The cardiologist talked to the radiologist, and because it was somewhat ambiguous as to whether there might be a cardiac artery that is blocked, or close, they are going to do an angiogram on the 24th. If everything is working reasonably well, I'll be at work the next day. If they find a blockage that requires a stent, I'll be in the hospital overnight.
There's about a 0.1 to 0.3% bad things happen rate to these, but I'm not obese, or diabetic, or with compromised kidney function, so I am not in the group that typically ends up in the dead category.
Best wishes!
ReplyDeleteBeen there, done that, got the tee shirt.
ReplyDeleteIf they find (a) blockage(s), and they're stent-able, the worst part will be having to adjust to your new diet and exercise regimes.
If they decide a bypass is the better route, you'll have some recovery time to deal with.
I had a wisdom tooth removed once, and five months later I had a stent inserted. Which was the worse operation? By far, the tooth removal. Not even a contest.
ReplyDelete12 years later, I needed a second stent, and it didn't scare me in the slightest. I went through the entire operation carrying on a time-of-day conversation with the doctor.
BTW, across those twelve years, stents have improved a lot. The second operation left me with a minor cut, not the big red-blue-green mark that the first one did. And apparently, the stent exudes some type of drug.
However, the second stent put me on effient, a. New drug, that gave me nose bleeds every hour.
They give you nice sedatives with a catheterization. You probably won't even remember what they did.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure you'll be fine. Good luck.
The only bad part of my angiogram* was the waiting afterward. First, they were waiting to see if they cardiologist wanted to redo anything, so they left the catheter in. Then, when the order to take out the catheter came, and ONLY then, then noticed my clotting time was too long and went, Oh, maybe we should have discontinued the heparin already! Idiots!!! So I lay there for a couple more hours, fully in agony because I'd been on my back unable to move or roll over for about 4 1/2 hours already. Oy.....
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*At the age of 39 I had a small unpremeditated and completely unjustified heart attack. I base the latter assessment on the fact that I basically had zero of the predisposing factors (family history, diet, smoking, etc) going against me.