Mended Hearts Open Forum

Hi Everyone
My name is John, I just want to share my recovery journey both concern and progress ....it has been 8 months since I had my surprise Quads bypass surgery, I am 51 yrs old active not overweight 5'11- 190 Lb, I presume from bad eating habits and stress  since I've been always a non smoker and doesn't drink alcohol or do drugs and don't know if my family have any heart history issue.  My journey has been a bit crazy, as i was the last person expecting at 50yrs I will have a heart surgery, so it did hit me pretty hard at first, but then, I went from fear, anger, why me?, minor depression,  to hey I am alive and god has given me a second chance with some new heart veins to take care of, so what you going to do about it?   so first I changed my diet ,which wasn't that bad during the last 5 yrs to 95% vegetarian and twice a week fish, including 15 mins morning meditation, more mindfullness and breathing than humming kind :) of stuff,  exercise 40mins cardio and 30 mins light weight training at least 5-6 days per week. It is not easy to tell you the truth,  I have good days and bad days, my medication will make my  head spin and major dizziness mostly everyday, my meds consist of (bisoprolol in the morning 7 am, Clopidogrel and baby aspirin at 10:00am, Rosuvastatin, and blood pressure meds before bed time. My chest sometime will hurt  especially the skin around the sternum, but my doctor told me it's muscle but it does scare the crap out of me still. Have anyone experience that?
my dizziness could be the side effect of the meds especially ,if I get up suddenly from sitting or if I bend down to pick something these motions will make me feel very dizzy and I will have to sometime lean on something because I will see dark. I share this with you, so I can know if there is anyone active or athletic  experiencing what i am going through or just anyone who want to share their journey. trust me no matter how little it does help

Thank you and god bless

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Rasheed Joe
CEO
Onsyte
Toronto ON
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Hi John,

Welcome to the club.  I survived a heart attack and emergency quintuple bypass surgery four years ago when I was 67.  I have been and still am a lifelong athletic person.  I had no prior symptoms, but did have medically controlled hypertension and my father had a heart attack when he was the same age as me, so it wasn't a total shock.  By the way, he never had a second heart attack and died at 92 from Alzheimer's.  Personally, I would prefer to die a few years earlier from a second heart attack, but I digress.

It sounds to me as though your current symptoms are perfectly normal and very similar to what I experienced in my first year post-surgery.  You do need to be really, really careful about the lightheadedness so that, unlike me, you don't wind up passing out, cracking your skull and getting CT scanned at the hospital to ensure that you didn't suffer a brain bleed.  That happened to me right about eight months post-surgery.  My guess is that the lightheadedness is a result of your blood pressure medication dosage and that you need to discuss this with your cardiologist.  Especially now that you've transformed your diet, you may need a lower dosage.  I also suggest you buy a home blood pressure monitor and check your pressure each day, especially an hour or so after you've taken your blood pressure meds.  These home devices aren't the most accurate things, but they're better than nothing and, if you take your pressure enough, the results tend to average out and give you a decent idea about whether you're too low or too high.

Like you, I also had some muscle pain in the chest area for a while, and then it went away, never to return.  Around three months post-surgery, I resumed strength training several times a week, including bodyweight exercises and heavy weigh training (light compared to when I was in my prime but heavy for a now 71 year old).  I also walk and/or cycle every day, weather permitting here in the Northeast.

Good luck healing, and please keep us posted.

Ira

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Ira Reid
Hoboken NJ
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Hi Ira,

Thank you, for your sense of humor and advice. This is very encouraging to know that I not alone on this journey.

Thank you

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Rasheed Joe
CEO
Onsyte
Toronto ON
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 01-31-2022 06:53
From: Ira Reid
Subject: Med dizziness and muscle pain

Hi John,

Welcome to the club.  I survived a heart attack and emergency quintuple bypass surgery four years ago when I was 67.  I have been and still am a lifelong athletic person.  I had no prior symptoms, but did have medically controlled hypertension and my father had a heart attack when he was the same age as me, so it wasn't a total shock.  By the way, he never had a second heart attack and died at 92 from Alzheimer's.  Personally, I would prefer to die a few years earlier from a second heart attack, but I digress.

It sounds to me as though your current symptoms are perfectly normal and very similar to what I experienced in my first year post-surgery.  You do need to be really, really careful about the lightheadedness so that, unlike me, you don't wind up passing out, cracking your skull and getting CT scanned at the hospital to ensure that you didn't suffer a brain bleed.  That happened to me right about eight months post-surgery.  My guess is that the lightheadedness is a result of your blood pressure medication dosage and that you need to discuss this with your cardiologist.  Especially now that you've transformed your diet, you may need a lower dosage.  I also suggest you buy a home blood pressure monitor and check your pressure each day, especially an hour or so after you've taken your blood pressure meds.  These home devices aren't the most accurate things, but they're better than nothing and, if you take your pressure enough, the results tend to average out and give you a decent idea about whether you're too low or too high.

Like you, I also had some muscle pain in the chest area for a while, and then it went away, never to return.  Around three months post-surgery, I resumed strength training several times a week, including bodyweight exercises and heavy weigh training (light compared to when I was in my prime but heavy for a now 71 year old).  I also walk and/or cycle every day, weather permitting here in the Northeast.

Good luck healing, and please keep us posted.

Ira

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Ira Reid
Hoboken NJ
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