zip2play
12-29-2003, 06:42 PM
Well,
It's a just scheduled catheter dye angiograph for me next Monday.
I knew it would come to this but I am still scared silly.
Seems the doc will do an angioplasty and stent if necessary on the spot.
Is that the way everybody who has a stent gets stented or do they ususally pull the works out and do it all later? Do they always at least baloon blockages if possible with the angiogram?
OY, if anxiety were a pair of wings, I could fly to the moon!
My systolic goes throught the roof everytime I enter a doctor's office and they felt that any sort of stress testing first would be unwise (and also undefinitive).
Did everyone who had angiography get a set of pictures for over the fireplace...I like records of EVERYTHING that's done to me.
The scary parts were the stroke risk of 1/500 and death, 1/1000...
It's been a tough day and the meal I ate 4 hours ago is laying there like a brick in my stomach!
At least I won't have months to dwell on the procedure!
It's a just scheduled catheter dye angiograph for me next Monday.
I knew it would come to this but I am still scared silly.
Seems the doc will do an angioplasty and stent if necessary on the spot.
Is that the way everybody who has a stent gets stented or do they ususally pull the works out and do it all later? Do they always at least baloon blockages if possible with the angiogram?
OY, if anxiety were a pair of wings, I could fly to the moon!
My systolic goes throught the roof everytime I enter a doctor's office and they felt that any sort of stress testing first would be unwise (and also undefinitive).
Did everyone who had angiography get a set of pictures for over the fireplace...I like records of EVERYTHING that's done to me.
The scary parts were the stroke risk of 1/500 and death, 1/1000...
It's been a tough day and the meal I ate 4 hours ago is laying there like a brick in my stomach!
At least I won't have months to dwell on the procedure!
Sponsor
CobaltBlue
12-30-2003, 12:30 PM
Well,
Is that the way everybody who has a stent gets stented or do they ususally pull the works out and do it all later? Do they always at least baloon blockages if possible with the angiogram?!
Zip,
Since I had 3 of these in 2002...they will usually place the stent while in there since the worst part is already over by then (insertion and balloon inflation if a stent is coming). You probably know this, but the tendency to reblock without a stent is much greater.... Oh, and you want this over all in one swoop though... Multiple angiograms are really not the way I want to keep having it...I wanted them to place two stents the first time, they didn't. Sure enough, I needed another one 3 months later--that would have saved me another ER trip.
Did everyone who had angiography get a set of pictures for over the fireplace...I like records of EVERYTHING that's done to me.
The scary parts were the stroke risk of 1/500 and death, 1/1000...
At least I won't have months to dwell on the procedure!
Those odds are pretty slim, and much better than 1 in 2 to 1 in 3 survival after an MI :) I had to face those odds...give me the angiogram thanks! :)
Yes, I have my sets of pictures. Unfortunately, the cats I have love that paper too. Er, actually, they urinate on that paper. I have one set destroyed by them already.
Talk to you in a few days, off to the Orange Bowl.
Hang in there Zip!
Is that the way everybody who has a stent gets stented or do they ususally pull the works out and do it all later? Do they always at least baloon blockages if possible with the angiogram?!
Zip,
Since I had 3 of these in 2002...they will usually place the stent while in there since the worst part is already over by then (insertion and balloon inflation if a stent is coming). You probably know this, but the tendency to reblock without a stent is much greater.... Oh, and you want this over all in one swoop though... Multiple angiograms are really not the way I want to keep having it...I wanted them to place two stents the first time, they didn't. Sure enough, I needed another one 3 months later--that would have saved me another ER trip.
Did everyone who had angiography get a set of pictures for over the fireplace...I like records of EVERYTHING that's done to me.
The scary parts were the stroke risk of 1/500 and death, 1/1000...
At least I won't have months to dwell on the procedure!
Those odds are pretty slim, and much better than 1 in 2 to 1 in 3 survival after an MI :) I had to face those odds...give me the angiogram thanks! :)
Yes, I have my sets of pictures. Unfortunately, the cats I have love that paper too. Er, actually, they urinate on that paper. I have one set destroyed by them already.
Talk to you in a few days, off to the Orange Bowl.
Hang in there Zip!
zip2play
12-30-2003, 03:42 PM
Damn!! guy,
Do you think it's safe to quarterback with 2 stents!
Thanks for the reassurance. Doc's going to check the kidney vascularization also if I remind him...LOL!
Well, it will be either Versed or valium....and while others zonk out on them, this old 60's pro will probably criticize every wiggle of the catheter.
On my colonoscopy and Versed it was...."Let's go back to that- was that a small polyp?"....No, just a "tag"...."Can you pull it out?"....He did.
I was told to rest 4 hours and said I have to pee and it's only 2 blocks to the PATH train and left 5 minutes after they pulled the tubing out!
So much for drugging an old druggy!:D
Enjoy the game my friend!
Do you think it's safe to quarterback with 2 stents!
Thanks for the reassurance. Doc's going to check the kidney vascularization also if I remind him...LOL!
Well, it will be either Versed or valium....and while others zonk out on them, this old 60's pro will probably criticize every wiggle of the catheter.
On my colonoscopy and Versed it was...."Let's go back to that- was that a small polyp?"....No, just a "tag"...."Can you pull it out?"....He did.
I was told to rest 4 hours and said I have to pee and it's only 2 blocks to the PATH train and left 5 minutes after they pulled the tubing out!
So much for drugging an old druggy!:D
Enjoy the game my friend!
zuzu8
01-04-2004, 03:29 PM
Zip-
Give'em hell Monday.
You'll sail thru with flying colors. No argument on that.
Plus we need you on the HBP board!
zuzu xx
Give'em hell Monday.
You'll sail thru with flying colors. No argument on that.
Plus we need you on the HBP board!
zuzu xx
zip2play
01-11-2004, 07:08 PM
During Monday's angiogram (which I watched on 5 screens)...Gee, all the Left and Circumflex arteries looked clean.
AND THEN there it was...squirt into Right Coronary Artery showed complete bockage in the main trunk feed but full vessels below the rather long block. My MAGICIAN said take a breath, hold, and don't even blink.....he banged through and blew it to 3.5 mm and placed medicated stent...NIAGARA FALLS! He finally called it a 95-98% blockage. (personally I think I was 100% blocked, operating only on a collateral circulation because I saw some hairlike vessels coming out of the top of the block. No heart damage.
By the law of averages, I died in the 1980's. A lesser surgeon might have split me open and bypassed....THANK YOU GOD and the best cardio-surgeon in the Big Apple!
One hospital overnight...horrible bruising to groin from the cathetering and pushing to stop bleeding....but I walked to Shop-Rite for Can-Can Sale Wednesday.
So far this year I got my second fake stapes and an opened heart....modern surgery is truly wonderful....now if they could JUST invent a hypertension pill that WORKED without 15 gazillion side effects (wink to zuzu).
Lipitor for life and Plavix and aspirin for 3 months at least to prevent any clots from forming on my shiny new stent!
HE LIVES!
AND THEN there it was...squirt into Right Coronary Artery showed complete bockage in the main trunk feed but full vessels below the rather long block. My MAGICIAN said take a breath, hold, and don't even blink.....he banged through and blew it to 3.5 mm and placed medicated stent...NIAGARA FALLS! He finally called it a 95-98% blockage. (personally I think I was 100% blocked, operating only on a collateral circulation because I saw some hairlike vessels coming out of the top of the block. No heart damage.
By the law of averages, I died in the 1980's. A lesser surgeon might have split me open and bypassed....THANK YOU GOD and the best cardio-surgeon in the Big Apple!
One hospital overnight...horrible bruising to groin from the cathetering and pushing to stop bleeding....but I walked to Shop-Rite for Can-Can Sale Wednesday.
So far this year I got my second fake stapes and an opened heart....modern surgery is truly wonderful....now if they could JUST invent a hypertension pill that WORKED without 15 gazillion side effects (wink to zuzu).
Lipitor for life and Plavix and aspirin for 3 months at least to prevent any clots from forming on my shiny new stent!
HE LIVES!
zuzu8
01-11-2004, 08:18 PM
ZIP-
Was so thrilled to see your post and hear your news. Did you know that your named had "banned" under it for the past few days? I was bereft. BEREFT I tell you. Wondering what the hell was going on..why the ban...(was "this close" to emailing Mod 1 to beg for a "reprieve")... and this all coincided with your "procedure" day. So you became one of the "disappeareds" there for a while.
So happy you came through, as I predicted, with flying colors. Don't know much about stents and cardiac issues but you sound great.
The letter "Z" in Greek also can represent the word "Zi," or "HE LIVES." I think you once mentioned you were an old 60's radical (?) so you probably know this: When the Greek Government was overthrown in 1967, the Greek colonels banned the letter "Z," prompting the 1969 thriller film by director Costa-Gavras, "Z." Henceforth I think you should sign all posts simply "Z" which matches your user name anyway!
zuzu xx
Was so thrilled to see your post and hear your news. Did you know that your named had "banned" under it for the past few days? I was bereft. BEREFT I tell you. Wondering what the hell was going on..why the ban...(was "this close" to emailing Mod 1 to beg for a "reprieve")... and this all coincided with your "procedure" day. So you became one of the "disappeareds" there for a while.
So happy you came through, as I predicted, with flying colors. Don't know much about stents and cardiac issues but you sound great.
The letter "Z" in Greek also can represent the word "Zi," or "HE LIVES." I think you once mentioned you were an old 60's radical (?) so you probably know this: When the Greek Government was overthrown in 1967, the Greek colonels banned the letter "Z," prompting the 1969 thriller film by director Costa-Gavras, "Z." Henceforth I think you should sign all posts simply "Z" which matches your user name anyway!
zuzu xx
zip2play
01-11-2004, 09:24 PM
Yeah, zuzu,
I saw the fateful word under my name....
Thanks for your bereftitude :D :D , and I think Costa Gavras' "Z" perhaps the most important movie ever made. It's as pertinent today as it was then- maybe more so!
I saw the fateful word under my name....
Thanks for your bereftitude :D :D , and I think Costa Gavras' "Z" perhaps the most important movie ever made. It's as pertinent today as it was then- maybe more so!
wr6969
01-12-2004, 01:31 AM
zip, glad to know you're OK and fine and dandy now ;)
CobaltBlue
01-12-2004, 08:25 AM
Zip:
Thanks for the update :) What I forgot to mention was that after my first cath and stent, I was on Plavix 3 weeks, and aspirin for life. After the 2nd cath/stent, I went on Plavix 4 weeks. My 3rd cath came a few days after my 2nd, perhaps 3-4 days, because I thought I still felt angina. They examined my coronary arteries for an hour that third time and found no problems--and mentioned that my first stent looked fine (normal amount of "furring" up prior to regressing back to a wider opening).
Glad to see you back.
Thanks for the update :) What I forgot to mention was that after my first cath and stent, I was on Plavix 3 weeks, and aspirin for life. After the 2nd cath/stent, I went on Plavix 4 weeks. My 3rd cath came a few days after my 2nd, perhaps 3-4 days, because I thought I still felt angina. They examined my coronary arteries for an hour that third time and found no problems--and mentioned that my first stent looked fine (normal amount of "furring" up prior to regressing back to a wider opening).
Glad to see you back.
zip2play
01-12-2004, 09:38 AM
Three catheterizations....gee Ulrich I'll bet you shiver every time you pass a hospital! That's 2 too many!
Aspirin for life for me (and at least 325 mg for the last thirty years...often MUCH more). But my minimum 3 months on Plavix will have to be truncated either by pcovers' alternate day method or half pills. At those prices, one can't sniff at the $$$$saved either. The stuff is giving me nosebleeds ( 5 Plavix dose immediately before the surgery might have been the villain) and I've had several bouts of gastritis. I have a cast iron stomach and have taked 8 aspirin/day for periods without anything more than tinnitus. But since my surgeon said daily Plavix for 3 months "under pain of death," I won;t change dose wiithout his approval (Jan 21).
Anyway it has metabolites that have a half life of Plutonium so bizarro dosing won't matter much as long as I get ENOUGH!
Interesting thought guys....
My all winter-every winter finger joint pain has gone away immediately after starting the Plavix....does it have some sort of prostaglandin inhibition in addition to the ADP block. Perhaps something that gets different prostaglandins than aspirin (which does doodle for my fingers!) It's nice to see an occasional POSITIVE side effect!
edit:
Oh yeah, it was a "medicated" stent...Cardio the Magnificent said they last 2 or 3 times as long! ;)
Aspirin for life for me (and at least 325 mg for the last thirty years...often MUCH more). But my minimum 3 months on Plavix will have to be truncated either by pcovers' alternate day method or half pills. At those prices, one can't sniff at the $$$$saved either. The stuff is giving me nosebleeds ( 5 Plavix dose immediately before the surgery might have been the villain) and I've had several bouts of gastritis. I have a cast iron stomach and have taked 8 aspirin/day for periods without anything more than tinnitus. But since my surgeon said daily Plavix for 3 months "under pain of death," I won;t change dose wiithout his approval (Jan 21).
Anyway it has metabolites that have a half life of Plutonium so bizarro dosing won't matter much as long as I get ENOUGH!
Interesting thought guys....
My all winter-every winter finger joint pain has gone away immediately after starting the Plavix....does it have some sort of prostaglandin inhibition in addition to the ADP block. Perhaps something that gets different prostaglandins than aspirin (which does doodle for my fingers!) It's nice to see an occasional POSITIVE side effect!
edit:
Oh yeah, it was a "medicated" stent...Cardio the Magnificent said they last 2 or 3 times as long! ;)
CobaltBlue
01-12-2004, 10:29 AM
Oh yeah, it was a "medicated" stent...Cardio the Magnificent said they last 2 or 3 times as long! ;)
I have no idea on the effect of Plavix on your finger...? I do have a question for you based on what your Cardiologist said about the 2-3 x longer lasting stent. Did he happen to mention how long stents "last?" We often here about failures in the first 3-6 months and that rate is reported. I remember reading something like older stents fail 25% of the time in the first 6 months, whereas these newer stents failed something like 3% of the time.
As of yet, I haven't been able to find an answer to the question, "what is the longest time that a stent can remain effective?" Did you happen to ask that question? :)
I have no idea on the effect of Plavix on your finger...? I do have a question for you based on what your Cardiologist said about the 2-3 x longer lasting stent. Did he happen to mention how long stents "last?" We often here about failures in the first 3-6 months and that rate is reported. I remember reading something like older stents fail 25% of the time in the first 6 months, whereas these newer stents failed something like 3% of the time.
As of yet, I haven't been able to find an answer to the question, "what is the longest time that a stent can remain effective?" Did you happen to ask that question? :)
zip2play
01-12-2004, 02:56 PM
No I didn't Ulrich but you can bet I'll ask him on the 21st. My guess is that the numbers really wonlt be of much use because of the short span of usage for the metal and even shorter span for the medicated stent. My GUESS (and hope) id that more than half that were implanted have remained ok...much more would be nice.
I'm reading some interesting stuff on platinum coated stents to prevent refurring, and radiation to clear restenosis and prevent recurrence. And also throwing another stent into the first.
Certainly tight lipid control MUST be very helpful and I may buy one of the at home kits that pcovers likes for testing at least HDL on a regualr basis.
Roger
I'm reading some interesting stuff on platinum coated stents to prevent refurring, and radiation to clear restenosis and prevent recurrence. And also throwing another stent into the first.
Certainly tight lipid control MUST be very helpful and I may buy one of the at home kits that pcovers likes for testing at least HDL on a regualr basis.
Roger
CobaltBlue
01-12-2004, 05:12 PM
Zip,
That sounds like a deal--I appreciate you asking. The next time I am scheduled to see mine is December 2004 for a routine stress test, provided no events happen between now and then.
My understanding is that the stents do work themselves into the arterial walls over time and that the plaque that is now mashed up against the wall can possibly weaken the artery in that location. The other possibility is, as you mentioned, tight lipid control. Hopefully that helps to slightly reverse that buildup.
It sounds like you were able to slow your progression, or keep it in check for years. That means you must be doing something better than I did. Mine progressed quickly, and at a young age.
Now that you feel better, are you starting to exercise more and test your limits, or rather, do you plan to? I want to hear about your marathon training routine :)
I know the bruise from the stitch down there will be bothersome for about a week. Actually, my 2nd was the worst (lasting a week). The 1st and 3rd (left side on the 3rd) did not really bruise me.
Ulrich
That sounds like a deal--I appreciate you asking. The next time I am scheduled to see mine is December 2004 for a routine stress test, provided no events happen between now and then.
My understanding is that the stents do work themselves into the arterial walls over time and that the plaque that is now mashed up against the wall can possibly weaken the artery in that location. The other possibility is, as you mentioned, tight lipid control. Hopefully that helps to slightly reverse that buildup.
It sounds like you were able to slow your progression, or keep it in check for years. That means you must be doing something better than I did. Mine progressed quickly, and at a young age.
Now that you feel better, are you starting to exercise more and test your limits, or rather, do you plan to? I want to hear about your marathon training routine :)
I know the bruise from the stitch down there will be bothersome for about a week. Actually, my 2nd was the worst (lasting a week). The 1st and 3rd (left side on the 3rd) did not really bruise me.
Ulrich