Angina after angioplasty? - Angina Message Board

adelante · 12-25-2005, 08:00 PM

I had a little chest pain when I was biking vigorously, so I ended up with a series of tests. I am a very active male in my early 50s, although somewhat overweight. The Cardiologist acted like my health was in danger after a treadmill EKG, even though the EKG looked normal. They said that my blood pressure went up and and then down, which is not normal.

A few days later I had an angioplasty with three stents put into two vessels. Unfortunately, a week later I went for a walk, felt really tired and went to bed at 11 AM. I started to have some numbness in my arms, so I went to the emergency room. They told me that I had not had a heart attack, but I went back for another angioplasty with two more stents put in the third vessel.

I am very concerned about the level of chest pain that I have now. I know that there is often some chest pain after an angioplasty, especially if stents are installed. I have some chest pain at rest. But now, when I go for a brisk walk (a little over 3 mph) I have significant chest pain, probably a 2 or 3 on the 10 point pain scale. I am not working out that hard, my pulse rate was about 115.

So anyway, my question, for those who have had angioplasties, is how much pain did you experience after the procedure? Did you have significant angina during moderate exercise? How did your angina compare, before and after the angioplasty? Did your angina change much over time after the procedure, or did it stay about the same?

I am only a few days out after my second angioplasty, I go to see the doctor next week.

Thanks in advance for your experiences.

Ricardo

ladychecotah · 12-26-2005, 07:09 AM

I suppose they did tell you to somewhat restrict your activities for a few day after stents being put in. Stents can close quite quickly. I hope that is not your case. I have 8 stents and after receiving a stent, I felt better for awhile, but withing a month to 3 months mine closed. The last two are staying open because I take Plavix, blood thinner, every day and have for 3 years. The Lord has blessed this medicine to help these two in my LAD stay open. The six in my RCA are 100% closed.

Maybe you are trying to do too much too soon. If it were me, I would restrict activities until I could see my doctor.

rigel434 · 12-26-2005, 10:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ladychecotah

The Lord has blessed this medicine to help these two in my LAD stay open. The six in my RCA are 100% closed.

I'm trying to learn about blockages due to concen about a family member, and I was wondering how that manifests itself having 6 arteries 100% closed- is that part of your heart even moving blood and are you able to get around ok?

adelante · 12-26-2005, 07:56 PM

I ended up calling the heart doctor on call, going to the emergency room, and staying overnight.

The doctor who did the angioplasty spent a long time talking to me before I was discharged, and explaining it, including showing videos of the procedure, etc.

His explanation is more or less the following: I had coronary artery disease in all three arteries. The first time, he stented the two worst arteries, the second time he did the other one. He was not surprised that I had some pain, although he did not expect this much. His view is that one of the stents impinged on one of the diagonal arteries coming off the Left Anterior Descending artery. This only restricts the blood flow to a small part of the heart, and will not kill me. He says I will be taking nitro before exercise for a while, and hopes that with aggressive drug treatment and time this pain will become less of an issue. I am scheduled for a treadmill EKG later this week, and he says to take it easy until after that. (His orginal instructions were to exercise vigorously, and he said nothing about taking it easy for a week). He is thinking six to eight weeks to see how things go. We will see.

Thanks for your comments.

Ricardo

Lenin · 12-27-2005, 06:59 AM

Ricardo,

Pain after angioplasty is not common (except for groin pain.)
A rule of thumb is that if the pain seems the same it is a closing of the angioplasty/stent that was repaired. A different kind of pain usually means a different artery. Something is still blocked in a major artery in your chest, my guess is a restenosis and a likely outcome after your stress test (insist on nuclear testing) will be yet another angiogram.

For anyone on PLAVIX after 2 months, I recommed a close look at the graphs of the two studies that justify PLAVIX' use: the CURE STUDY and the CAPRIE STUDY. CAPRIE showed that aspirin or Plavix (clopidogrel) are completely equilvalent if used alone but CURE showed that TOGTHER they save an addition 2% of people from the direst consequences of clotting. BUT if you look at the CURE chart (on any Plavix package insert) you will see the divergence between aspirin and placebo and aspirin and plavix ceases to expand after 2 months meaning no additonal heart attacks or restenosis were prevented after this time and that aspirin alone did the protecting in months 3 through infinity.

Add in the VERY real and horribly dangerous bleeding effects of plavix and the Plavix looks even less good. These hemmorhages are ignored in both studies.

I took my Plavix for 60 days, mopping blood from my nose for each of those 60 days and was VERY glad to stop, even though my doctor would have preferred 90 days.
After all, that bleed COULD have been into my cranium.
I've taken many drugs in a long life and, in truth, I found Plavix the very scariest of them all.