thinks I have found out is I can't get my pulse rate above 77 and my resting pulse rate is very low at 42 while laying down.

 

[Colin_P]

Tablets I'm on I think I rattle -

Ipratropium bromide inhaler
Omeprazole 20mg
Atorvastatin 80mg
Glyceryl trinitrate spray
Ramipril 2.5 mg capsules
Aspirin Tablets 75mg
Bisoprolol 5mg
Amlodipine 5mg
The last 2 weeks I walked 24 miles, haven't tried cycling as yet maybe next week, as I'm in no hurry the only two thinks I have found out is I can't get my pulse rate above 77 and my resting pulse rate is very low at 42 while laying down.

That is quite a coctail, and having MHR of 77 means they are doing their job! I found that at the introduction of a new drug or a dose increase I felt terrible for a few weeks but your body will adapt and you will get used to it. That few weeks can be interesting though.

I was on 20mg of bisoprolol for a while and that I consider to be an elephant tranquilising dose, it is a very powerful beta blocker. Sadly it didn't work for me and I'm now an equally potent but different beta blocker along with an equally potent anti arrhythmic drug as well. But only four pills a day!

As for cycling, if you do it slowly enough it is gentler than walking.

 

[Alan O]

Tablets I'm on I think I rattle -

Ipratropium bromide inhaler
Omeprazole 20mg
Atorvastatin 80mg
Glyceryl trinitrate spray
Ramipril 2.5 mg capsules
Aspirin Tablets 75mg
Bisoprolol 5mg
Amlodipine 5mg
The last 2 weeks I walked 24 miles, haven't tried cycling as yet maybe next week, as I'm in no hurry the only two thinks I have found out is I can't get my pulse rate above 77 and my resting pulse rate is very low at 42 while laying down.

A beta blocker like Bisoprolol will make it harder to get your heart rate up, as it reduces the adrenaline response of heart muscle. I'm on 1.25mg per day, and I can see the effect on my HR trace after exercise - it takes me around 20 minutes to get warmed up enough and get my HR moving, and in that first period I can feel very sluggish. I was initially started on 5mg per day but it left me feeling completely lifeless, and it was slowly reduced until I reached a workable dose.

I don't know if Ramipril and Amlodipine might have a similar effect on HR, but they reduce blood pressure and so they might do.

 

[Alan O]

I was on 20mg of bisoprolol for a while and that I consider to be an elephant tranquilising dose, it is a very powerful beta blocker.

Wow, that would stop a herd of elephants!

 

[Colin_P]

Wow, that would stop a herd of elephants!

It certainly did for me! I started off at 1.25mg but within the space of six months it was ramped up to 20mg. It went 1.25 to 5 to 10 then to 20, the big jumps in dose really did have me in bits for a week or so.

The best (worse) one though was stopping the 20mg Bisoprolol one day and starting 20mg Nebivolol, an equally if not more poptent beta, the next day.

What is interesting though is my max heart rate. No matter how hard I try the rev liminter is now 118bpm no matter how hard I try. As there the blood cannot move around quickly enough to slosh away the lactic acid you get just as tired and I always find despite trying to limit it (in fact I use a HRM less these days) you are actually working just as hard as you would have done doing two or three times the speed in the pre heart issue days.

And as I've said, riding whilst trying to keep your heart rate below a certain number can be just as challenging as going balls out fast as we all did pre-heart issue. To those who don't have them I cannot recommend enough getting some decent kit that displays live heart rate data. I bought a Garmin 520 last summer and that will display all sorts of heart rate info and even produce a live graph. The best thing is as your are going slowly, you can really study and watch it.

For those that are new to the whole heart issue thing, there is hope, you just have to accept a new normal.

 

[Deleted member 1258]

Bearing in mind this is not medical advice (I'm just some bloke on the Internet), I agree with others who suggest its probably the intensity of exercise that's more important here than the duration, and that you should be keeping your heart rate modest rather than anywhere near max - that would certainly fit with my own cardiac rehab experience. I'd also second the suggestion of getting a heart rate monitor - some of the fitness bands that can do it are not expensive these days.

One thing I will strongly suggest is that, if you're unsure what they mean exactly by "not do do lots of exercise", ask. I've always found the cardio folk very willing to explain things in whatever detail is needed. In fact, a friend of mine doing cardiac rehab recently had a bit of a scare by not doing as he was told - instead of the gentle settings and paces he was supposed to be doing on the exercise machines at his rehab sessions, he was cranking it up and pushing hard because he didn't think the gentle stuff was doing the trick.

That ended in a panic when he was quickly observed, stopped, and wired up to all the machines to check he was OK. And then he got the proper explanation, that gentle aerobic exercise that kept his HR above normal but not too high is what was needed. I'm sure your consultant will be able to quantify the recommendations - on what HR range is good for you and for what durations.

Alan

I've not long finished cardiac rehab, like your friend I had doubts about what good it was doing me, but I just did what I was told, at the end when I had my final assessment I was surprised and pleased at how much it had achieved. I'd lost weight and a lot of that appeared to be fat and my fitness had gone up, I hadn't been unfit when I had the heart attack, but the course had taken it up a notch.

 

[Yorksman]

Edit. I had atrial fibulation and atrial flutter

I had recurrent AT and AF on top of an LV problem and I was on a turbo trainer when I pushed my heart rate to 130. Then I went into VT.

Some good drugs, an ICD and then cardiversion using the ICD and i have, fingers crossed, been in sinus rhythm for a year now. My heart muscle function has improved somewhat, I swim for half an hour 3 times per week, cycle most other days on either a TT or, when the weather is better, off road or at least very quiet roads. I always have a HR monitor on the handle bar and back off when it goes between 90 and 100 on the TT or 100 to 110 outdoors. I just don't want to push it. But, I can cycle with several stops, most of the day. I've manged a couple of cycling holidays this way.

Soon I expect to be overtaking the older ladies on their bikes rather than the other way around.

 

[Yorksman]

An HRM is not a bad investment to help keep the rate low initially say under 110 as I was advised.

It's a brilliant investment.