HI everyone,

In this part of my blog I’d like to talk about how and when I got diagnosed with angina…..

I lost my 2nd husband to cancer in late 2011, and after he passed away, I had a breakdown, which with the severity of my depression led to all kinds of things going through my head, and this is what made me attempt suicide…now, whilst I am one of the lucky one’s because my mother found me in time, after I came out of hospital I secluded myself in the house. Not moving out of my bedroom, and the one thing that kept me occupied was knitting.

I had started to knit my grandson a blanket, using several different panels, I just kept going and going, until the blanket actually fit my king size bed, but, during this time I started to get pains in my right upper arm, I put this down to the amount of knitting I was doing, because I was literally knitting 8-10 hours a day, and sometimes during the late hours of the night.

The pain got so unbearable that I would sit on the end of my bed, and rock back and forth with my arm around the front of my neck trying with all my might to make the pain go away. I was taking co-codamol 30/500’s every 2 hours, which obviously isn’t recommended but this did nothing. So in the end I decided to call NHS Direct and get some advice.  The lady on the phone was asking if I was suffering any chest pain, could I lift my arm above my head, (which I found quite difficult), but in the end, because I had mentioned that I had been knitting as if I was taking part in a marathon, she said that it sounded like I had tendonitis, and advised me to go and see my GP the very  next day to get some kind of gel to help ease the pain.

I visited my doctor the day after and after explaining to him what had happened he kind of “jumped on the band wagon” and agreed that I had tendonitis, he prescribed me some Anti Inflammatory Cream and told me to use it every 4 hours aswell as taking the pain killers.  I noticed that when I was using this cream it started to make my skin very dry and peel, but what do I know I’m not a doctor so I trusted what he said to me.

I noticed in the weeks following that whenever I went into the supermarket and walked near the fridges or the freezers that this pain would return in my arm, if I was walking the pain would return, in fact any time that I used that arm, or walked, or tried to lift anything I got the pain in my arm.

After a few months of suffering with this and going through at least 3 tubes of anti inflammatory cream, the pain seemed to subside.

I had started dating my now husband, and had explained what the doctor had told me, I also had a friend who I used to meet in the pub who suffered with angina, who had a spray for under his tongue if he was to show any symptoms. One day I met him in the pub, with the most excruciating pain in my arm, and unable to breath properly. He told me to try his spray which I did, and to my amazement the pain disappeared within literally seconds. I told my husband about this and he said that he had been doing some research on the internet and said that he thought I may have angina. “No way!!!” I thought, Im only 44 years old, “I can’t have angina”. He told me to go to my doctors and request more tests.

I visited my GP and explained what had happened, he reluctantly referred me to cardiology at the local hospital. So thats where all the fun started.

First of all it was an ECG, then the specialist wanted me to get on a treadmill and walk for at least 3 mins, but the treadmill would be increased to an incline, I managed 30 seconds before the pain returned in my arm and I was unable to breathe, so with that the specialist said that because I couldn’t complete the test, I would have to have stress and Rest Tests on my heart!!!! , and also have an angiogram. To say I was frightened to death would be an under statement, because I never for one minute thought that anything would be wrong.

The dates were booked and appointments were made, I attended Manchester Royal Infirmary in December 2013 to undergo the angiogram, not knowing what on earth to expect, even though I had done what everyone told me not to do, (well, don’t we all?) I had gone on the internet to find out what it entailed. When I saw what they actually did I was so frightened, I saw that they keep you awake, just giving you slight sedation  to “take the edge off”, then they make a small incision into your main artery in your wrist and feed a very thin tube into your arm all the way up to your heart, whilst this is going on there is an x-ray machine literally inches away from your face, constantly taking pictures.

The procedure went ahead, and blockages were found, so they had to put 3 stents in, I cried the whole way through the procedure, promising myself that this was it, I was going to stop smoking because this is what had caused the problem, unfortunately I still haven’t been able to quit, but I AM working on it,  I am posting pictures of the first angiogram that I had where you can clearly see the blockage, and how the blood flow was after the stents were fitted.

The surgeon did tell me that in the future that I WOULD HAVE TO HAVE MORE STENTS, as there was narrowing in other arteries in my heart. So even if I had stopped smoking there and then the damage was already done! How stupid am I??? and I know that, and I don’t need people to lecture me about it, I know what I have to do!!

Im my next blog I am going to talk about the stress and rest tests that I had to undergo at a different time.

Much Love people

Jackie xx