Hello Monkies!
Two week ago today I underwent elective CABG surgery to circumvent 5 arterial blockages with 3 bypasses. This was open heart surgery due to stents being deemed unsuitable for the desired outcome.
In my case, at age 50 and in otherwise good health, recovery is expected to be fast and relatively pain free, I’m already off pain management drugs.
The purpose of this post is not sympathy – it’s sharing knowledge; although there were signs they were not big enough to get my attention. I walked into my first annual physical in over 10 years absolutely clueless. That was January 4th 2016.
The reason I went for the physical was simply age – 50 seemed like a good time to start an annual health review.
I have always been a strong recreational biker and could still pull fairly strong all last summer, I had also decided to run a marathon sometime in my 50th year. I started running trails maxing out at 19 miles with 6 mile runs several recovery walks. This is when I noticed that my lungs gave out before my legs were spent, I chalked that up to simply being out of shape for the activity and I cut back on the mileage in order to rebuild cardio capacity. I did this for 90 days and only saw slight improvements. During this same period of time my biking continued to be strong although I never went much over 25 road miles or 12 trail miles.
In the fall I bought an elliptical trainer to help jump start my spring marathon training, using this for 45 minutes created mild chest discomfort that immediately subsided as I slowed my pace. I used the elliptical trainer for about 2 months and never saw any improvement in my capabilities – this is when I began to think something was up.
I am 100% responsible for the situation I am in – here are the facts of my case:
Contributing Factors:
1) Strong family history of death from heart disease of men in their 40s & 50s, women in their 50s and 60s.
2) Uncontrolled high blood pressure
3) Uncontrolled cholesterol and triglycerides
4) Poor diet due to eating out several times a day for years
Positive Factors:
1) Non-smoker
2) Extremely moderate drinker
3) Weight not an issue
4) Not diabetic
So there you go. I’m not sure this will help anyone but you never know. I’m pretty much an open book if anyone has any questions or wants to know about the procedures.
So far I have been very impresses with the speed and quality of service I have received, I should be running again in about 30 days and bicycling again in about 90 days, although both will have to be scaled back until the sternum is fully healed.
Two week ago today I underwent elective CABG surgery to circumvent 5 arterial blockages with 3 bypasses. This was open heart surgery due to stents being deemed unsuitable for the desired outcome.
In my case, at age 50 and in otherwise good health, recovery is expected to be fast and relatively pain free, I’m already off pain management drugs.
The purpose of this post is not sympathy – it’s sharing knowledge; although there were signs they were not big enough to get my attention. I walked into my first annual physical in over 10 years absolutely clueless. That was January 4th 2016.
The reason I went for the physical was simply age – 50 seemed like a good time to start an annual health review.
I have always been a strong recreational biker and could still pull fairly strong all last summer, I had also decided to run a marathon sometime in my 50th year. I started running trails maxing out at 19 miles with 6 mile runs several recovery walks. This is when I noticed that my lungs gave out before my legs were spent, I chalked that up to simply being out of shape for the activity and I cut back on the mileage in order to rebuild cardio capacity. I did this for 90 days and only saw slight improvements. During this same period of time my biking continued to be strong although I never went much over 25 road miles or 12 trail miles.
In the fall I bought an elliptical trainer to help jump start my spring marathon training, using this for 45 minutes created mild chest discomfort that immediately subsided as I slowed my pace. I used the elliptical trainer for about 2 months and never saw any improvement in my capabilities – this is when I began to think something was up.
I am 100% responsible for the situation I am in – here are the facts of my case:
Contributing Factors:
1) Strong family history of death from heart disease of men in their 40s & 50s, women in their 50s and 60s.
2) Uncontrolled high blood pressure
3) Uncontrolled cholesterol and triglycerides
4) Poor diet due to eating out several times a day for years
Positive Factors:
1) Non-smoker
2) Extremely moderate drinker
3) Weight not an issue
4) Not diabetic
So there you go. I’m not sure this will help anyone but you never know. I’m pretty much an open book if anyone has any questions or wants to know about the procedures.
So far I have been very impresses with the speed and quality of service I have received, I should be running again in about 30 days and bicycling again in about 90 days, although both will have to be scaled back until the sternum is fully healed.
Luckily I'm north of the city and not in it.
