@fireguy8891,@danab- I've been meaning to weigh in on your thread for awhile and so finally have a chance.
Back in May of 14 was just another Monday, workday and I was working out 3x a week then for over 3 yrs.
I had a great workout (about 1 hr. cardio w/ 1/2 hr. weights). After finishing I headed home for a light lunch before heading back to work. Once home and after getting cleaned up I was about to sit down and eat lunch that my wife prepared. All of a sudden I started feeling flush and the pain started in my left arm and then moved to my chest. As much as I felt I was having a HA as quickly as it showed up with not even the slightest of earier signs I had to wonder if this could be a result of my workout?
My wife was concerned as of course I was as well. The pain was becoming extreme and so I ate several baby aspirin and we decided to jump in the car and run up to the ER, just a 20 minute ride. This was a bad idea & would not recommend it!
Skipping forward a bit after being admitted and not persenting HA even after all the typical tests given the Cardiologist told my wife & I that he was going to admit me and do a stress test in the morning. After getting my pain under control, but before moving me they brought in a Echo Tech and within 15 minutes he left the room and returned quickly with the Cardiologist in tow.
Everything from that point moved quickly and within an hr. I had a stent placed in my LAD which was 100% blocked.
I had what is referred to as The Widow Maker for obvious reasons.
I was told a few days later that they wanted me to enrol in the Heart Rehab program and being that it was on the same floor as the Cardiology dept. I felt as safe as I could be. Being that I was very used to different workout machines I found it easy to move in and being monitored made this so much more comforting. The slightest twich at that point seem to set me off, but everyone that worked there was wonderful. I found out that my EF was just above 30. I set out to change that and after completing the heart rehab I went back to my gym and picked up where I had left off other than dropping down in weights and time/intensity of my cardio.
As I was coming up to my 1 year anniversay my Cardiologist had another Echo planned before we met.
A week later when I met in his office I couldn't hardly wait to hear the results. I worked very hard and was fully expecting great results! Well, I received the news that there was no real change in my EF most likely from the damage to my heart.
I was very dissapointed! Damaged Goods is all I could think! I had set myself up for such different results and failed!
I continued to work out and purchased a monitor that synked with many of the equipement at the gym so I could keep tabs on my heart rate. Now after taking metoprolol I knew this was forcing my heart rate lower and in rehab I was barely breaking 120.
I continued building up the time & intensity of my cardio where over a year I could get to 135 for at least a third of the time.
Another year passed and once again I had a Echo and then met with my cardiologist only to find out there was still no change in my EF. He was not bothered by that as much as I was. He was very happy that I felt good and had continued to work, eat right and exercise. That winter I knew we planned to spend about a month in AZ in April so I decided that I would schedule an appt. at the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, AZ. for when we would be down that way. This was more about getting a 2nd opinion and I had heard so many positive comments here on Mayo Connect that I went ahead and got an appt. scheduled.
I got into more detail about this visit in an earlier post so I will skip ahead to say that as part of the battery of tests I received that day we ended with a stress echo and my cardiologist was right there in the room with me cheering me on. I got up to incline of 12 and a speed of 6.3 so I was clearly jogging at that point. He was jazzed as he watch the monitors on the wall. As I dropped down on the bed while they continued taking the pictures his comments were amazing!! That gave me such a rush of gratitude!
We met in his office at the end of the day and he told me that he would need to do a bit more work, but he was confident that my EF was more like 40-45. A month later he contacted me on the phone to tell me my results and they were at 47 EF.
I know there are a lot of things that are all part of this whole thing, but for some reason my barrier was my EF.
It is no longer a barrier and I commonly get to 145-150 as part of my cardio today.
I'm telling you this story because I was allowing one part of the overall equation to rule how I felt. Damaged Goods!
I know longer feel that way and in fact I'm in better shape now than I was those 6 years ago!
Work hard, listen to your body & your Drs. and if necessary get a 2nd opinion.
I'm Thankful! Jim@thankful

@fireguy8891 That's disappointing news on the Mri but honestly I, never had an mri in the beginning, the other thing that @thankful mentioned was a stress test that is usually a real good test for Heart Function. But I did not have that either. For me, it was the Cardio Rehab that gave me the confidence I needed. But also I had a pacemaker at the time and MRI's can't be done without lots of planning and usually don't see much. The magnetic waves scatter due to the metal of the pacemaker. But just like thankful said keep working on the cardio and listen to your body the folks at rehab are really knowledgeable at pushing you to your ability and I think that will tell you a lot also.