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Bypass (CABG)

NO-ONE could have been more scared than me when I was told I had to have a heart by-pass operation.

But what option did I have? An artery blocked 95%, a second blocked at 100% and a third blocked at 60%

Unfortunately, I'm one of those people who need to know the details of what's going on. I read the text books and listened to the medical professionals. I had as much information as it is possible to achieve, but it was all so impersonal, clinical and pretty scary.

I am someone who likes to have with the minimal amount of discomfort and maximum chance of success. For example, I have always been bothered about anaesthetics, I didn’t want to wake up feeling sickly or depressed. I decided to talk to the Doctor about the anaesthetic and I felt pretty good when I woke up. I have as much tolerance of pain as the next person. So I ensured that I knew before the operation that my pain would be managed. And it was, extremely well. After the operation I was placed in the Intensive Care Department. Once I was breathing on my own, I was encouraged to get out of bed to sit in a chair - this happened the

following day and by day three I was walking around the general ward. I even managed to have a bath, which made me feel even better still.

The bonus was that I didn’t have any angina pains. On day five I went home. Fortunately it was the first and not the last day of the petrol blockade.

My operation involved 4 grafts, using the two mammary arteries and a vein from my right leg. The chest wound took the longest to heal, but heal it did. Was it worth it? You bet it was. I walked 4 miles a day, exercised at the hospital and took part in the Cardiac Rehabilitation phase 4 programme at the leisure centre.

I'm now attacking my diet, and lost some weight and have my own exercise bike. Five portions of fruit and vegetables is the household ambition for us all. We don’t fry, avoid offal and cheeses and minimise the amount of red meat that we eat.

I stopped smoking following my heart attack in 1997 and I am now trying to restrict my alcohol intake. But my cholesterol is down to 3.5 and once I have better control of my blood-pressure I will feel that I am back to normality.