Any survivors on here, cardiac arrest, heart attack, cancer....
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ColinJ
Puzzle game procrastinator!
- Location
- Todmorden - Yorks/Lancs border
PaulSB
Squire
- Location
- Chorley, Lancashire
I think I have been lucky. The general opinion amongst the medical staff is fitness levels and cycling in particular have played a big part in avoiding more serious consequences. I don't think there is a long term doubt about returning to riding just how best to do this.
As for the club, yes we do proudly claim no one gets left behind!!! Myself and others have on many occasions shepherded people home. We always wait and set a pace to help a struggler.
So what went wrong? It was a big group, 23, we had lost our leader early on to a mechanical. One guy took up lantern rouge duties and I rode with him to the cafe. I was last to set off from the cafe as I was buggering about with my helmet straps. This happened about 0.5 miles from cafe after we had two sets of lights, a left and a right turn and traffic.
In our bigger groups experienced riders are constantly moving up and down so not seeing someone for several miles is not unusual.
As I started to feel rubbish two newbies I had caught up and was leading to the group passed me. They rejoined the group and I think they simply didn't tell anyone.
All the experienced riders have apologised profusely, some clearly upset, and I've had lots of support from club mates overall. The committee, of which I'm one, are looking at ride rules to avoid a repetition.
As for the club, yes we do proudly claim no one gets left behind!!! Myself and others have on many occasions shepherded people home. We always wait and set a pace to help a struggler.
So what went wrong? It was a big group, 23, we had lost our leader early on to a mechanical. One guy took up lantern rouge duties and I rode with him to the cafe. I was last to set off from the cafe as I was buggering about with my helmet straps. This happened about 0.5 miles from cafe after we had two sets of lights, a left and a right turn and traffic.
In our bigger groups experienced riders are constantly moving up and down so not seeing someone for several miles is not unusual.
As I started to feel rubbish two newbies I had caught up and was leading to the group passed me. They rejoined the group and I think they simply didn't tell anyone.
All the experienced riders have apologised profusely, some clearly upset, and I've had lots of support from club mates overall. The committee, of which I'm one, are looking at ride rules to avoid a repetition.
As always, it is wise to follow the advice of the doctors. IME, in both cases where I had heart work done, the (different) consultants were keen for me to moving asap after the operations. Although I haven't ever had a heart attack (AFAIK), I've had CABG (3 arteries) and, 10 years later, angioplasty (2 stents), both after breathlessness episodes. After the CABG, I was encouraged to get walking asap and was back up to pervious leg-only exercise levels within 3 weeks (arm, chest etc. exercise was still a bit sore due to the hacking about they do to the sternum in CABG surgery). With the angioplasty, I was told to get back to gym work after a week and then get back to previous exercise levels, including cycling, after 2 weeks. I actually exceeded these levels easily because the heart was operating much better than before. The only long term issue after the angioplasty was that I was on Plavix for year and I would bruise if a fly landed on me. I've not had any replumbing done since then (and haven't felt the need to). Any cycling performance problems that I have now seem to be due my heart's electrics being a bit iffy and, of course, the inevitable aging process.
D
Deleted member 1258
Guest
Glad you're doing OK, the best thing is to talk to your doctor about riding again and be guided by them, when you do start riding again make sure you warm up properly especially when its cold, and if you feel uncomfortable for any reason slow down or stop and give yourself a little time to settle down.
ColinJ
Puzzle game procrastinator!
- Location
- Todmorden - Yorks/Lancs border
Although I have made a good recovery from my problems, the lingering legacy is that I now take an awfully long time to warm up. I can get very out of breath riding slowly up even a 4-5% slope early in a ride, whereas later I can tackle much steeper climbs riding more quickly, without major difficulty. I'm not sure what causes that but it is disconcerting.
D
Deleted member 1258
Guest
I haven't had ay problems with chest pain since I had the stents fitted, but not warming up on a cold day can cause twinges.
Effyb4
Veteran
I'm glad you sought help. I found cycling a big help in my rehabilitation after heart attack and cabgx2. I suggest you take it very easy to begin with and listen to what your body is telling you. Do you have any heart damage? I have heart failure following my heart attack and this means I can't go very fast and find hills difficult, but I can cycle up to 50 miles in a day. I know people without heart damage manage much longer distances and higher speeds.
slowmotion
Quite dreadful
- Location
- lost somewhere
You'll be fine. Your sternum will feel pretty rough for the first few days but they will give you some pretty potent painkillers for that. Then it's just a matter of doing all the things that the doctors etc say. I got the all clear to get back on the bike after about two months, without any restrictions from my cardiologist about how far or hard I should ride.I really shouldn't be reading this thread after being diagnosed with angina and going for bypass surgery next week
If it wasn't for taking up cycling last year I would of carried on ignoring the pains until it was probably to late
Even on the first ride, I felt a whole lot stronger than at any time since I was thirty (and that's a long time ago!). Quite miraculous really.
Best of luck.
Perhaps it is due to the cadence? I mentioned to my arrhythmia nurse that my pulse was likely to increase cycling faster but with less resistance on my turbo trainer than with a slower cadence but with more resistance. She said that she had noticed a similar thing on the exercise stress tests using a treadmill. On these tests, they have to get the patients running as fast as possible and for many patients, they set the resistance low to start with.
ColinJ
Puzzle game procrastinator!
- Location
- Todmorden - Yorks/Lancs border
That might have something to do with it, but I realised recently that it usually happens when I am riding with someone else who is fitter than me. I end up climbing very slightly faster than I would by myself, and trying to talk at the same time. Maybe if I shut up and slowed down a little until I warmed up, I would be ok!
I am starting a ride tomorrow morning with some very gentle uphill early on, more of a drag than a climb. The air will be very cold so that might cause my lungs a few problems.
You're not starting from Hebden Bridge then?
ColinJ
Puzzle game procrastinator!
- Location
- Todmorden - Yorks/Lancs border
Mainly valley roads today! I am just about to write a little ride report in 'Your Ride Today'.
RichK
Guru
- Location
- Birmingham, England
OK, feeling ready to post this. In addition to my two PE (see previously) I was diagnosed with prostate cancer back in August. That's the bad news. The 'good' news is that it's been detected early so is small and contained within the prostate. Re-test in November was slightly worse but nothing to panic about yet. Looking at treatment options but probably a prostatectomy, hopefully it can wait till next autumn (to minimize the effect on a TT season).
ColinJ
Puzzle game procrastinator!
- Location
- Todmorden - Yorks/Lancs border
Blimey, you are not having much luck, Rich - GWS!
