Interview HA16

Age at interview: 53

Age at diagnosis: 49

Brief Outline: Heart attack 1999. Thrombolytic (clotbuster) drug. Current medication' aspirin, ramipril, atenolol, simvastatin

Background: Unemployed at time of interview; Single, no children

After he came home from hospital he had slight twinges in his chest which worried him.

You were worried about having another heart attack?                      

Yes I think that was the main anxiety at the time. I used to get any slight twinges in my chest, it might just be a slight, probably just a bit of muscle cramp or something and I'd worry if that was the start of something.

And when that happened, did you speak to your doctor about it?           

Not straight away. Well I did when I went for the blood pressure check and he tested it with his stethoscope and he couldn't find anything. He couldn't detect any abnormalities.

Did you have those twinges very often?                                   

Not very often, no, just now and again. That was it mainly, it was just probably sat or laid down in an awkward position. It would only last maybe a few seconds. Again in the books, it said if it lasts up to twenty minutes then you've got a problem. So after a while I stopped worrying about it. 

                                                                   

He was very weak when he first came home but built his strength up by walking further each time.

On the day I was discharged, I went for a short walk while I was waiting for my brother to pick me up and take me home and I went for a walk down the corridor, down to the bottom of the hospital to the newsagent's. I felt a bit shaky then because I'm not used to walking because it had knocked the stuffing out of me a bit. So I realised I was going to have to take it really easy for the next few days, few weeks even.

And did you feel, did you have to do that?

Yes I did. I got, I did some light exercise, just walked to the bottom of the street and that. There's some playing fields and I walked there and back. Eventually I got to the newsagent's another day and just did everything at a slower pace, just taking my time gradually I was building up until I could do more and more.

The cardiac rehabilitation nurse visited him at home soon after he was discharged from hospital.

During the week, the cardiac rehab nurse came round. She visited me twice actually and she gave me a manual read. You're supposed to do it in stages but I read through the whole lot just to get an overview and that was to help me through the recovery period and that was quite useful.

What was useful about it?

It gave some, there was some reassuring information about, although it's happened it's not the end of the world and if you follow their instructions, it can help you get better. They also provided some light exercises to gradually build up to more or less as you were before you had the attack.                                                   

Ramipril made him feel dizzy and he now spaces his medication out throughout the day.

And you said the medications that you were on, have you had any side effects from any of those?                                          

Yes I think I still get them to this day. I feel it's worse in the morning because I take most of them first thing in the morning but I space them out, and I feel light, slightly light-headed. When I first took them I felt really dizzy but that's worn off a bit, I've got used to them. But what I do now is take them quite early in the morning; I take the first two about 5ish, I take the ramipril [an ACE inhibitor] and the aspirin. 

Then I have to take the ramipril twice a day, so I take the next one at 5 o'clock in the evening, which was what my GP recommended to space them out at 10 hour intervals and it has helped to an extent although I still get occasionally a little bit light headed, especially if I've been sat down for a while or if I've been in bed and I get up quickly.