My Heart Attack

Turns out running is not a cure all ...

Saturday morning I had a heart attack. (Spoiler alert, I survived).

Woke up at 6am and knew immediately something was wrong. I had been having some tightness in my chest during my daily runs for the past week or so but figured it was just the heat or maybe exercise induced asthma, too much pollen in the air or something.

I’ve run most days for almost 47 years and would’ve never have thought I would be a candidate for heart trouble. In fact I’ve gone as far as 20km a couple of times in the last 3 weeks with no issues at all.

But it seems you can’t out run your genetic and lifestyle risk factors.

Shelley (my spouse) drove me to the hospital where they got me in for testing and eventually shipped me off to a nearby hospital for an angiogram. They found that one of the main coronary arteries was 100% blocked.

The doctors were able to clear the blockage completely and after a couple of days in hospital, I’m back home feeling good and relaxing, taking my meds, getting some light exercise and doing all the things I’m supposed to do.

So What’s Next

This has been a good reminder of all the principles I advocate with Full Stride Running. Listen to your body, gradual progression, health before fitness and so on. It’s easy to get away from this patient approach to running when you’re chasing a new PB or age group result, but impatience always backfires.

I’m approaching my recovery as the longest base building period of my life. Starting with a couple of 5 minutes walks the day after the event and have progressed to a 20 minute, comfortably paced walk 5 days later. I’ll continue building easy volume (of walking this time) for quite a while until I feel comfortable and get clearance to do some walk-jogs, then gradually build to continuous easy running as capacity allows and my cardiologist approves.

Intensity will come later, once I have a substantial base of easy activity to build on.

Slow and steady will be the key, not only on daily walks and jogs, but in the pace of the overall build up as well.

I don’t know about racing, that it TBD based on how I recover and progress. I’m ok with running for fun or at no mare than 80% effort if it keeps me healthy. I just want to be able to do those relaxing easy runs by the lake that made me fall in love with the sport nearly half a century ago.

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I’m still trying to process everything but here is what I would recommend to anyone in a similar situation:

• Exercise helps but is not a cure-all. Doctors said my running history left my arteries in good shape and made the angioplasty easier, and in retrospect, but obviously it didn’t prevent a 100% blockage. I thought running made me bullet-proof. It didn’t.

• Be especially careful if you have a family history. I have 2 uncles and a brother who have had heart attacks, and the influence of family and genetic factors is very strong. If you have a family history, you must be extremely careful.

• If you have symptoms, call 911. Don’t drive or allow anyone to drive you to the hospital. If I’d done that it would’ve saved an hour or more waiting at the local hospital for a diagnosis.

• Keep up with regular checkups. This is one area where I’ve been a dummy. I hadn’t seen a doctor in years and ignored the occasional drug store blood pressure checks that indicated I had high blood pressure. I suspect I have had undiagnosed high blood pressure for years. All of my siblings do. I thought running would protect me and I didn’t want to deal with the potential side-effects of the medications. As it it turns out, the side effects of not taking the meds when you need them ie. the heart attack, are much worse.

• Manage your stress. It’s easy to feel immortal when you’re young, but none of us are. A little stress with proper recovery make you stronger, too much, beyond your ability to recover, over long periods of time, can be deadly.

• The main symptoms I was feeling were chest tightness, left arm discomfort and difficulty taking a full breath. When I got to the hospital, I started sweating heavily and feeling clammy and nauseous.

  If you notice any of these, don’t ignore them!!

  The cardiologist said that I lost 5-10% of pumping capacity in my left ventricle due to the attack (and that may improve somewhat over time), but had I waited another 30 minutes for treatment, it would have been 50% reduced capacity which would have been life-changing.

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Thanks to Shelley in particular and to everyone who checked in on me, I appreciate it more than you know.

And thanks to the doctors and nurses who pulled me through a very difficult time.

Those people save lives every day and don’t get enough credit.

Run strong, stay safe.

Dan.