I've just been diagnosed with angina I'm a 48 year old male

Good luck with the bypass Heather. It is a pretty routine procedure to them and most people recover very well from it. The very worst part is when a couple of Physios drag you from your bed on day two and take you for a walk. In my case it was down a long corridor and up two flights of stairs. They did have chair on each landing to let me rest. When I got back to bed sweat was pouring off me and I was gasping for breath.

One thing to ask your surgeon to do is to remove your left atrial appendage at the same time. This is the area where blood clots form and cause you to need anti coagulants.

Mine was not removed and I went into AF as about 30% of patients do with the danger of clots forming.

To remove the risk this year (five years later) I paid to have an Amplatzer Amulut fitted, a filter that prevents clots from escaping and stops the need for the drugs.

Thanks Derek I shall make a note of this!

This is even more important to me as I was one of the unfortunate people who had a Stroke after my Angiogram, luckily I don't have much long term damage but I do have some.

I believe that as I was taking asprin for the Angina this prevented the clot causing more damage.

I now take Clopidogrel daiy (although have stoped prior to surgery)

I'll speak to the Dr on Tuesday/Wed and see what they say.

Thanks also for the reassurance I try not to think about it even though I know it is relatively routine. Hx

I worry about little things but with major ones that are out of my hands I put my faith in the pilot or in this case the surgeon. The porter wheeling me to the operating theatre said that I was the calmest patient that he had ever had. I said that given the choice I would sooner that he was taking me up the road to the race course.

When I was in one patient was out in three days and another in six. I was there for eleven as I went into AF and had to have a cardioversion that did not work first time. I also had fluid in a lung that had to be drained off. For that I had a tube leading to a jar to collect it. I also had an ECG monitor attached to me for the AF and had a suprapubic catheter in attached to a bag as I had a prostate infection when I went in and they could not get a normal catheter past my enlarged prostate. That all slowed my recovery down as it was nearly impssible to walk around carrying all that.  

Mandy4711 please don't worry about the test,I honestly didn't feel a thing,it's just a warm feeling as they put the dye through,it's actually quite nice be positive you will be fine,I was worried at first but there are lots of different things they can do with angina now,I've got a few more tests to go hope all goes well with you

Anthony

I presume that you mean a stress echocardogram where they inject a drug to speed up your heart. I think that the dye used now causes much less in the way of side effects than the old ones. When I had it they had a doctor on stand by just in case as I had reported a reaction to the previous dye. As they told me when doing it you are in the safest place in the world and our job is to keep your heart beating.

Hi mandy,

I was like you with the panic attacks / anxiety and agoraphobia, I had suffered a long time with them, I suffered panic / anxiety  for 26 years, I still have the agoraphobia, although I can travel short distances with someone with me.You get to know the difference between panic attacks and real chest pain, I know that panic chest pain feels real, don't get me wrong, but angina or heart pain actually does feel different in the way it comes on and presents.

I don't want to put a damper on things, but I could be wrong, the test you are talking about you still have to walk on a treadmill with that drug they inject, Although when I had my stress test several years ago a person in a wheel chair had to have one as well and I overheard the words " do we just inject the drug" I think they use a different kind of one for whee chairl bound patients, but don't hold me to that.

Also I'm curious when they did blood tests at the emergency department did they repeat your troponin blood test  ? reason I ask is for some unknown reason, on my part, private labs that test troponins aren't as precise as hospitals testing equipment, actually I was only reading this the other day, if it says you had high troponins then you most likely did but how high, get what I'm trying to say ?

Also, apart from the symptoms in your chest and breathlesness, sorry I haven't read any further down past your comment as yet. Have they done a blood test for blood clots, more precisely have they looked for a pulmonary embolism in your case ?

One stress echocardiogram test I had was on a tricycle and with the drug injected.

Did you notice this heading?

https://patient.info/doctor/exercise-tolerance-testing-pro

 

Hi derek,

Thankyou for that info, I'm unable to do an exercise stress test completely myself, I'm not wheel chair bound, I had to still go on the treadmill but at walking pace as I had the drug injected, I just wasn't sure about how they went for the disabled, I had an inkling they may of had some kind of eqiupment, although I've wondered about people that have no use of their legs, etc. I suppose in a situation like that there would be other tests available.

Hi samuels,

My Troponin level was 39 and they did test it again at the hospital and said it was still slightly high but that's it. I've not been tested for blood clots or anything else. If I hadn't had the first blood test none of this would be happening but if something is wrong at least it has been picked up on now. I only went to the Drs as thought I should quit smoking and this has all stemmed from there. Trouble is with the added stress I'm finding it hard to stop smoking now as only thing that calms me down but it's one thing I know I must stop. 

Thank you Derek76, 

i will read this and hopefully it will put my mind at rest or at least I will know what to expect.

I suppose the stress test is to tell them if an angiogram or heart CT scan is needed. In my case the stress tests gave a false positive each time.

If the stress test gave false positive results then why do they do it this test. I have heard that they can scan your heart so surely that would be more reliable and less stressful. If i refuse the test i think he wil get annoyed but no harm in asking to see if it is really needed. 

I've had three ( between 2003 and 2011) and all produced a false positive and then had angiograms.

The tests indicated that my heart was not getting enough oxygen so that made them think blocked arteries.

The CT scan If they would do it also involves a dye.

Hi mandy,

Yeah 39 isn't really a worrying number it's still in the grey area for heart attack, Cardiologist prick their ears up when it's 50 and above, even though the troponin is heart specific other causes can raise it as well like kidneys and you're probably going to hate me for saying this pulmonary embolisms cause chest pain and raised troponins. here's how I know.

I went to our emergency department with my usual prinzmetal angina pain no longer being relieved by GTN I also had told the paramedics about my left leg being swollen and sore to walk on, not sore to the touch only to walk on. I just assumed my extra breathlesness was due to my angina and 38 years worth of smoking, I have tried several times and have also fallen during high stress periods. Now this is the interesting part, the left leg that I thought I'd strained a muscle in, the triage nurse said to me she is more concerned about my leg than my chest pain, I was seen straight away and my normal trop test was done and the doctor also ordered what they call a D dimer blood test (tests for clots ) he also was of the opinion it was a muscle strain but ordered the test just in case. An hour and the results came back, The doc said well mate I'm going to have to eat my words in regards to the clot test as he was pretty confident it would come back negative, troponin was 39, D dimer was positive, I was admitted for the night and had to have a contrast CT Scan next morning, results of that test came back as lots of blood clots in both lungs. Apparently that pulled muscle I thought I had was a DVT and bits broke off and travelled into my lungs. there a several things that can cause pulmonary embolisms.

Just thought I would share my story as it was a total shock for me, go in with my usual chest pain and they go finding something else .....lol

They can just do a drug induced one. That was what I was down to have last time but on the day it was drug and bike for some reason.

They did admit at the end of it that it was probably a false positive.

It was a 17 week wait to have it done and another 10 weeks before the angiogram.

Mandy if you can't do the stress test then the next test (I think) is the angiogram which does come with risks. I was one of the small % who had a stroke afterwards.

While I appreciate your concerns death will  be the outcome whether by natural causes or because of the procedures.

I really do understand your concerns but you can't have it all ways - they need to carry out the tests to find out what is wrong, if not you will continue to live the life you do and with all the medical conditions.

Life doesn't come with guarentees, I am sorry to sound hard but I have had an awful year health wise but know that I could have continued to live as I had before with the chances of an early death.

Only you can decide what to do but I am afraid none of the choices are risk free.

Her first test is to stop smoking. She will be surprised at the difference it makes to her life and the money it saves.

 

Totally agree derek76,

Giving up smoking is hard but ive now got the Nicotine patches to help me quit .

Reading this they evidently should not have done mine as my aortic valve was 75% closed.

https://patient.info/doctor/exercise-tolerance-testing-pro

 

Think what you can do with the money saved. I went to Hong Kong on holiday and then to Zimbabwe and that was when they were just £4 a packet.

You need to stop as they often will not operate on smokers and you can't lie as they pick it up on blood tests.

I am determined to stop and im sure i can. If i really put my mind to something i usually succeed. I used to be an Alcoholic drinking a t a bottle of vodka a day and this did nearly kil me as Liver specialist said that if i didnt stop drinking i had 6 months to live. As i was Agoraphobic i didnt want to go to rehab so i cut the bottle of vodka down by a quarter each day and in 4 days i was of drink, No withdrawals or anything and have not touched alcohol in over 8 years now.

I am due to go to Spain in September but worried if i will still be able to go now and i cant get Travel insurance as everywhere ive tried say that as i have not been diagnosed they wont insure me and i cannot afford to lose all the money we have paid for this holiday. Im hoping that i can still go but i will not risk my health by going as not worth it.

Well done on stopping Vodka.

In theory you are covered for emergency treatment with your E111 in Spain.The problem is Spanish ambulances only know the way to private clinics:-)