"Recovering from Arterial Heart Disease"

Last year I was unexpectedly diagnosed with arterial heart disease. It impacted my life really badly and meant I wasn’t able to go out and do all the things I loved to do - play golf, go fishing. The COVID pandemic made the situation even worse. After various hospital visits I was told I needed a triple bypass and had to try and stay safe and avoid catching COVID until that happened. I felt, tired, stressed and alone. It was so difficult to go from being really active to not being able to manage anything and having to stay isolated. I was lucky enough to get my operation in November 2021 and have been working to get back ‘to normal’ since then. 

As part of my recovery I was given a cardiac recovery nurse who helped me through the initial stages. She made sure I was taking the right medication, gave me advice and support and an exercise programme to follow. This support might have been by phone due to COVID, but having someone to speak to made a real difference and helped me feel more confident about the time things were taking. She also linked me up with the Cardiac Rehab team when I was ready and I attended a healthcare-supervised in-person exercise programme that lasted for 6 weeks. The team at these sessions were brilliant, making sure I was doing okay but encouraging me to increase levels over time. They were also really supportive when I needed to take a break to stabilise my blood pressure and manage the effects of new medication. I have now moved onto a more informal weekly class and am continuing to work hard to improve my general fitness. I’ve made it back onto the golf course, but not got the fishing rod out yet… building up my confidence to get out there very soon.