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Left Heart Catheterization Thurs 2nd Sept 2010

 
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eldin raigmore
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PostPosted: Mon Aug 30, 2010 11:16 pm    Post subject: Left Heart Catheterization Thurs 2nd Sept 2010 Reply with quote

Just to let you know that on Thursday 2nd September 2010 at 10:00am I'm supposed to have a heart catheterization.

It's just diagnostic; it's not to fix anything, it's rather to see whether there's anything that needs fixing.

The doctor and his staff have been talking to me as if I need to be prepared for everything to look copasetic, but haven't mentioned what to do if a problem is seen; I assume that means they expect to find no problem.

This is all because I took several routine cardiovascular tests including a cardiac stress test. All of the other tests gave normal results; but the stress test appears to show that there may be an area on the back of my heart that may not be getting enough oxygen and/or blood circulation.

Since it's exactly the same area that was served by the artery that was completely blocked when I had my heart attack back in 2003, the likelihood is that residual scarring is all there is to this abnormal stress-test result (in which case I just need to keep on taking my medicines). But a catheterization will let them be sure.

All my other tests were normal; I have no symptoms; and my cardiologist says I obviously have no major problems.

The scariest thing about the test, to me, is that I'm supposed to not drive for 48 hours afterward; I don't know why that is. Does anyone else?
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Tolkien_Freak



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PostPosted: Tue Aug 31, 2010 12:03 am    Post subject: Re: Left Heart Catheterization Thurs 2nd Sept 2010 Reply with quote

Ouch, that's no fun. Hope it goes fine and there's no problems!

eldin raigmore wrote:
The scariest thing about the test, to me, is that I'm supposed to not drive for 48 hours afterward; I don't know why that is. Does anyone else?


I would assume that whatever anaesthesia they give you might not wear off enough for you to be coherent enough to drive - the 48 hours is probably a 'this is the latest that any effect could possibly be felt under the most extreme circumstances'-sized buffer.
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Aert



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PostPosted: Tue Aug 31, 2010 4:47 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

wow, good luck!

I myself have a similar heart condition, including trips for stress tests once in a blue moon.

Come back to us soon Smile
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kyonides



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PostPosted: Tue Aug 31, 2010 6:03 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Perhaps it's just some preventive measure as you first thought so let's not worry about that for no good reason.
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achemel



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PostPosted: Wed Sep 01, 2010 12:15 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I hope that everything turns out all right. My father was recently in the hospital and had a wait period for driving, and that was because of the anaesthetic. I'm sure it's the same for you, so there should be no worries. But, I know that overly reassuring someone can have counteractive effects, so don't let our "no worries" worry you. Wink Let us know how you're doing afterwards!
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eldin raigmore
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PostPosted: Fri Sep 03, 2010 9:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

It all went fine and I'm out.
I'm staying the night at my ex-house because I need to be "with a responsible adult" for the 1st 24 hours. Then I'll go home and stay there for another 24 hours; then I'll be back to normal.
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Tolkien_Freak



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PostPosted: Sat Sep 04, 2010 3:39 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yay!

Do you have the result?
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Aeetlrcreejl



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PostPosted: Sun Sep 05, 2010 1:21 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I wish you well.
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kyonides



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PostPosted: Mon Sep 06, 2010 5:49 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

eldin raigmore wrote:
It all went fine and I'm out.
I'm staying the night at my ex-house because I need to be "with a responsible adult" for the 1st 24 hours. Then I'll go home and stay there for another 24 hours; then I'll be back to normal.

You should be a very brave man Laughing
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eldin raigmore
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PostPosted: Tue Sep 07, 2010 9:21 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Tolkien_Freak wrote:
Yay! Do you have the result?
Yes.
My heart looks/looked the same as in 2003* (my heart attack was around Christmas of 2002), with one exception**.
*All my stents are clean.
**There was one new blockage; a branch of the Posterior Descending Coronary Artery was 90% blocked.
They (or, rather, we, because they asked me -- I was conscious, and I didn't have to think about it, I said "yes") decided to fix it then and there. (That's one reason I had to stay overnight -- if they do an angioplasty you have to stay overnight).
They couldn't fix it with a stent for three reasons:
(1) it was after the place where the PDCA branches,
(2) there was already a stent just before the branch, through which they'd have had to thread the new stent (with a risk of dislodging one or the other), and
(3) the partial blockage was at a point where the branch artery makes a right-angle turn, and it's hard to get a stent to bend right in such a place.
So, they did a "balloon angioplasty" (though those are less common nowadays than previously). They used the catheter to insert a deflated balloon through the stent into the correct branch of the PDCA up into the right-angle turn where the blockage was; then they inflated the balloon so that the blockage went down more than half from 90% to 40% (but the opening increased about six times from 10% to 60%!); then they deflated the balloon and pulled it back out.
------
I was amazed that the inflation part didn't hurt. When they placed my stents, all four of which are in more-main coronary arteries, the time during which the artery was blocked because they were expanding the stent, hurt. I can only guess that this didn't hurt because this artery isn't as major as those.

The most painful part of the process was the last 90 minutes (or so) of the six hours I had to lie after the sheath was removed, without moving that leg nor lifting my head. It became agonizing, near-torture. When they finally let me get out of bed and p.e.e. in the t.o.i.l.e.t. instead of in one of those "u.r.i.n.a.l.s.", and let me roll over on my side (either one) or lift my knees, it was a huge relief. (Actually the nurse accompanied me on a couple of laps of that entire floor of the hospital. She also insisted that when I was going to get up off the t.o.i.l.e.t. I call her first, in case I needed help, or in case I fell.)

I guess the second most painful part, or at least the pain that was most surprising, was when they tried to stick needles in the backs of my hands. That hurt a lot more than trying to stick them in the insides of my elbows. They couldn't actually do what they wanted in either hand, so they did eventually have to settle for the inside of my right elbow.

-------

Anyway; they made me stay through breakfast and my morning meds, then they gave me my discharge instructions and let me leave, about 9:30 AM Friday (9/3/10).
I spent Friday night at my daughter's and ex-wife's house, since I had to "be with a responsible adult" for 24 hours after being discharged. Around 7:30pm on Saturday (9/4/10) I drove home (about six hours early), and spent all night and all day and night Sunday (9/5/10) at home (no other driving). I wasn't allowed to swim for the first 72 hours, but that passed by 9:30 AM Labor Day (yesterday, Monday 9/6/10).

So, now, I'm not only allowed to do whatever I did before; I'm also allowed (and encouraged) to do those things (such as, "exercise") I should have been doing before, but wasn't.

-----------

That's bound to be more detail than some of you wanted to read!

But I don't know why Kyonides thinks I was brave. Was it spending the night with my ex-wife? Sure, in certain past times that would have been remarkably courageous, but it wasn't such a big deal this time (though not having been able to do that would have been a really big deal).

"Angioplasty" means never having to say "bypass" or "open-heart surgery". So the better part of cowardice was to go for the angioplasty rather than the bypass.

OTOH f.u.c.k.i.n.g. up your stents by building up plaque next to them means you have to go for the bypass. So I hope I'm enough of a coward to actually control my diet and get some exercise.

And, of course, if neither the stents nor the bypass works, my fears are all ended.
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Tolkien_Freak



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PostPosted: Thu Sep 09, 2010 12:56 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

That doesn't sound like fun. T_T
Did you not get general anaesthesia for the procedure? Since you're talking about it like you were conscious... I can't imagine not getting general anaesthesia for something like that.

Sorry for not saying more - I did read the whole thing! It was interesting - brings back memories of a surgery I had a long time ago.
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kyonides



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PostPosted: Sun Sep 12, 2010 4:46 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well, the thing is they didn't need to open your heart cavity and do something, that's a relief I guess.
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eldin raigmore
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PostPosted: Wed Sep 15, 2010 10:40 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Tolkien_Freak wrote:
Did you not get general anaesthesia for the procedure? Since you're talking about it like you were conscious... I can't imagine not getting general anaesthesia for something like that.
No, I had local anesthesia plus a sedative. The sedative was to keep me from moving around; or, maybe, just to keep me from being bothered by the fact that I couldn't move around.
One (both?) of the other two times I was in there, the sedative had a paradoxical effect on me; though I didn't wiggle, I was very talkative. This time that didn't happen.
Being awake during an angiogram is "cool", as a friend of mine says; you get to see a picture of the bloodvessels of your heart! "Before and after" pics are also entertaining; you get to see spots that weren't getting enough blood before, and see that they're getting more after.

kyonides wrote:
Well, the thing is they didn't need to open your heart cavity and do something, that's a relief I guess.
Yes. I'd hate for that to be necessary. If I don't gunk up my stents, it won't be. Best would be for me to not gunk up my arteries anywhere, whether near my stents or not.

Tolkien_Freak wrote:
Sorry for not saying more - I did read the whole thing! It was interesting - brings back memories of a surgery I had a long time ago.
Want to tell us?
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Tolkien_Freak



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PostPosted: Wed Sep 15, 2010 10:52 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

eldin raigmore wrote:
No, I had local anesthesia plus a sedative. The sedative was to keep me from moving around; or, maybe, just to keep me from being bothered by the fact that I couldn't move around.
One (both?) of the other two times I was in there, the sedative had a paradoxical effect on me; though I didn't wiggle, I was very talkative. This time that didn't happen.

Heh - I've had laughing gas do that to me before.

Quote:
Being awake during an angiogram is "cool", as a friend of mine says; you get to see a picture of the bloodvessels of your heart! "Before and after" pics are also entertaining; you get to see spots that weren't getting enough blood before, and see that they're getting more after.

It sounds kind of creepy, really. Though, the before and after part sounds awesome.

Quote:
Want to tell us?

Only if you're interested ^_^
I don't remember much anyway, I was barely 5才 at the time.
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eldin raigmore
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PostPosted: Sat Oct 22, 2011 5:03 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

OK, how much can a "5 only" remember about something like that?

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

I remember having the flu as a youngster; probably about 3 y/o give or take a year.

The medicine they gave me to help me go to sleep had a paradoxical effect (medicines for adults often have paradoxical effects on children) and I, even with the flu, was jumping up and down on my hospital bed. Eventually they did something which made me feel as exhausted as I should have felt (even though it also made me feel sicker (in the American sense, not the English sense; I wasn't nauseous IIRC, but I felt like my bones and joints and muscles ached, like I had a fever, and like when I breathed it didn't feel right)) and I went to sleep.
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