Stents...

[Paul smith]

..no it isn,t a bike part that you have to send back to bosch for replacement..i remember reading some posts on here a few of you guys have had them..just wondering do they make you feel better?....someone close to me is having one put in soon...just wondering how you felt after the op and how you feel now...thanks.

 

[Wicky]

Difficult to answer, as I've had stent installed following a heart attack but I was prescribed medication as well so hard to describe what a stent on its own would feel like..

Pretty straight forward procedure going in via an artery. You usually get a nurse holding a horse hoof plug on the insertion site and you lie still for an hour or so and are confined to bed so lessening the chance of a messy high pressure leak. After a couple of hours you can sit up to have a light snack and drink.

Procedure is a bit like alien abduction as only local anaesthetic is used and lashing of chilly iodine - you lie on a table on a stage with scanners all around and big LCD showing the path of the probings up arterial tributaries seen via a contrast agent that feels like an inner warm whiskey glowing sensation - this is overseen by doc in a radiation shielded DJ booth overseeing/conducting his technical minions. I don't think it took more than half-hour to do. Only awkward bit was prep-op and I was given a razor to shave my own groin where the artery entry is and I didn't know where to put my pubes so just shoved em in the bedside cabinet...

Meds for blood pressure and beta blockers for me are like a rev limiter. also blood thinners stop clotting to form on stent, so look a bit messy and scare children after minor scratches and cuts.

First thing I did after I was discharged was get a push bike and cycled to cardiac physio and gym for rehabilitation. Subsequent fem pop op for intermittent claudication which gives me limited walking range but cycling isn't a problem.

 

[Paul smith]

Thank you.

 

[Crockers]

They also go in via an artery in the right wrist....well mine did.

 

[smifee]

I had one stent after Angina turned unstable 9 days after diagnosis.

I felt 10 years younger immediately and haven't had so much energy for years.

At cardio rehab gym sessions those who had it done as a result of a heart attack told me they didn't have the improvement I had.

 

[oggie]

I had my stent 2 years ago after 3 heart attacks, the first 2 were on my mountain bike I just felt really rough with no energy and a strange feeling in chest (not pain) I just rode home slow and slept. The 3rd one I collapsed walking up an hill. Consultant said I was extremely lucky. Anyways, attended the cardio rehab, cardiologist said you have adjusted your lifestyle now just keep the good work up and forget about it, just adjust life to the medications, beta blockers are awful when you bike up a hill, I collapsed and fell off much to my families amusement.
But hey, guess what 12 months later I purchased my first ebike, those hills are now climbed with a grin.
Have had the carrera for 12 months now and absolutely love it to bits, combined with a samsung gear fit 2 heart monitor I reach my target heart rate and don't push it past that..
My cycle routes range 6 miles. 10. 14. 18. 22 and 35 miles.
mixture of flats and hills and loving every ride