My Cardiologist indicated that the next step was to have a heart cath procedure that will actually take a closer look so that heart surgeons can determine if additional stents should be inserted, or if a bypass should be performed, or if maintaining the status quo is appropriate...
In 2009/2010 five (5) stents were inserted into my heart arteries, 3 in the LAD and 2 were inserted into other arteries on the left side. After 10 years, it is normal and typical for these stents to no longer perform as they were originally intended to perform.
My concern folds around the idea that for the last decade I have only eaten heart healthy foods to prevent something like this from happening... Exercise may have helped reduce plaque build-up but diet is the preferred way to go... I did both but concentrated more on diet than on exercise.
These days instead of entering the artery in the inside upper thigh in the groin to travel to the heart, the surgeon enters into another artery in the wrist around the area of the thumb. This approach is less invasive and just as effective with the recovery time being greater. I am waiting to hear back on the dates for this procedure... but what I do know is that it will start at 7:30 am and I am to report 90 minutes before that.
That procedure will determine that next steps that I will be taking.A few days ago, I had a nuclear stress test and while I achieved my target heart rate, I felt light-headed and soon after the test was halted. Yesterday, I received a call from my Cardiologist who informed me that my test yielded an abnormal result... meaning there is a blockage and that blockage revolves around the LAD... called the "widow maker".
My Cardiologist indicated that the next step was to have a heart cath procedure that will actually take a closer look so that heart surgeons can determine if additional stents should be inserted, or if a bypass should be performed, or if maintaining the status quo is appropriate...
In 2009/2010 five (5) stents were inserted into my heart arteries, 3 in the LAD and 2 were inserted into other arteries on the left side. After 10 years, it is normal and typical for these stents to no longer perform as they were originally intended to perform.
My concern folds around the idea that for the last decade I have only eaten heart healthy foods to prevent something like this from happening... Exercise may have helped reduce plaque build-up but diet is the preferred way to go... I did both but concentrated more on diet than on exercise.
These days instead of entering the artery in the inside upper thigh in the groin to travel to the heart, the surgeon enters into another artery in the wrist around the area of the thumb. This approach is less invasive and just as effective with the recovery time being greater. I am waiting to hear back on the dates for this procedure... but what I do know is that it will start at 7:30 am and I am to report 90 minutes before that.
That procedure will determine that next steps that I will be taking.
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