Riding after angioplasty / stenting procedure
 

Obviously I’m going to follow my doctor’s instructions but I’m curious to hear the experiences of others:

- How soon afterwards did you ride?

- How soon afterwards did you ride hard (at your pre- procedure level)?

- Should I get a heart rate monitor?

- Any advice, lessons learned?

FWIW, I’m 60 years old and ride my fastest for 15-20 miles 3-4 times/week.

A friend of mine who is your age and an ER doc had this done recently, and he is back in the saddle. I am not sure how intense it is. Getting a heart rate monitor is an excellent idea. I got the Garmin Venu 2 primarily for that function, but all of the better watches in their lineup have it, and the ability to broadcast heart rate to a Garmin Edge (for example). Remember that this is just one data point, but it is a good thing to keep an eye on as it can be an indicator of other issues. and if you record the data, you (or your cardiologist) can compare with past rides to detect changes. If you have an indoor trainer, it might be worth using that a bit at the beginning.

Good luck, and let us know how it goes.

Moved from 50+ to Pills and Ills

You're going to be sore where they insert the tube to install the stent (okay, it's your inner thigh, way up high) for a few days or more. Give that time to heal completely. It's not good if you open that up again because it's a major artery, so ask your doctor during one of your follow up appointments if it's okay to start riding.
Definitely get a HRM. If you use a computer with alarm sets, set your heart rate alarm at the number your doctor recommends.
I've had a heart attack and stents installed. My neighbor, 10 years younger than me, rides with me. He was having difficulty keeping up on a climb. Now, I'm not fast by any means, and I was keeping my heart rate under 140. His was over 185 at the time. I told him to get to a cardiologist. He finally took my advice and is going in for stents. His blockage was in the "widowmaker". It probably saved his life.

Any recommendations for a HRM?

I started out with the Garmin HRM, but it was never really reliable with me. I switched over to a Wahoo with chest strap, and it works flawlessly (and still communicates with my Garmin 1030+)

Is the HRM built into the Apple Watch good?

I had a couple syncope events while riding my rollers. No great damage but scary. I saw a couple cardiologists and finally had two stents put in yesterday. I'll recover for a week and then try riding my rollers again, see how it goes. I'll update this thread as I go.

Whoa! I hope that fixes it.

I think the answer to this is yes.

However, the chest-strap ones are usually better.

The Garmin watches have similar if not better ones than Apple, and have the additional merit of being able to "broadcast" (as does the chest-strap) to your cycling computer, Rouvy/Zwift/whatever etc.