I have received many well-wishes regarding the medical procedure I had a couple of weeks ago and many of you wanted to know what the procedure actually was and how it felt. I had a cardiac catheterization. It is a procedure where the doctors insert probes and inject some radioactive dyes in the arteries around the heart to evaluate their function.
After having had several other tests and gone through months of evaluation, the cardiologists could not determine the cause of why my neck and head felt like they were going to explode anytime I exerted any physical effort. This included simple things such as walking more than 50 feet, going up a flight of stairs, squatting to pick up something, or playing with the dog. The cardiologist and general practitioners never found evidence of anything wrong when I was at a resting state, and all test that were performed showed that I was great physical condition (except for a bit overweight - heheheh). After a three and one half trip to Mexico in October and November, where I had some difficulty in moving, I went to the cardiologist, described all my symptoms again, and, apparently I was convincing enough to get him to schedule and perform a heart catheterization.
The results showed that one of the arteries was 95% blocked and the other two were 99% blocked. I don't know how they calculate those percentages, but it did not look good. People with these conditions usually have symptoms such as chest pain and shortness of breath. My symptoms were a sense of pressure in my neck and head to a point where they felt they were going to explode. The symptoms were significantly different that they pointed toward other reasons for their cause. That is why it was difficult to diagnose the problem.
A coronary artery stent is a small, self-expanding, metal mesh tube. It is placed inside a coronary artery. The doctors decided to insert a 5X23 mm stent in the rear artery that was 95% blocked, but they could not unblock the other two in this same procedure. One of the reason is the limit of time the radioactive dye could be in my system and a second reason is the placement of the two stents is a more delicate procedure because of where they are and how they have to insert them. The new stents are programmed to be inserted this coming Wednesday, on January 4th. The cardiologist informs me that because of the location of the blocked arteries, the procedure is more delicate and will take about twice as long. In the meantime I have to avoid straining activities and have medications at hand to avoid cardiac arrests episodes.
Have you ever watched a submarine warfare movie scene when the ship is in battle and the captain is yelling orders? The first officer is repeating the orders and the sailors executing the order, before he carries it out, first repeats the order to make certain he has it correctly and then carries out the order. In the meantime the captain gives one or two other orders to other sailors and they in turn repeat the order to verify that they understood it properly before they carry it out. That is very much what the surgical room was like during this procedure. Except for local anesthesia, I was totally awake during the whole process. I could see the two doctors and three assistants carrying out this procedure. The doctor would give an instruction, and the person carrying it out would repeat it before he or she would do it. I got to ask questions and the doctor would answer them when he could. This back and forth instructions and communications went on for at least an hour and 45 minutes, except for the time when the staff were ordering lunch to eat when they had finished. It was a very efficient and well orchestrated procedure.
The procedure had to be performed through insertion of the catheter through my groin. They had wanted to go through my wrist but the probe was too large. after observing both coronary arteries, they decided to install the first stent in the rear right artery. The next two will be installed in the left artery, in the same general area where I had the coronary bypass a couple of years ago.
It is very humbling when one realizes how close to death one is. But it is very rewarding to find and fix the cause before it happens. Many people have not had that opportunity. Throughout this past year, several doctors insisted that I was fine, but I knew something was wrong. I hope these stents will fix the problem and allow me a somewhat of a normal life for as long as I have to live, that at my age, it is probably not too long.
I am happy that this was generally a safe and painless procedure. I had a great team working on me in that operating room and I'm glad I was able to observe a professional team carry out their job in a professional, efficient and safe manner. It was a very hectic and intense hour and forty five minutes, although it seemed much shorter. But I guess the old saying is true, "time flies when you're having fun." (Unless, of course, you are a frog, then, "time is fun when you are having flies.") I have to joke about this to avoid anxiety.
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