Good video. I too was like John early on and felt almost normal. I was shocked when my EF came back at 20 to 25% two months after my heart attack. An echo showed mine at 35% at the hospital 4 days after my heart attack. Since I was over 35% I didnt qualify for a defibrillator. Two months later i was doing squats and went into deadly ventricular tachycardia. We called 911 and just a minute or so after they got here I went into V fib and passed out. Nearly died, but they defibrillated me externally. Needless to say, I got my ICD right after that. Turns out that my ef came back at below 20% at that time, so it went down after being released from the hospital.
My ICD has saved my life no less than 7 times. Each time it goes off I would have most probably died. My EF has been stuck at about 20 to 25% for the past 12 years. After the first year mine went up from 20% up to around 25%. It used to come back below 20% to 20%. So it can approve slightly, but id not count on much. My heart is akinetic on the inferior wall.
On if to get the ICD or not, i would probably err on the safe side and get it, especially if you are exercising really hard. The exercise is a trigger for arrhythmias like V tach. Your chances of having trouble go way up while you exercise. Ive had it happen a good number of times. Since I have an ICD I know that I am pretty safe from death though. If you dont have one, you are stuck calling 911 and praying that they get there soon enough. In my case that first time they barely arrived before I went into V fib and passed out. If youre like me and lift alone, then having an ICD is especially life saving. Once your heart gets off into V tach it can be hard to even walk and get to a phone to call 911. Going into an arrhythmia that can be fatal, if you dont get a defibrillation in time there is a good chance youll die. Ive been stuck in slower arrhythmias that arent fatal no that have gone on for 5 hours or more, stuck going 165 BPM. Only a defibrillation will bring it back. My defibrillator is now set to go off at 170 BPM. You dont want it too low or too high. Too low and it can go off when you exercise, normal sinus rhythm. Too high and you will pass out before it goes off, and thats dangerous. I asked the life squad what my heart rate was when I passed out and they said it was 450. At that point it was really just twitching and no blood was getting to my brain.
The MUGA scan is really nice, supposed to be a bit more accurate than echo. Ive had them done back to back with an echo within days and the results on them do come back about the same. So I havent seen a big discrepancy between results from the two. Im very glad that I have my ICD. I would have died back in December of 2008 when it first went off and saved my life. I was all alone in my study playing a computer game. My wife would have found me dead on the floor. My EF is only 20 to 25% though, and John's is about 10% higher. Its a critical choice to make. For me it was an easy one because I went into V tach before I had my ICD and nearly died.