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All ok & then a heart attack!

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This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
G

Goslowly

New Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 2
Hello,
I’m 72 now and have been a diabetic for 9 years. On diagnosis I very quickly realised that NHS advice to eat starchy carbs did not make sense. So I went on a reduced carbohydrate diet (nothing extreme) and have been ever since. My HbA1c has been in the ‘safe’ level of between 39 and 43, BMI 22/23, I exercise and have played walking football for a few years. At bi-annual tests all results were within the ‘safe’ levels and I felt that I had 'sorted' it.
So why have I just had a heart attack? Seeing your own heart on an Angiogram with the small veins crumbling away due to diabetes is a bit of a scare!
Diabetes UK does acknowledge that cardiovascular disease is one of the big killers of diabetics but to what degree? And why is there no simple test to show a heart attack is possible?
There seems to be a need for a research project to develop a system to give early warnings of heart damage. But what should be done now is much more forceful advice to ensure that we, the diabetics, realise that so called ‘targets’ are no guarantee that the worst will not happen.
My experience is that the target levels should be far stricter and that message should be really pressed home. I wish that I had not been so comfortable with my HbA1c levels and had fought harder to achieve levels in the thirties and not into the forties! I realise now that I was living in cloud cuckoo land thinking I was safe from most complications – don’t let it happen to you.
Sorry if this is bad news to some but good news for me is that the heart attack was according to the cardiologist a 'small event' as I had lost 'a branch'. But I'm now on 7 drugs.
Good luck all, Chris
 
Welcome and I'm sorry you suffered a heart attack into the bargain.
Research does show if a family member has one you'd be more likely to have one too. Other than that we don't know why some do and some don't.
 
Sorry that you have had a heart attack, glad that it does not appear to be too serious. Thank you for your words of warning, we can so easily get overconfident. So we must try each day to do the best that we can to keep control. I hope that you will feel better soon.
 
Hi a warm welcome so sorry to hear about your heart attack scary stuff
 
My dad died of heart failure at 64, he wasn't diabetic, it worries me a lot.
I hope you are on the mend.
 
Welcome to the forum. Sorry to hear of the heart attack.
 
Goslowly said:
Hello,
I’m 72 now and have been a diabetic for 9 years. On diagnosis I very quickly realised that NHS advice to eat starchy carbs did not make sense. So I went on a reduced carbohydrate diet (nothing extreme) and have been ever since. My HbA1c has been in the ‘safe’ level of between 39 and 43, BMI 22/23, I exercise and have played walking football for a few years. At bi-annual tests all results were within the ‘safe’ levels and I felt that I had 'sorted' it.
So why have I just had a heart attack? Seeing your own heart on an Angiogram with the small veins crumbling away due to diabetes is a bit of a scare!
Diabetes UK does acknowledge that cardiovascular disease is one of the big killers of diabetics but to what degree? And why is there no simple test to show a heart attack is possible?
There seems to be a need for a research project to develop a system to give early warnings of heart damage. But what should be done now is much more forceful advice to ensure that we, the diabetics, realise that so called ‘targets’ are no guarantee that the worst will not happen.
My experience is that the target levels should be far stricter and that message should be really pressed home. I wish that I had not been so comfortable with my HbA1c levels and had fought harder to achieve levels in the thirties and not into the forties! I realise now that I was living in cloud cuckoo land thinking I was safe from most complications – don’t let it happen to you.
Sorry if this is bad news to some but good news for me is that the heart attack was according to the cardiologist a 'small event' as I had lost 'a branch'. But I'm now on 7 drugs.
Good luck all, Chris
Click to expand...
Hi Chris, welcome to the forum 🙂 Very sorry to hear about what must have been a very scary experience :( Good to hear that you are recovering well, even if it does mean lots of medication.

It sounds to me like you have done a pretty good job of managing your diabetes, and certainly the numbers you have been getting are very similar to what a non-diabetic person might expect. I think that attempting to lower the numbers even further in the past would not, unfortunately, have been a guarantee that this would not have happened to you. We are very complex beings, and there are a multitude of factors involved in any adverse health event, so it would be very difficult to point the finger at anything in particular. I've been diagnosed for 8 years and my HbA1c has always been in the mid to low 30s, yet I still have to attend hospital regularly because of a problem with one of my eyes - it's sometimes just the luck of the draw.

As it is extremely difficult to get most people with diabetes even close to the numbers you have been getting, I doubt setting even stricter targets would be helpful. I do agree that there should be much better support in terms of education and dietary advice for people - so much unfortunately falls very short :(
 
I'm so sorry to hear of your heart attack Goslowly and I agree sometimes the guidelines are too permissive. However, there are many other things that predispose us and people can live long and well after a cardiac event.
My mum had 2 heart attacks in her 60's and she's approaching her 88th birthday having never had further issues.

Much depends on the severity and thankfully yours sounds less serious. Best wishes.
 
Hi Goslowly and welcome to our forum - I'm sorry to hear of your cardiac arrest but thankfully you live to tell the tale so keep up the good work and please please don't over work yourself - take it nice and steady - for a while that is - yes you could have done without this complication on top of having diabetes and so what you must try to do now is put aside what has happened if you can - and for you to move forward as best you can - there are lots of helpful kind people here who will listen and willingly help you in every way possible so don't feel afraid in coming forward to ask as many questions you would like to pose - do take care care of yourself Goslowly x


Dx Type 2 April 20016
Metformin withdrawn
Diet control and exercise only
 
I am very sorry to hear about what happened to you. 39-42 I thought were non-diabetic levels. My grandmother had a heart attack as did two of my uncles and they were not diabetic. My friend's brother did too and he was not diabetic either. It is not really clear why some people do have them but you seem to have worked hard on your blood sugar levels and it is not your fault. I hope all goes well for you.
 
Hello and welcome. My Dad died at 43, gone in minutes, as far as I know he didn't have D. I think 'heart' just runs in the family. Plain bad luck in some cases. I don't think you were complacent, I think it's impressive that you ignored bad advice and took control yourself.
 
Hello,
I would like to say thanks to all who have replied to my post. Your good wishes we unexpected and most appreciated. One thing, the cardiologist did say that it very much looks as if my heart attack was caused by diabetes as the very small veins had just 'crumbled' away. So now I'm asking if I should go on metformin to slightly reduce the risk of another heart attack. Any suggestions??

Thanks again............. Chris
 
Goslowly said:
Hello,
I would like to say thanks to all who have replied to my post. Your good wishes we unexpected and most appreciated. One thing, the cardiologist did say that it very much looks as if my heart attack was caused by diabetes as the very small veins had just 'crumbled' away. So now I'm asking if I should go on metformin to slightly reduce the risk of another heart attack. Any suggestions??

Thanks again............. Chris
Click to expand...
That is something you need to discuss with your Doctors.
 
This will shock a few of you. In 9 years I have NEVER consulted a Doctor about my Diabetes. On diagnosis I was told to wait for a course, which happened after a couple of months but by then I was on the reduced carb route and found no use for medication. Might have been foolish but it did work for 9 years!
Due my 6 monthly with practice nurse next month - might see a Dr before to see what he/she says!

Cheers........... Chris
 
How do you know it worked for 9 years, Goslowly? I assume you've been having regular HbA1c checks over this period.
 
Welcome Go slowly.
Sorry to hear about your heart attach.
I had a silent heart attach. I didn't know I'd had one. It was discovered at the same time as my diabetes, as was a genetic heart condition. Consultant say it could have happened any time in the last 30 years.
Scarry.
 
Goslowly said:
This will shock a few of you. In 9 years I have NEVER consulted a Doctor about my Diabetes. On diagnosis I was told to wait for a course, which happened after a couple of months but by then I was on the reduced carb route and found no use for medication. Might have been foolish but it did work for 9 years!
Due my 6 monthly with practice nurse next month - might see a Dr before to see what he/she says!

Cheers........... Chris
Click to expand...
No even mildly surprising. I've never seen a consultant. No prospect of ever seeing a doctor, only ever a practice nurse.
With your figures, I suspect they wouldn't have bothered much.
 
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