OT/ How many are cardiac challenged?

Byuphoto

Byuphoto

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This was as a result of reading Joes post about his health and it made me start wondering about others. i had mine in July of 2002 while in Sao Paulo, Brazil. I had a Deep Vascular Thrombosis or in other words a blood clot. It cut off the supply of blood to my heart and killed 30% of it. My arteries and valves were fine, probably why I survived, So I did not require stints or surgery. I stayed in the hospitol there for 2 weeks and had a emergency Air-vac to lift me home. I rode in a Lear jet all the way to my VA hospital.
My cholesterol is fine and I take Liptor an ACE inhibitor and a beta blocker. The next recourse will be eventual heart transplant.
Anyone else want to share there cardiac experience?
 
byu: I had congestive failure in October 2002. One artery in the heart was completely blocked, two others a bit of blockage, but other capillaries had grown to compensate some. I'm on exactly the same medication as you, and am doing fine except my energy level isn't as high as I'd like. But that's partly due to needing to drop a few pounds and get more exercise.

When I was having the angiogram to discover exactly what was going on, the doc agreed with self-medication consisting of salmon and a couple of glasses of pinot noir every night, so I approved him to proceed, especially since he was a fan of my favourite winery, too boot. So far so good.

Trius
 
I have been dealing with HBP for a couple years now and this summer was given a formal diagnosis of Hypertrophic CardioMyopathy. A very mild case as my cardiologist has seen so far (I will see him again in December) but a little concerning. In most cases this condition does not effect the quality or length of life at all, but in the extreme, well, remember Reggie Lewis of the Celtics and Hank Gathers of Loyola Marymount?
 
Hey, I was the Mr. Hustle at the summer camp I attended when I was a kid, the top individual honor. May I also mention that I lead my team to the championship that year.

I think I was 11 or so, and I haven't grown an inch since then, so my basketball career stalled a while ago.
 
rover said:
Hey, I was the Mr. Hustle at the summer camp I attended when I was a kid, the top individual honor. May I also mention that I lead my team to the championship that year.

I think I was 11 or so, and I haven't grown an inch since then, so my basketball career stalled a while ago.
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I don't think this qualifies as a cardiac challenge;-)
 
Byuphoto said:
I don't think this qualifies as a cardiac challenge;-)
Click to expand...

That was 30ish years ago. My cardiologist has formally reduced my sports endevors to those which are non-competative. I have not figured out what that means yet.
 
No heart attack, but one stent, a couple of CHF episodes and moderate Cardiomyopathy, probably the result of too many years of undiagnosed Hypertension and let's not ever forget.... Much use of tobacco.
 
Mine's an odd one. I'm an underweight non-smoker, but at age 40 I caught flu, which led to pneumonia, and that attacked and weakened my heart over about three months, finally getting me a hospital stay.
My first echocardiogram showed an ejection "fraction" of 14%. It has all been managed with medication, but the exact cause was never completely clear--most likely viral (rather than bacterial or mycoplasma) pneumonia.
This was Feb '93 and I'm still kickin' (and surfin').
 
I don't have any cardiacs. I guess I'm cardiac-challenged?

In a society where you have to seek out to exercise rather than having walking being implicitly encouraged, I'm rather concerned myself that if I don't seek to walk for at least half an hour a week (which is absolutely laughable to anybody reading this outside the U.S., I'm sure) I will have to consider going to a gym. Funny how I feel healthier when I'm overseas.

It's expensive being healthy! How many Big Macs can you buy for the price of a good organic meal?

Let's not feel guilty, but let's be more conscious. We're all at risk; even children are having HBP problems. Also think about how your Congressman/woman is voting for pork not supporting your local farmers and instead uberfood conglomerates.

The other one is: let's all chill out. Relax. I've been suffering from hypertension all my life. All things considered, that's nothing compared to the other causes which are beyond anybody's control. But stress may be one that we can all control. That's the one thing that I love about this forum. People don't go off on personal attacks; things can be said and debated and in general the community keeps a cool head.

I would even say that, even though RFF gives you GAS, RFF may be good for your heart!
 
i doubt that my heart attack was stress induced but how would i be able to tell?

i'm 55 and even when i was younger and worked out and was in good shape i ate whatever i wanted, drank too much (for a few years) and smoked cigs and then cigars (inhaled too).

now, things need to change some...

joe
 
My ol' man died from an acute MI at age 45, so I couple that with my heart murmur from Rhumatic fever at age 2; I count every day as a blessing (I'm almost 10 years past the ol' man's age at passing). I strive to live each day as if it might be the last - Carpe Diem (grab a carp?) LOL. 😀
 
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I think it's important to distinguish between medical challenges that you are born with, and ones that you aquire through diet/lifestyle.

My medics tell me however, the way to avoid heart attacks, they call them "cardio-vascular events", is :-

to avoid, or have corrected, restrictions to bloodflow. (clots, stents, cholesterol, by-pass, etc)

to maintain a strong heart muscle

to maintain BP within limits

apparently much of this can be acheived by :-

maintaining a target BMI (body mass index)

an appropriate diet (low-ish fat, med carb, med prot, close portion size control)

frequent regular, reasonably sustained, exercise at a slightly raised respiration rate.

I'm told if you do that you can last a long, long, time whether you've had a heart attack or not.
 
I guess I'm pretty fortunate as I'm in generally good health. I walk a lot when there is no snow on the ground (had a 32 mile week when the weather was nice). Besides, my 6 year old has big plans for me - he wants me to hike the Pacific Crest Trail with him when he's in his early twenties (I told him he needs to wait until his bones are fully mature). I sure hope that I'm up for a 2,658 mile hike when I'm in my early 60's! But he's trying to get me into shape - he took me on a 6 mile hike this summer (he's one tough kid!).

Take care of yourselves, guys!
Robert
 
Thankfully no, however given that my dad passed on from cancer earlier this year, I am quite diligent with my workout regime (25min cardio on an elliptical trainer and an hour's worth of weight training) which is plugging the holes in the dyke metaphoricly speaking and making me look 8 to 10 years younger than my 37 years.

Bill
 
Well, I had a triple bypass about three and a half years ago. So far no problems according to my cardiologist. Since I also have type II diabetes, I try ( not as successfully as I would wish ) to exercise and watch weight. Actually I have been too successful watching weight, but am trying to get it back down. :bang:

I am trying to walk more and run a little, and slowly am starting my martial arts stretching again. Who knows, I may even get back into that. I need it.

Truely something we all need to watch. It can slip us on us so quickly without warning. At least it has on me.

Joe, you are the most recent ( that I know of ) to fall. Seems all is going well with you though. Hope you keep it that way. Hang in there. Everyone else watch out and stay healthy!
 
Well, since i'm a bit overweight, smoke and do litle or no exercise, i'm tops on the risk group. I do a heart checkup every year and so far no problems. I'm tring to do a 1h walk ervery day ... i'm doing so for the past 3 months.... Now i can walk 4 Km every morning without problems ... maybe i'll start to run also 🙂.
P.S.: My father did had an heart attack a year ago, its ok now ... after a triple bypass and quit smoking.
 
How many people actually use phrases like cardiac challenged?

Dick
 
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