Laying in a hospital bed at the moment. Just had 3 stents installed in cardiac arteries. Long story. I'll relate the gory details tomorrow, when I'm home.

Wish you well brother...

Whoa,...
I take it this was unplanned?


Hang tough Paul.  Keep us updated.

Well, that sucks. Been thru it myself. Just take it easy for a while & eat lots of honey, Get yourself back together bro. Keep us posted & all the best to you, Sue & the girls. ......Paul H

Tick-tock,...
I hope all is well.

This probably won't be as long as usual because I can only use one finger on my right hand as that is how they got the stents and "viewer" to my heart. (Radial artery to the brachial artery to the heart.) The cardiologist and histeam that went in first ti 'have a look' were gentle and great. Once determined that there was "significant blockage", a cardiac surgeon had to implant the stents. He and his team were BRUTAL. Unnecessarily so in my opinion, but perfectly consistent with my experience with SURGEONS. They are the most arrogant of all medical personnel, and almost literally "stomp" around without concern for ANYTHING but the specifics of the surgery. That is not my opinion. Several papers have been written in the past few decades about how mortality would be reduced, hospital stays would be reduced in length, and recoveries shorter if surgeon didn't act like bulls in china closets while they were "in". That "atttitude" extends to their team of assistants. Enough on that.

Clearly "this:" has been going on for "some time", however, last Christmas while in Utah, I actually felt so bad that I thought I might be having a heart attack. I attributed the bas feeling to being out of shape and being at 5000+ feet above sea level when I lived at sea level. When I got back to AK, I changed my caloric intake (NOT a "diet), and started walking daily on a treadmill. About late April I started having pain in my trachea (windpipe). The pain was EXACTLY like one gets when one runs in the cold or when one hasn't run in a long time. I attributed it to being out of shape OR some inflammation or infection in my throat. It alsways came on  with even mild exercise like walking up a flight of stairs or carrying something heavy.

Afte about 6 weeks of that, I went to the VA and started "the process" there. The "easter-egging" went on for a while including x-rays and various inhalants for various possible problems. In their defense, I was the one protesting against a "heart problem". They went along with me until we exhausted all reasonable causes without effect. Finally, they threw up their hands and decided to come at it systematically (as I wanted all along), and ordered a "stress test" to "eliminate the heart as a source of the problem".

Because too many people have had heart attacks during stress tests AND DIED, a cardiologist MUST be present now during stress tests. The comprehensive stress test takes two days: FIrst day they inject you with a RADIOACTIVE "dye", then take "resting pictures". The next day they 'wire you up', put you on a treadmill, get your heart up to a predetermined 'max', inject you with RADIOACTIVE dye again, wait an hour, and then take "stress pictures". I didn't make it to the injection stage. The cardiologist was 'reporting' about every 30 seconds. He was saying "Everything is normal", 30 seconds later he would repeat "Everything is normal". He must have said it 20 tmes at least. And this is exactly what I was expecting because I KNEW this was NOT a "heart issue". Then, as they raised the elevation on the treadmill, I started to get the throat pain, and reported that. At the same time, I was just about at the max heart rate that they wanted. The doctor started looking more closely at the chart paper. The radiology tech asked if he should "inject", and didn't get a response from the doctor. The pain was increasing in my throat, and the doctor was not listening to anyone else in the room but me, and when I said "I'm done", he stopped the test.

Things got kinda "busy" all of a sudden. The doctor said "You have a very abnormal ekg. Where we normally see a depression with arterial occlusion, you're presenting a large elevation." He started calling people and cancelling appointments. He told me that he would see me "in clinic" as soon as he could arrange it (that day), and in the mean time, I would have an ulrasound done on my heart. He also said, "You clearly have at least one severe occlusion and maybe two. Ypu are going to need at least a stent, and possibly bypass surgery. We'll go in (catheterize) tomorrow and determine the severity and number of occlusions." I said the "f" word.

I had the echo cardiogram, and it was NORMAL. I met with the doctor "in clinic", and the catheterization was scheduled for the next morning. The rest is 'history'.

Prognosis is good, and my 'life' should be "immediately better" according to the cardiologist and cardiac surgeon. The REAL "downside" TO ME, is the several drugs I have to take for at least a year. These are drugs that I consider "poison", to be used only when not using them would be worse than using them. In other word there is NO "upside" to using them.

But.. hunts in Colorado and Utah are no problem according to cardiologist. In fact, there is essentially nothing I am prohibited from doing almost immediately. In fact, "it shoud be immediately better: according to cardiologists.

So... I'm tryingto look at this as "good". Better than dying on a mountainside in Colorado.

Paul

This is clearly a win win for you my friend. I wish I had had a stress test done before my heart attack.....I had several hints and ignored them. Listen up everyone as this is a wake up call. Paul is going to make a full recovery because he went through a simple procedure.....just do it!

Whew!
Could be worse Paul.
But you knew that huh?


Get your teeth checked.  Periodontal problems/flora and vascular appliances are not a combo you want to experience.  I hope they told you that.


And I know you hate Portland, but if there's a next time, and you have the option, consider OHSU.
A couple of the best cardio-thoracic surgeons in the country practice there.  I hear they wear ballet slippers.



Glad you're okay.
Wishing you Godspeed on your recovery.

Thanks! Everyone!

All seems well for the moment. I intend to mowthe lawn tomorrow.

Not real happy about the handful of drugs I have to take, but it's better than the alternative. I think I was fortunate to have found 'it' before I had a heart attack.

Paul

Paul, good to hear things are looking up & you didn't have a heart attack. They're no fun at all. They make you sit still & wonder what the hell is going on in there. You can't even talk if you wanted  to. Be careful mowing the dandelions & get yourself back together gradually. A little honey & vinegar two or three times a day is better than all those pills too. .......Paul H

Paul

Listen to the doctors and more importantly, listen to the missus, because she was probably  listening when the Doc told you to Do's and Don't's

RJ

Take care Paul and keep looking after yourself.

I lost my dad to a heart attack and he was only 70 years old. Lasted 15 years after a triple bypass so I was glad he was around as long as he was.

As you might imagine, I have been 'reading up' on stent-related topics. Probably the most important aspect is that getting stents does NOT improve longevity/survivability. Which begs the question: "Why do it?" The answer is - according to the medical community - relieve pain (AKA angina) and open blood vessel thereby putting off a heart attack. The 'problem' with stents is that the location where they are placed is rarely the place that 'ruptures' and causes a heart attack.

I have a 'follow-up' meeting with the cardiologist on the 26th. At that time we'll be discussing how long I have to be on the cholesterol-lowering drug and the blood pressure drug. The other drug I am taking is an anti-clotting drug, but "they" don't like to call it that. They prefer to call it a "platelet" drug. (But it neither gives you platelets nor removes them. It prevents them from forming clots.) That drug, more commonly known as "Plavix", will be taken for some time between 6 and 12 months. No 'negotiating' that. (Not that I would.) However, we will be 'wrestling' over the cholesterol-lowering drug and the BP drug.

First, I don't like cholesterol-lowering drugs. Their side-effect CAN BE worse than hyper-lipiditis (high cholesterol). Not for everyone is this true, but those affected represent more than a small proportion. "Cholesterol" wasn't my problem. Furthermore, medicos prescribe those drugs and never give the patient an opportunity to change their cholesterol numbers by changing diet and exercise. Like I said, we'll be wrestling about that.

Secondly, during the stent installation and for 12 hours in the ICU after the installation, my BP was taken every 15 minutes. The average over that interval of time was 128/82. For someone 67 years old, that's very good. I asked the discharging physician (a cardiologist) if I 'needed' BP-lowering medicine. He said an emphatic "No!". However, on ACTUAL discharge, I got a prescription for BP-lowering medicine. When I questioned this, I had smoke blown in my face. Since I had a fairly serious 'procedure' performed on my heart, I'm not arguing for the time being. However, come September 26, the cardiologist that prescribed the BP medicine will have to come up with some legitimate reason(s) for maintaining it.

I was also prescribed a vaso-dialator. When I started taking all these pills, I started getting very bad head-aches that never went away. When I spoke with yet another cardiologist, he said "Quit taking the vaso-dialator." Which ticked me off. If it so casually can be discarded, why the heck was it prescribed in the first place?! But that's water under the bridge. No need to 'wrestle' over that one.

Once I was a week past the intallation date I was allowed to get back on the treadmill. (I stopped when my throat started hurting me in May.) Yesterday, Sue and I went kayaking for the second time. (The first time - reported on here at THL - was two days before the stent operation.) All went well, but... I didn't catch any fish this time. I didn't really try very hard, as the sockeye salmon are spawing in the lake and the native trout are gorged with eggs and not much interested in anything else.

So... I'm mostly back to 'normal' except for the drugs. I have implemented relatively small dietary changes. I'm giving up milk and sugar which means I'm giving up coffee by default because I don't care for coffee without milk and sugar. I am replacing coffee/milk/sugar with tea with honey. Paul Hoskins will be glad to hear that I have about two tablespoons of honey per day, and about a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar on my evening salad. Not much change in exercise, as I started walking on the treadmill daily last January 3rd. That will allow me to get into SOME 'shape' for the deer hunt in Colorado in October and the elk hunt in Utah in December. That was actually why I went to the doctor in the first place: I wasn't able to 'train' for those hunts because of the pain in my neck.

As my friend Grant said, "Better to find it on a stress test in a hospital than on the side of a mountain in Colorado."

Paul

I take 2 tabs of 1GM Colestipol one at night and 1 in morning to lower LDL-C.
5 MG Warfin.  Prevents blood clots in veins & arteries. This caused both of my heart attacks. Every month I take a blood test to check my numbers....it's a necessary evil.
25 MG Spironolactone.  Used to treat heart failure, high blood pressure (hypertension), fluid retention (edema) in people with congestive heart failure.
40MG Furosemide. Used to treat fluid retention (edema) in people with congestive heart failure.
2.5 MG Lisinopril.  Used primarily in treatment of high blood pressure, heart failure, and after heart attacks.
40MG Simvastatin. A cholesterol-lowering medication that blocks the production of cholesterol.

The one that concerns me the most is Simvastatin. It causes many bad things as you get older. At some point in time I'm going to ask to be taken off the drug as my cholestrol is perfect and at this point in time I really don't need to be "perfect"!

Last month my Dr. said all my blood numbers were excellent and not to change anything. I asked her what she could prescribe for loss om memory. She said there is no such thing. However one of the side effects of Simvastatin is memory loss! Simvastatin can also cause a condition that results in the breakdown of skeletal muscle tissue, leading to kidney failure. This is happening to me!