As we all get inevitably older............

[Scooter]

Just checking back in with a cautionary tale, a cathartic post but perhaps also one that can give someone reading this some future helpful info or a nudge to maybe do something, make a positive move, or some other motivational bollocks 

So 6 months after selling the Supra, and settling with the BMW's and a crappy V70 commuter, I went and had a heart attack in May ( the day after the Northern Lights were visible, when I was still only 50).  It wasn't a cardiac arrest situation, really quite undramatic and so I just wanted to spread the word that feeling a bit funny/faint/exhausted (I was exercising abnormally hard) seemingly recovering ok but having a lingering dull ache (like indigestion) is worth a quick A&E visit or 999 call. You can be checked very quickly for an irregular ECG, you won't be waiting for hours to be seen.

Time is crucial and delays damaging to various degrees (not sure what would have happened if I could have dropped off to sleep that night), so I now have one stent, and am on quite a few pills, but you wouldn't know to look at me anything has ever happened, hell I don't even feel bad now at all. I just get 'puffy' quicker when exercising, because of some heart muscle damage (delay of perhaps 8 hours in treatment - hence spreading the word) and a now reduced "ejection fraction" my pump is worn! but I am at least cleared/free to do that and so really it's had some positive outcomes as well.

So just keep an eye on the people you know or refresh yourself on warning signs and encourage anyone when appropriate to just get checked to be on the safe side, as with early intervention this sort of thing can be an 'almost' non event, certainly treatable with drugs and non invasive surgery, or it can lead to the worst outcome.

To lighten the mood, I have full on lost the plot and treated myself to another 6 series a 635D (pick it up Friday) to replace the V70 as life's too short right!

Take care everyone (and get out and bloody drive those Supra's! saw a lovely one at Littlehampton McDonalds the other weekend and that's the first one I've seen in ages)

 

Edited October 9 by Scooter (see edit history)

[mwilkinson]

Bloody he'll Scott, scary stuff!

I'm very glad to hear you're OK after the heart attack and still checking in on the club.

No niggle to get a Supra again? 

[rider]

As someone who is fast hurtling towards State pension age I have been doing some research around when is the best time to retire, close down the business, draw the various pensions etc.. The WHO have tables for countries on their mortality ages and also the age you can expect to attain in good health, before an enduring or life changing medical condition emerges. For the average UK male, the healthy years number just 63.

Health is priceless, so much so that I started buying private medical insurance 5 years ago and as a family policy it has already been used for an incidence of cancer care. Doesn't matter if you go NHS or private, you often will see the same consultant, only a lot quicker on private. For those who can afford it and over 50 I'd recommend taking out private medical as you have to pass a two year probationary period before claiming if you enter a policy with no prior medical conditions. Some will say it's an unfair advantage, even queue jumping but when it comes to gaining treatment for a family member I personally couldn't give a f what people may think. 

As Scott says. it pays to self monitor. You can buy monitoring equipment very cheaply, everyone should invest in a £30 blood pressure machine for starters. I do hope your recovery goes well after the health scare and I know these things usually come from the blind side.

[mc92]

Heart attacks have a lot of symptoms in common with less serious issues, which is the trouble. My dad had a fairly bad one when he was about 60 due to being inactive/overweight but was still able to enjoy his retirement with the medications and lifestyle changes even if he couldn't do much physical stuff. At least you haven't had too bad of an outcome all things considered.

 

I'm still daily driving your old NA (for 9 years??) but I've been considering getting a banger for winter recently...

[Scooter]

13 hours ago, mwilkinson said:

Bloody he'll Scott, scary stuff!

I'm very glad to hear you're OK after the heart attack and still checking in on the club.

No niggle to get a Supra again? 

I do keep looking at Supra's, but I just have this value for money aspect ingrained in me! and having been an owner all through the unbelievable value and performance years I now see the high prices and no longer the pinnacle of performance as a difficult equation to justify. 

The BMW's currently hitting the VFM spot for me (purchase price wise at least) reliability is definitely not so great!

I'm lucky it wasn't scary at the time, I could have walked onto the ambulance, always just chatting to the paramedics, no distress, drowsy but not totally out during the procedure, lady doctor even showed me the clot when she'd got it out and also the before and after blood flow to prove her good work! 

The outcome/future and 'what if' part is a bit more of the issue, but I have a 80+ year old uncle that also had a heart attack around my age, so that and that when in there they didn't find lots of arterial narrowing, that I've been on a physio rehab course and am free to exercise, means I'm positive and as Rider says it could be something else.

It's just one of life's curve balls we all get in some form or other. 

[Scooter]

12 hours ago, mc92 said:

Heart attacks have a lot of symptoms in common with less serious issues, which is the trouble. My dad had a fairly bad one when he was about 60 due to being inactive/overweight but was still able to enjoy his retirement with the medications and lifestyle changes even if he couldn't do much physical stuff. At least you haven't had too bad of an outcome all things considered.

 

I'm still daily driving your old NA (for 9 years??) but I've been considering getting a banger for winter recently...

9 years, time flies, glad you still have it and hope it's not been too much hassle.......my due diligence buying that one (sight unseen from Ireland) wasn't the best!  

[MaveriK]

Glad you are ok, must have been a worry for the family.

My friend had a heart attack many years ago, the doctor told him that many people have a heart attacks and dont realise, symptoms milder than yours.

A wise ex girlfriend of mine said "life is not a rehersal", i have tried to stay true to that, sometimes failing dreadfully.

[Scooter]

12 hours ago, rider said:

As someone who is fast hurtling towards State pension age I have been doing some research around when is the best time to retire, close down the business, draw the various pensions etc.. The WHO have tables for countries on their mortality ages and also the age you can expect to attain in good health, before an enduring or life changing medical condition emerges. For the average UK male, the healthy years number just 63.

Health is priceless, so much so that I started buying private medical insurance 5 years ago and as a family policy it has already been used for an incidence of cancer care. Doesn't matter if you go NHS or private, you often will see the same consultant, only a lot quicker on private. For those who can afford it and over 50 I'd recommend taking out private medical as you have to pass a two year probationary period before claiming if you enter a policy with no prior medical conditions. Some will say it's an unfair advantage, even queue jumping but when it comes to gaining treatment for a family member I personally couldn't give a f what people may think. 

As Scott says. it pays to self monitor. You can buy monitoring equipment very cheaply, everyone should invest in a £30 blood pressure machine for starters. I do hope your recovery goes well after the health scare and I know these things usually come from the blind side.

Thanks Rider, I honestly consider myself very lucky and feel fine really, just aware of my mortality more and frankly everyone else I know. Many have said that if they had to guess who might have one in our peer group  I wouldn't have been high up on the list, personally I think Diet/Sugar and Hereditary factors and perhaps years of low activity then overdoing it on this one occasion? But when I read about recovery online, there are fit people in their 30's having them.

I had my 3 month follow up with the cardiologist the other week and other than popping pills they don't perceive the need, at this stage, to monitor me after the year is out and again positive.

Sounds like you are doing a lot of planning, tricky decision to make, sounds like you could retire tomorrow though! but it's always a balance and have to do the right thing for you 

[Scooter]

3 minutes ago, MaveriK said:

Glad you are ok, must have been a worry for the family.

My friend had a heart attack many years ago, the doctor told him that many people have a heart attacks and dont realise, symptoms milder than yours.

A wise ex girlfriend of mine said "life is not a rehersal", i have tried to stay true to that, sometimes failing dreadfully.

Cheers, I did have those give up work (stress also a factor), take a year out discussions, but there are responsibilities and the bills don't pay themselves, but I going to make sure I keep an eye on things and put myself first more, take breaks when I need to etc. You can't live your life like todays your last day all the time but I agree with the sentiment of that quote and you can perhaps tweak things, bring stuff forward, procrastinate less etc.

[mc92]

6 hours ago, Scooter said:

9 years, time flies, glad you still have it and hope it's not been too much hassle.......my due diligence buying that one (sight unseen from Ireland) wasn't the best!  

It's only broken down properly once in all that time (the harmonic damper fell off this summer) though I have been proactive in replacing parts as they wear out.

I still like it, Supras are cool.

[Scooter]

Yep so glad I took the plunge with my first way back in 1999!  Such a trustworthy dependable and capable car, back in 2001, still in my 20's and having a 160 mph run down an airstrip, trips to Santa pod, when there was little on the roads to match the Supra, RX7 and Skyline crowd, times I'll never forget and money very well spent!

[Dnk]

Glad your ok, by accident last year I found out I had crazy high blood pressure, that bad I was told to go straight across the road 

from the pharmacy to my doctors to get checked out. Now on Ramipril 10mg and huge change in lifestyle, mainly diet.

Blood pressures nigh on normal for a 63 year old and I've gone from 103kg to 85kg, without joining a gym. 

Blood tests came back all good recently and Cholesterol was lower 

Down side is I need new trousers but the upside is shirts that I squeezed into now fit 

I'm also looking at a new car but struggle to get past searching their faults then crossing it off my list 

[Scooter]

I had high blood pressure too and was at the "shall we do statins" chat point. I am on Ramipril now, 7started at 2.5mg now on 7.5mg and working up to 10mg, as they are testing be kidney function with each 2.5mg uplift. 

Massive well done on the exercise and weight loss, I've been trying to cut out as much sugar as possible, my only real vice or where I've been bad in my life. Barely drink no smoking, not huge (always been around 88kg), just need to keep active, office jobs are killers for this, but the dogs are great! 

If this thread even gets someone to buy a cheap blood pressure monitor it'll have done some good, there are so many medicines and other advice/help to get this down as it's a big contributing factor. 

Re the car, I'd say just buy something! everything has it's faults, just buy with your heart and then research the best independent garages nearby      

If you don't know what to get chose one and buy it privately as close to the WBAC price as you can so you can exit to another at a reasonable cost.

Had my 'new' 635D a few days now and it's impressed me and is ridiculous vfm, like the Supra's used to be.........I have looked at their faults too but I'll cross that bridge etc!

[Dnk]

First thing I did was get a BP monitor followed by the crash course with my diet, that's the hardest part when you start looking at

what your eating, fats and saturated fat etc etc. I don't eat butter anymore along with pasties and pies and a full English is a rare treat.

I quit smoking 10 + years ago but my biggest vice now is booze which I'm struggling to get anywhere near the guideline of 15 units a week 

 

 

 

[Scooter]

It's good to try and cut down for sure but I 'think' the booze isn't as high a factor as the other other stuff. 

I likened my situation to a sewer 'fat bomb' where a narrowing naturally becomes the place for more deposits to gather hence the narrowing and where a clot will lodge. It was interest that the discharge nurse said they still don't really know why/in exactly what circumstances this occurs/initiates but " Before a heart attack, 1 of the plaques bursts (ruptures), causing a blood clot to develop at the site of the rupture" basically your body responds to the 'cut' and does it's clotting thing automatically, which isn't so helpful when it's an Artery!  

I have no idea of the cost of this sort of thing, but this was basically what they did to me, and everywhere else was relatively fine, but I'm sure if I'd have had this routine (but no doubt pricey!) procedure ahead of time it would have been spotted and I could have been stented pre potential attack? 

https://www.hcahealthcare.co.uk/tests-and-scans/coronary-angiogram?infinity=ict2~net~gaw~cmp~BAU - LDN SL - Cardiology - Category A~ag~Coronary Angiogram~ar~698187455004~kw~private angiogram~mt~e&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwpbi4BhByEiwAMC8JnYWptrsTPXjd84DUMuu3y2bvNrfWbGt1BdQDx3zoG9RO9OACoBXb8BoC1WUQAvD_BwE

 

Only saying this for general info, as I was semi ignorant of it all, not you specifically I'm sure you are fine, meds and lifestyle changes are crucial which you've taken seriously, did they advise aspirin also for you?

[Dnk]

Agree with the angiogram and think I was pretty ignorant until my BP was done, i rarely go to a doctors so this was a bit of a wake up call. 

Had a full B service done inc bowl cancer etc tests and all clear at the moment. Doctor just said cut out/down the obvious and popped me on 

the Ramipril. Didn't mention Asprin

Edited 9 hours ago by Dnk (see edit history)

[rider]

A side note is that there are many columns and journals citing that those who experienced Covid infection have gone on to see a significant rise in heart issues and also many citing that the vaccines themselves have been a cause for the rise in heart issues. The latter was always shunned by governments, pharma and MSM but have been gaining increasing scrutiny over the last 2 years. Data has suggested that those who received the Moderna vaccine have been most affected.

It seems that if you caught Covid your chances of heart issues increased and if you were administered vaccines that didn't in the end provide any immunity to Covid then your chances of heart issues also increased. Over half a million excess deaths are now recorded every year in the UK since Covid hit, often heart related. Heart attacks in the under 50's have risen by a third. So it may not be all down to salt and sugar and exercise.