I fell off my bike last weekend and after a couple of days just feeling bruised and battered I woke up on Tuesday night with a really sharp pain in my chest. This made me pass out a few times so the Mrs called an ambulance. Anyway I ended up in hospital for 3 days and was told that I’d bruised my heart and had essentially had a (small) heart attack.

I feel ok now but a little tired.

Question is I’m down to ride solo 12 at bristol Bikefest in a couple of weeks. Is it stupid to still ride or do you think I should give it a miss?

shouldnt you be asking the doctor…

Simples…..

Go on, give it a go, after all, what have you got to lose… 🙄

have you got life insurance? Some of them will give a big payout when you’ve had a heart attack!

Am thinking that this could be one for a medic with access to your records? Might be tempted to ask my Doc/whatever consultant told you that you “essentially” had a heart attack.

jojoA1 – Member

Go on, give it a go, after all, what have you got to lose…
now that made me laugh, sorry but that is the right answer

erm, yeah I thought the collective knowledge of the STW massive could offer some advice/ experience.

Feel a bit stupid now, I apologise

you’ll be fine. it was only a small heart attack.
i once worked in a hospital laundry so think i’m more than qualified to offer medical advice. 🙄

In my professional opinon you should be fine.
And i am a consultant, just not a medical one.

(time signed off work X 4, then ask the doctor)

have you got life insurance? Some of them will give a big payout when you’ve had a heart attack!

er, I think you’re required to die…

Go for it…I’m no expert, but if you are asking, then I’ll give you my opinion!

Sorry I’m just a bit pissed off. I’m flying at the moment and already had to cry off set2rise this weekend. I’m fit and only 29. Probably trying to convince myself that everything would’ve been ok.

Do you think bikefest organisers will let me have my entry fee back?

ghislainlambert – Member
I fell off my bike last weekend and after a couple of days just feeling bruised and battered I woke up on Tuesday night with a really sharp pain in my chest.

Did you happen to fall off your bike because of pains in your chest, breathlessness, etc?

(Oh and ask your doctor about the original question. STW can’t even agree on a decent brake pad never mind on anything serious.)

Take care.

Take my advice; I’m not using it. Try for some personal bests on the first couple of laps, if you’re still upright then clearly your heart is stronger than ever due to its ability to mend itself post attack.

Idlejon: No I crashed and smashed my chest on my handlebars

ghislainlambert – Member
Idlejon: No I crashed and smashed my chest on my handlebars

I did the same a few years ago – big black bruise about 5″ across right above my heart. One of my riding buddies, also a GP looked at it and freaked. Apparently I was almost dead, the way he was going on.

I was lucky though, just a bruise. I assume that the docs have told you there’s no lasting damage?

Yeah. I have to go back in for an MRI in about 6 weeks to ensure that there’s no scaring on the heart. But they gave me a clean bill of health.

999 on moby speed dial 1 and go for it.

I am a doctor
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but not medical.

Good, take it easy. Don’t do anything strenuous or silly, like mountain biking. (That’s the sensible advice – whether I’d take it……)

Don’t forget that Ranulph Fiennes ran 7 marathons on 7 continents in 7 days not long after a heart attack. His doc advised him to keep his HR below a certain level. He forgot to wear his HRM.

And he just nipped up Everest to take in the view.

Unfortunately we’re not all made like Sir Ranulph though..

joe1983 – Member
Unfortunately we’re not all made like Sir Ranulph though..

Yeah, I’ve got more toes than him.

I bruised my heart in a crash last summer. I was told to rest up until I felt no chest pain and then to build it up slowly

You could ‘hedge your bets’ so to speak and do a British Heart Foundation Ride?…they’ve got a really good one happening on Exmoor later in the year…

My dad had a heart attack last year, he still can’t ride a bike now. Couldn’t before either mind.

For legal reasons anything I say can’t be used seriously I suppose, but….

“I’m fit and only 29” makes you very unlikely to have have an ischaemic heart attack/myocardial infarction, unless you are a cocaine user or have a familial tendency towards high cholesterol. Your mechanism of injury also makes an MI less likely than traumatic cardiac damage.

I imagine what’s happened is that someone has requested a cardiac blood test called a ‘troponin’ which IS elevated in a myocardial infarction, but is also elevated in lots of other ‘illnesses’ such as heart infections, blood clots on the lung, trauma to the heart etc.

If I were you, and really wanted to clear things up, I wouldn’t accept ‘heart attack’ as a diagnosis because from now on you will always be labelled as having had one, which will seriously affect your life/home insurance etc.
Ask if you really had an MI (which they would then go on and perform an angiogram for), or if the heart trauma (from the crash obviously) would have raised the troponin.

However, i still wouldn’t take it all too lightly as it must have been a whack to cause a trop rise, and would take your cardiologist’s advice on whether to enter the race or not…….

DrP

Superstar components make good pacemakers.

I used to work in a Coronary Care Unit…i would strongly suggest you stay at home until cleared by your Doctor. I assume you’re on a Cardiac rehab programme at the hospital?
If you’re 29 and have had a heart attack, you need further investigation pronto to find out why. Family History/Smoking/Drinking/overweight/cholesterol levels/etc.
If you have truly had an MI, you will likely need medication of some sort to lower you riisk factors
Who is it told you’d had an MI? GP? Consultant? You need to get some sort of follow up ASAP.
In short, give the 12 hour solo a miss until told otheriwse by your Doc.

as DrP: also if you’d had a MI you’d like to think that you’d be in line for an angiogram/plasty, if not, why not?

make the cardiologist earn his money and confirm a written diagnosis and treat you as an “athlete” not a couch potato, you’ve still gotta life to live and a bike to ride

Watch the wrestler whilst you are recovering. I shan’t say more I wouldn’t want to spoil it for you…

Ring NHS Direct, and say chest pain, within nano seconds all the lights will flash at NHS direct Hq,the sirens will wail,and the tone of the voice on the phone will say do you want an ambulance, we can send one, i know it happened to me, oh and i did not have or suffer a heart attack, just toothache,and after been asked if there where any othe rsymptoms said yes,shortness of breath and a pain in chest.
They should have done an ECG, at the hospital, ask for a copy.

Ian, I might be able to find a buyer for your entry…

Gary, is that ‘street slang’ for whoring him out

a witch doctor on speed dial?

I’m a junior doctor but this is an internet forum so …

A heart attack occurs when blood supply to parts of your heart muscle is cut off, usually by narrowed arteries. One of the best (easiest) ways of measuring whether or not any damage has occurred is with blood tests because there are certain enzymes (e.g. Troponin or CK-MB) that are only found in heart muscle. If you find these enzymes in normal blood it indicates that they’ve leaked out – essentially from dead muscle tissue.

However there are other conditions, e.g. infection or inflammation, that can make the muscle cells leak. Often without any significant damage having occurred. If your sharp pains were affected by your body position it could be a something like ‘pericarditis’ (which also causes changes on the ECG).

They key thing for you as a 29 year old is that you are very unlikely to have narrowed arteries. (Unless you have a very bad family history of heart problems).

The heart attack risk from exercise arises when you need more blood supply to get your heart muscle pumping more, and narrowings limit the maximum flow rate. If your arteries aren’t narrowed there shouldn’t be any increased risk from exercise.

You really need to discuss this with an expert, if you are labelled as having an MI at 29, it will seriously affect things like insurance, mortgage, driving, flying etc for the rest of your life, and it is very unlikely. I certainly wouldn’t accept that label myself without evidence of narrowed arteries – (ischaemic disease).

On the other hand, if you have had an MI, then knowing earlier will let you do more to avoid problems in the future.

Anyway, hope you’re feeling better, take it easy.

I am also a Doctor (Doctorate in horse husbandry from the University of Columbo). I suggest if you dont look fat, over 40 and sweaty all the time then you are fine. Please send a wire transfer to cover this consulation. 8)

Without seeing any of ECGs are any of your symptoms it’s hard but as both DrP and Jonnyweale have said sound more like caused through trauma not a MI. Also sounds like they’ve tried to skip explaining anything to you by saying “Oh it’s just like a heart attack” when it’s not really. You need to get your GP to get more info from the hospital.

Just reading Ran Fiennes’s Auto Biog as you post this message.
He had to keep his heart down to no more than 130bpm on his adventures, and he’d had lots of scans and a by-pass, so they knew intimately the state of his arteries and heart.
You will be sitting this one out if you know what’s sensible.

PS – what kit are you now selling before taking up tiddly-winks?
What about your place on the Bristol ride?