7th Annual Heart PSA...

[TheX]

Today is the 7th anniversary of surviving my heart attack. This is obviously a big day for me. I got lucky and was able to walk away with 5 stents. A bypass is obviously a LOT worse.
 
If you are ignoring any symptoms, don't. If you are living a less then healthy lifestyle, get regular checkups, it can literally save your life.
 
If you are living an active, healthy lifestyle, good for you! I was already an active cyclists and gym rat. The doc that saved me in the ER says that probably allowed me to survive it. I wasn't getting regular checkups prior to the event, but I am now.
 
You should add a heart attack to your reverse bucket list, the one with things you NEVER want to do. Thanks for listening, I'm sure no one cares about my problems, but please do what you can to not end up like I did.

[jcarneytx]

First cardo doc visit last Friday. Appt for echo and stress test next month. 

[Tree Magnet]

Did you have to get your primary doctor to refer you or do you just set it up?


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[AntonioGG]

12 hours ago, Tree Magnet said:

Did you have to get your primary doctor to refer you or do you just set it up?

That's going to depend on your insurance plan.

[CBaron]

4 hours ago, TheX said:

You should add a heart attack to your reverse bucket list, the one with things you NEVER want to do. Thanks for listening, I'm sure no one cares about my problems, but please do what you can to not end up like I did.

Just so you know that you sharing your story influenced me to go and get my Calcium CT Scan (where I scored a perfect 0!).  I've had borderline high blood pressure along with a history of family conditions.  So it was very much a relief when I got the results back.  Thanks for the push...

-CJB

[jcarneytx]

19 hours ago, Tree Magnet said:

Did you have to get your primary doctor to refer you or do you just set it up?


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Primary, initially, for me, who then referred me to a cardiologist.

[Cafeend]

I can echo CBaron. All the talk in the past encouraged me to for a heart scan. Family history and what-not. It was a no brainer for the money.
However serendipity ensued.
I went to my 1st appointment back in June and they actually wouldn't see me even though they accept self referrals.
The reason was because I hadn't been to a doctor in about 13 years. So I had to find a doc.
That all went good. No issues across the board. However..I did the poop in a box test instead of a colonoscopy for obvious reasons. Well that came back positive. Went in for the procedure and they found 6 polyps.
Then I was able to get my heart scan and the results were real good.
So Mr X.. your preaching about heart this and heart that encoured me to face my man fears and go in and get checked out. You literally saved my ass because no way in hell would I have ever done any of this on my own and if I hadn't gone for the heart scan and got rejected then the polyps would never have been found. Thanks man.

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[TheX]

I had no idea how bad I felt for years prior. Once my arteries were working again, I realized how stupid I was to work out harder, and just push through feeling like shit at the gym or on rides. I just figured it was me being a po0sie.

I was an idiot.

[ATXZJ]

Had relatives die and also come back from the dead due to cardiac arrest. Shit is real AF.  Mark Weir really messed me up, and opened my eyes how it could happen to any of us. 

@TheX congrats on the anniversary and glad to have you and @Cafeendriding the dirt rather than in it.

 

[Cafeend]

Had relatives die and also come back from the dead due to cardiac arrest. Shit is real AF.  Mark Weir really messed me up, and opened my eyes how it could happen to any of us. 
[mention=70]TheX[/mention] congrats on the anniversary and glad to have you and [mention=46]Cafeend[/mention]riding the dirt rather than in it.
 

Thanks man
Forgot about the Mark Weir story
That was some crazy shit

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[TheX]

From one of the stories about Mark.

“You see it all the time,” explained heart surgeon Larry Creswell, M.D., endurance sport enthusiast and author of the Athlete’s Heart Blog. “Guys have a heart attack or other cardiac event, and when you talk to them, they had symptoms like chest pain or tightness and shortness of breath—sometimes for quite a while—and they just ignored it, figuring it had to be something else.”

[jcarneytx]

Well, good news after stress test and echo, heart is perfectly normal, with "good" exercise tolerance. Now time to work on getting the fitness back, slowly. Also, back to regular doc to find another direction to determine chest/torso pain/twinges. I'm wondering if, due to numerous bruised/fractured/dislocated ribs over the years, if it's not arthritis of the rib cage. Is that a thing? 

[TheX]

9 minutes ago, jcarneytx said:

Well, good news after stress test and echo, heart is perfectly normal, with "good" exercise tolerance. Now time to work on getting the fitness back, slowly. Also, back to regular doc to find another direction to determine chest/torso pain/twinges. I'm wondering if, due to numerous bruised/fractured/dislocated ribs over the years, if it's not arthritis of the rib cage. Is that a thing? 

Congrats on the healthy heart report!

[AntonioGG]

Does it feel like you're getting stabbed through-and-through?  There are those tiny little muscles around the spine that you can pull and the pain transfers.  If it's more on the side and moving toward the sternum, it could be costochondritis.  

[jcarneytx]

22 hours ago, AntonioGG said:

Does it feel like you're getting stabbed through-and-through?  There are those tiny little muscles around the spine that you can pull and the pain transfers.  If it's more on the side and moving toward the sternum, it could be costochondritis.  

Kind of...according to google, costochondritus is fairly short term. I've been feeling this almost a year. Just twinges of pain. Sometimes in upper-center back, to left or right mid-chest ribs, to upper-center chest. Not BAD, just really annoying. Gets worse with intense exercise (hammering away on quarter notch for instance.)

[AntonioGG]

4 hours ago, jcarneytx said:

Kind of...according to google, costochondritus is fairly short term. I've been feeling this almost a year. Just twinges of pain. Sometimes in upper-center back, to left or right mid-chest ribs, to upper-center chest. Not BAD, just really annoying. Gets worse with intense exercise (hammering away on quarter notch for instance.)

Any chance it's heartburn manifesting weirdly?  I only ask because I went to the ER 2x with a panic attack which was due from spontaneous reflux which was causing irritation and weird symptoms, totally not what I would have thought heartburn was. It even caused burning sensation on my left arm.  By chance I was in for a barium swallow fluoroscopy that they saw it happening. Eventually figured out I was lactose intolerant which was the root-cause for everything.

[jcarneytx]

1 hour ago, AntonioGG said:

Any chance it's heartburn manifesting weirdly?  I only ask because I went to the ER 2x with a panic attack which was due from spontaneous reflux which was causing irritation and weird symptoms, totally not what I would have thought heartburn was. It even caused burning sensation on my left arm.  By chance I was in for a barium swallow fluoroscopy that they saw it happening. Eventually figured out I was lactose intolerant which was the root-cause for everything.

Not sure. Not had any other symptoms. I switched to lactose free milk many years ago, more from gut gas than heartburn.

[TheX]

I'm glad these conversations are happening. Most people tend to ignore symptoms, and get into trouble that they could have avoided. Some smart people here.

[Barry]

On 1/14/2021 at 10:43 PM, Cafeend said:

However..I did the poop in a box test instead of a colonoscopy for obvious reasons.

Man...if you sign up for this thing...these guys will stay on top of you. They really, REALLY want you to poop in that box and send it to them ASAP. You'll get more calls for shitting in a box than you will for extending your car warranty. Luckily my was negative. 

[ATXZJ]

1 hour ago, Barry said:

 You'll get more calls for shitting in a box than you will for extending your car warranty

thats a lot of fuckin calls then. 

Congrats on the results

[Tree Magnet]

Man...if you sign up for this thing...these guys will stay on top of you. They really, REALLY want you to poop in that box and send it to them ASAP. You'll get more calls for shitting in a box than you will for extending your car warranty. Luckily my was negative. 

I’d love to take a dump in a box and mail it to those car warranty and health insurance call centers.


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[AntonioGG]

2 hours ago, Tree Magnet said:

I’d love to take a dump in a box and mail it to those car warranty and health insurance call centers.


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It's been really bad lately.  I was waiting for a call for which I did not know the number, so I answered one, and it was an obvious telemarketer with a several second pause.  I hung up immediately.  since then I started getting more auto warranty calls.  I like the of sending them a care package.

[throet]

On 2/27/2021 at 10:20 PM, TheX said:

I'm glad these conversations are happening. Most people tend to ignore symptoms, and get into trouble that they could have avoided. Some smart people here.

Seems we've lost our chief advocate on this topic, but maybe the rest of us can pitch in and raise awareness. I had been on blood thinners for a year after suffering a PE in 2020. After finally stopping the blood thinners, I started having two new symptoms, heart palpitations and pulsating in my ears (called pulsatile tinnitus). After a week of continuous remote monitoring via a device that patches onto your chest, my doctor informed me that the palpitations are something called premature ventricular contractions. While apparently common and mostly benign, in my case the severity and frequency of them led my cardiologist to prescribe a beta blocker, which she said will also help with my rising blood pressure. In fact, it could be higher blood pressure that is triggering both of these symptoms, even though I don't think it's high enough to be labeled hypertension. 

I feel that I'm at a crossroads now between feeling invincible and feeling vulnerable. I've been on statins for twenty years to keep my cholesterol under control and now I'm going to be taking a beta blocker to control arrhythmia and blood pressure. Past tests have shown some evidence of calcium deposits in my arteries and also indications of mild LVH, but I've never had any signs of slowing down. To the contrary, at 62 I've felt stronger on the bike than I ever have before. Now though I'm having to rethink things. Since I've been monitoring, it's clear that the palpitations start and persist during post-exercise recovery, which according to some papers I've read is not a good sign in terms of cardiovascular mortality. I really don't want to be one of those guys who folks end up saying "died doing what he loved". Conversely though, going down the rabbit hole of trying to figure out all the different cardiovascular related things that can kill you and why, just adds stress and anxiety, which are proven to themselves be contributors toward poor heart health. 

Suppose I'll spend some time figuring out if there's a happy place in the middle of taking care of yourself and trying to figure out if some inner killer might be lurking. Anyway it goes I believe some more tests will be needed, including an MRA to see if something is going on with the blood vessels in my head to cause the pulsating in my ears. Hope all is going well with the rest of you heart-conscious individuals.  

[Charlie193]

Old thread but I thought I would add one more to the “don’t ignore it if things feel off” crowd. I started feeling like my heart was racing while riding around Christmas, and thought it was probably because I was getting over being sick around Thanksgiving. It didn’t really improve so I got a 24hr monitor from the cardiologist my Dr. referred me to. I went out for a ride with the monitor which showed my heart rate peaked at 262 with several arrhythmias. Cardiologist freaked out a little, additional tests (stress test and echo) were normal so I was sent to an electrophysiologist who thought I either had an an extra electrical pathway (Wolff Parkinson White syndrome) or more general atrial fibrillation. I had an ablation on Thursday which hopefully treated atrial fibrillation (no evidence of WPW was found). If it worked I should be back to normal shortly. It has been a strange few months though- I’m not super fit but I’ve always been fairly active and reasonably healthy, so this wasn’t an area I was expecting to have problems with.