My heart attack - the warning signs which I didn’t pick up on

Thanks again for indulging me as I work through what has happened to me. It’s almost surreal how people I see keep saying to me that they can’t believe I had a major heart attack just over a week ago because I look so “normal”, but as with mental health where you can’t see something obvious like a broken leg, my heart is a muscle and it’s taken a hammering. I am feeling pretty good and yesterday I did my 2 x 7min walks at a slower than usual pace and didn’t get any shortness of breath or chest pains or anything like that which I am meant to look out for. But at periods throughout the day I do feel tired and I have to sit down and breathe nice and easily and so on, so I am doing a lot of reading and listening to podcasts and so on. I am on the road to what should be a full recovery and I know how lucky I am…………….

Time for a pretty picture instead of my dreadful selfies! I always remember seeing these sheep on the rocks when we were on the Beara peninsular a few years back.

Most people I see or speak to are also asking me if I had any warning signs of a heart attack - and I did. But I didn’t pick up on them, or rather I thought what was going on was other stuff. I am obviously not a heart specialist (but I know a lot more about it all now!) and the doctors and nurses have all told me that it was always going to happen at some point - genetics is a big thing here, more to come on that on Friday - so what would I have done if I had picked up on some of the warning signs? I need to find out, but a trip to my GP to ask for a checkup would have made sense.

The warning signs which I got are mostly based around running and fishing because that is when I exert myself the most, save for chainsawing and axing wood or something like that. When your heart isn’t working properly - which I didn’t know about and nobody knows how long my heart hasn’t been working at 100% - you are going to notice something isn’t quite right. You might remember that I took up running earlier this year, and up until my heart attack and having to now take the time to recover, I was doing roughly 3 x 5k runs each week around my usual dog walking and fishing. I have lost some weight and it is amazing how much easier it is to walk very quickly back up the cliffs etc. from fishing. My energy levels have gone up, I am (was) dog walking even faster than I usually do, I still can’t believe how it’s possible for a person like me to go running, and I was feeling really good about my fishing and being able to push the walking and scrambling and so on. Up until recently that is………

The morning I left Ireland after my recent guiding trip I ran my fastest ever 5k. All things are of course relative and I am not exactly quick, but I was really pleased and it felt like a really good and efficient run for me. I have been having knee problems which I believe have come from running and I could really feel things yomping over the rocks when we were guiding, but my left knee was starting to feel better and I felt good. I packed my Epic Berlingo and got myself back home to see my family.

But when I next went for a 5k run at home it felt absolutely dreadful. I could muscle through the 5k but I ran about five minutes slower than that last run I did in Ireland. I could feel a tightness in my chest but my legs felt okay, but I just couldn’t push myself any harder without seriously struggling. Some runs feel really good and some don’t so I put it down to this, but I also had a good yomp back from a fishing session and slightly struggled up the cliffs whereas a few weeks earlier before the guiding trip I literally ran back up with my rucksack on my back etc.

I remember feeling a bit tired after a few lunches but put it down to getting older. I didn’t get spooked but I was beginning to question why I seemed to have a bit less energy as well. My second run back at home felt really bad again and I said to my wife that I think I might have had covid again without realising. It felt like my lungs just weren’t working properly although I could still get through a 5k. Once a week or so I would slow down - all things being relative - and push out to say 7k or even 8k - but when I got back home I was really struggling to get to 5k. I did another fishing session where I moved locations a few times and I really felt it come back up the cliffs and even had to stop for a breather which hadn’t been happening at all. To be honest any fishing sessions which required a decent bit of walking up and down cliffs especially were feeling a bit weird with how I was struggling compared to a month or so earlier.

So I carried on and then went to the Isle of Wight for a few days to see my lot. I ran another 5k before driving there and it felt suitably awful - tightness in the chest, can’t push hard enough, running slower etc. - but again I put it down to something going on with my lungs and it would surely all feel better soon. I made the decision not to run when I was in the Isle of Wight because my left knee could do with a break, so on the first morning there I went for a fast 5k dog walk and felt great. No shortness of breath or anything like that, no pain in my knees, but a few times going up the stairs in my in-laws’ house I felt a bit of pain in my chest and some shortness of breath. There was also one afternoon when I felt fairly out of it and simply sat on the sofa and read my book. Again I put it down to something going on in my lungs and I was pretty convinced I must have had something like covid without really realising.

As I said in Monday’s blog post I drove home from the Isle of Wight last Monday and went fishing when I got home. I didn’t feel particularly bad on the walk to and from my car/fishing, but I did my first 5k for a few days last Tuesday morning and literally just about managed to do it but felt really bad. Annoyingly my knee felt really good again and my new running shoes were awesome, but the actual running was like towards the end of Couch to 5k when the times upped to 25mins and I couldn’t envisage how it was actually possible.

And then you know what happened after that run last Tuesday morning if you read Monday’s blog post. All the stuff I have talked about today were warning signs that my heart wasn’t working properly. Again today I have remained very matter of fact about all this so far because I think it makes sense, but if you will continue to indulge me then on Friday I will talk about the what-ifs, the whys, the repercussions and so on. I am doing my utmost not to dwell on how lucky I am to still be here and this six week back to full fitness goal has given me such a boost, but the simple fact is that a hell of a lot of factors went my way and I am still here and with my awesome family. The result of those factors going my way is that I am still alive. I am not exaggerating that and at some point I fully expect my head to start messing with me. As a family we talk a lot and I know I can get through this. Thank you for listening to me and I will see you on Friday………….