Originally Posted by rutan74

That's tough...

FYI, my riding buddy did not have a heart attack but what was labeled as an incident. In other words, they found the blockage before he had a full scale HA. Now, he had 3 stents and we began to ride again. During the winter while spinning, he said he "felt" something. Went to cardio and he said don't worry but to be on safe side, we will do some blood work. Came back he was having another incident. He drops this MD, then goes to Raleigh and they advise him he needs bypass. Stents have basically failed in less than 2 years. He gets bypass done. Three of them in January. Recovers incredibly well and is now the poster boy for that practice. He is riding me into the ground. He is in his mid 50's too with some other complications, but the bypass was the final way to go.

Not exactly what you wanted to hear, but I though you might want to hear that even though you have some stents, your riding days are NOT over. He refused to stop riding and his doctors all agree that riding will not hurt him and in fact, after his latest bought with bypass surgery they are encouraging him to keep it up.

So, don't fret. You can keep riding. Maybe you might not be as fast, but I am sure you can keep riding if there was no major damage. My riding buddy is probably the exception to the rule since he was in pretty good shape to begin with, but after all these incidents he has still been able to keep riding and as I said, he is faster now than pre-surgery. So, even though it scared the crap out of him, he has healed and is in a much better place now than before.

john