The Heart Of The Matter

The ENT led to a sleep study where I was diagnosed with Mild Sleep Apnoea and tried their air machine which was duly returned, anyone who has this and can use the machine well done!! Don’t all bloody men over the age of 30 snore like pigs anyway? Having never slept with a man J I do not know the answer to this one so over to you ladies!!

This next part I want to share with you because this is how my brain works.

I’m a 47-year-old male (at that time), overweight not badly, ex smoker, drinks well over the recommended units for a male and most weeks. Has had an MI, has been doing regular and hard exercise since ending re-hab 4-5 times a week changed my diet to include more fish, veggies, water and fruit and 1 year later I feel worse. Oh and I was adopted so no family history. In May of this year I called my GP and asked for a private referral to see the local Cardiologist. By this time by the way, my business on line had stopped temporarily so no income coming in but thankfully it’s just about to re-launch. I was unemployed and fast running out of money and I still am but not for much longer.

I told my GP the above story and 1 week later I had my appointment. Explaining what had happened to the consultant led to his famous last words to me, “we can do another treadmill test but there is only one way to be sure and that’s to do an Angiogram”. My first letter landed on the doormat, Treadmill Test 18th July 2005. Followed by a 2nd letter saying Angiogram 5th July. The Angiogram revealed 3 blocked arteries 2 at over 90% and 1 at over 50%. I would have to have a triple bypass. I remember feeling numb at the news, disbelief set in, then cracking joke after joke with the older guy who was in the bed next to me, he was 74 and had only managed to block two of his arteries in twice the time it took me to block all three, we laughed. A bit like you do when you get a fright. I also recapped everything that I had done during the 15 months or so since my MI and that’s what really got me down.

Stop Smoking – Yes
Exercise-Yes
Better Diet-Yes
BP-OK except on a few occasions when it spiked
Cholesterol- was 5.9 now 4.7
Taking my medication- Yes
Supplementing my diet-Garlic Caps and Omega 3’s

In my mind none of it had done me any good or were my arteries already that bad that a) I was very lucky not to have another heart attack and b) Had the changes I had made meant that I was still around to have the angiogram and still here today to write this? The treadmill test went ahead anyway mainly at the request of the rehab team; They wanted to know how far they could safely push me in exercise whilst I was awaiting surgery. 12 and half minutes I managed on the treadmill proving again that my heart had compensated in some way and had found it’s own way around the 3 blockages. Nonetheless it had to be dealt with.

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The Heart Of The Matter

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