Heart Attack ?

[Wheels-Of-Fire]

There is news now, they just discharged me 😀

I am on medication and the list is as follows.

Aspirin 75mg daily for life

Clopidogrel 75mg daily for 1 year

Bisoprolol 1.25mg daily

Rosuvasstatin 20mg daily at bed time

Ramipril 1.25 daily

As stress echo test is to follow in 2-3 months and a drug review will be carried out when the results come back.

I am giong to rattle 😂

 

[Bob Williams]

Great news Graham, glad you’re out. Just remember, no running marathons for a while.

Blimey, your meds cupboard is about as full as mine.

Good luck, keep on truckin!

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Richard]

I am glad that things sound to be getting better so that you have been released to go home, even if you need a wheelbarrow to go home from the pharmacy. It is a situation that many others understand and to which they relate. I have just swallowed, or in some cases chewed, inhaled or used 10 different preparations by 07:25 in the morning.

There was some considerable discussion about magnesium products, I have no knowledge of such preparations but I also noted a reference to Ramipril. I have had issues with that, I have had issues with several other blood pressure pills as well. It can cause throat, tongue and coughing issues, so I now use a different preparation. My wife had a rather more severe reaction during a procedure. Her tongue swelled causing complications as it compromised her breathing. She had her treatment changed to overcome the risk of a repeat performance and has had no further issues during any other procedures. I still have throat and coughing issues though they are due to a totally different cause.

Enough gloom and doom, take care, keep even and enjoy what life is throwing in your path.

 

[Ed P]

+1 to Richard’s comments about blood pressure medication. It is a very individual thing but many/most have quite malign side-effects. I suffered for a number of years trying out different medications to try and find one that I could tolerate. Having gone through the different families of blockers and raised yellow flags on them, I was finally put on an alpha blocker that seems to work without nearly killing me. Read the leaflets on side effects, and look on line, and do not be shy about complaining to your GP about side effects.

[Dave Rice]

Looks very much like my meds started. The blood pressure meds were reduced after 6 months as my blood pressure was too low. Ever since it’s been perfect.

The only day to day issue I have is very sensitive fingers, probably the statin. If you cut yourself be prepared to wait ages for it to stop. I don’t bruise easily but it definitely takes less than it did and they last for longer.

All of which I’m quite prepared to put up with 😀

[Wheels-Of-Fire]

I only listed the heart drugs. You can add the drugs below to my daily list 😁

Humulin injection 16 units morning 6 units evening

Vitamin B compound strong 2 tablets daily

Thiamine 100mg twice daily

Generic Creon 40,000 units 3 times a day

Lansoprazole 30mg twice daily

Phenoxymethylpenillin 250mg x2 twice daily

 

[Dave Rice]

I’ll bet the pharmacist loves you 😃

[Wheels-Of-Fire]

I was actually closer to death than I thought I was. When they dislodged a clot during the initial attempted angioplasty I went into cardiac shock and they put out a crash call. The big pads they stuck on me were for quick atatchment of a defibrilator but it never came to that. They nearly called a helecoptor to take me to harefield hospital but the adrenalin and heprin began to work after 30 min so they thought it was better not to move me.

All this stuff and more is in my release notes, they never told me at the time.

[Richard]

I can understand why they might not have told you there and then, apart from the fact that they were busy trying to avoid a rather less satisfactory situation. However, and I mean no offence by this statement, you might not have been fully able to take it all in at the time. Nor might you have wanted the additional information overload when just getting by was closer to what you, or at least your body was trying to achieve, one breath at a time. On balance, I suspect that they pretty much did what was essential, and achieved what was needed. You came out the other side of that tunnel  in rather better shape than might have been the case. That counts for a huge amount, in fact it is everything in my book.

[Ed P]

Glad you made it out the other side Graham. Look on it as a positive, life-saving/changing experience!

After I had a very mild heart attack a GP friend of mine told me that one of the frequent unexpected side effects of heart attacks in males is clinical depression. Instead to try and look at the experience in a positive manner, as getting on anti-depression medication was a sure-fire way to hell. (his words). Laughter is the best cure!

[Richard]

While I cannot say I have used it myself, in my experience anti-depression medication is widely misunderstood and not always well-used. It is not a solution, but if used correctly and in the correct formulation it can buy time for a depressive to clamber out of the hole into which they have been cast. However, there are many causes of depression, post medical trauma is only one. It may be more easily treated and be suitable for a range of treatments, e.g. ‘your look at the experience in a positive manner’. Can undoubtedly be the starter for a route back to better understanding and health.

Those with more deeply seated problems may require other treatments. Depression is widely misunderstood and in many cases a realisation that it is an almost automatic part of any medical trauma can almost instantly make the issue ease its grip. It usually opens a window through which positive futures can be seen. Good rehabilitation is key.

Last night my wife said after her two years of cancer treatment, during which she felt a bond with those she saw during treatment, she now feels at a loss. The intensity of action and the social contact with those sharing the adversity has been severely reduced, leaving a vacuum. I suspect that applies in similar form in many medical situations.

[Bob Williams]

Richard I completely understand your wife’s feeling of loss. Although I only experienced 7 months of chemo* myself, I also became attached to the people I met there. My theory is that I and my fellow ‘victims’ had entered the same “all in the same boat scenario” that I also experienced on active service. It’s exactly the same feeling that Blitz victims, WWI soldiers in the trenches, and other groups of people affected together by one set of pressures, face. It’s ‘Us against Them’ and it does cause a sense of loss when those people part and go their separate ways. I was lost for over 6 months when I came out of the Army and I still wonder how my fellow chemo and radio therapy companions are.

*Still having scans, still visiting consultants. Waiting for an appointment at Castle Hill, Hull after the last batch of scans, blood and urine samples. Trying not to speculate.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Richard]

Yes, whatever you do, avoid speculating it only brings worries. The appointments still go on, it is just that they are not so intense now. In fact, she has another in a week or so. This will be a six-month one I think, but there are others still in the pipeline for blood tests, injections for another four years and so on.

Because of Graham’s bother I did not speak of the other Christmas entertainments we had. On Christmas eve I was dropped off for a 7:00 a.m. appointment for a hip injection. I waited, gaining an idea where some NHS money goes. Patients were not prepared in time for the theatre, so for every one the operating theatre staff came up and to find their missing customer. I was finally ushered into the changing room, come store cupboard, come broken kit dumping area. I closed the curtain only to hear my name being called. The doctor/surgeon was so annoyed at the delays he came up in person to collect me. I had barely started to get changed. He was far from pleased, the theatre costs £20 per minute, so he said “you and I are paying for all this lost time“. I calculated that one morning had lost at least £1,400 of theatre time. Later, he saw me in recovery and dictated his letter. I received it in the mail a few days later. Sadly, the procedure was only diagnostic and has not worked, so back to the drawing board, but knowledge has been gained. I was barred from driving, signing contracts or anything else risky for 48 hours after the anaesthetic, so had a quiet Christmas time. Just as well, my wife’s issue then flared up. She has a throat pouch and was suffering severe refluxing. A trip to the locum GP produced a great treatment and within two hours relief swept in, much to her relief.

My sinus scan last Saturday went well, in and out again in just over half an hour, result.

Oh, one other upbeat note, I might have said in the past, our disabled daughter is on a foundation course. She has received an invitation to one of her choices of University for the end of the month. That might be looking up, supported living has really turned her round, she has also ditched the ‘boyfriend’ finally admitting that it was going nowhere.

[Bob Williams]

After a lot of adverse situations, the news regarding your daughter is good, Richard. I remember having BF issues with my daughter (30+ years ago). It took until her mid-thirties before she found the Prince, with a few Frogs along  the way. Sadly, one of the Frogs was eventually divorced, after leaving her in a freezing 200 year old cottage with a toddler (now 26) and in lots of debt. I removed the next Frog from the scene and sent him back to the bottom of the pond he crawled from. Too many bad choices, but I have liked her current man from the start, they have made a home and a family together. Probably because he is a man and not an excuse for a male human. He works hard and has worked with her to build the cottage into a large 3 bed home, at the end of a long drive and in beautiful Lincolnshire countryside. The value of their home has tripled and they should be proud.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Richard]

Sadly we cannot run our children’s lives, we can only stand on the sidelines and hope that wiser councils may one day prevail.

[Author]

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