A few weeks ago, I got up from my computer, took 3 steps, and blacked out, getting a significant concussion from the fall. The ER did their normal 'check he head' thing, and then they did an EKG to see WHY I fell in the first place. It showed 'probable septal infarc'. Needless to say, that got the doctors' attention.
After a stress test and echo-cardiogram, I know that there's a weak area in my heart, and my heart efficiency is about half of what it should be. Tomorrow, I go in for a cath and probable stent to fix the problem.
It should be routine. The probability of complications is very, very low. But I will be undergoing a surgical procedure, and there is a non-zero risk.
Any thoughts, prayers, wishes, or whatever would be greatly appreciated. I was pretty upbeat about fixing this, until my spouse decided to hit me with the 'what if - I don't know any of the financial or insurance info'. Now I'm highly stressed, which I need to avoid, and didn't sleep worth a damn last night. Probably won't tonight, either.
Comments
Take care and best wishes
Here is to you having a successful and easy surgery with no complications. Take care of your health and get well soon!HUGS!
Prayers and best wishes
I know all about telling myself not to worry over things I can't do a damn thing about and it doing it anyways. Try to find something you really like doing or your favorite comfort book. :)
Hugs
Grover
It is a pretty standard
It is a pretty standard procedure Elrod and I hope you get better soon. Let us know you are alright as soon as you are possible. Gery
you have my prayers, hon
big huggles.
My father doesn't even count the caths in his list of procedures
Granted, that fact says something about my father's heart as well as about the procedure, but this truly is downright boring by cardiac procedure math. Granted, there's always the remote possibility of a bad reaction to anesthesia or whatever, but honestly 99.99999999% of why they're talking about risks is just them playing CYA. Heck, look at the three page list of potential side-effects on darn near any medication you have ever taken if you want a look at their mindset here. As so often in life, hope for the best, plan for the worst, and don't get any more worked up about this planning than you do about the insurance on your car or the fire extinguisher in your kitchen.
I actually work in the legal field, but most of my job translates into English as "reviews medical records" and I have talked to hundreds (thousands?) of people who have been through exactly what you're going through, most recently this morning. Honestly, the anticipation here is going to be a hundred times worse than the procedure. You have a perfectly valid fear of the unknown and the loss of control involved just like any other human being. That's always a reasonable cause for unease and I've talked to too many cath/stent veterans not to understand that. Undergoing the actual procedure, though? Anticlimactic as heck.
Control what you can, let the rest happen as it's going to anyway, and look forward to being back home and back to writing some of the best TG fiction anywhere.
Stents
Hope the stent(s) work for you, they tried to do mine and found 99% blockage on one of the main arteries. I had to go under the knife, the stent would have been so much simpler! Best to you!
I went outside once. The graphics weren' that great.
May He send His angles of Mercy
Father, we come unto the asking for thy angels of Mercy and Comfort
This child who selflessly has gave so much pleasure to others
needs thy blessing
Send thy angels to guide his surgeons hands and those who administer to his needs
Send thy angels to give comfort to his family
This child is one of your own Father, so fragile and yet so strong
Protect him and speed his recovery to health in mind and body
In Jesus name I come and ask of these things
Amen
Oklahoma born and raised cowgirl
Best of luck, Elrod
While they have you "up on the lift" see if they can put in the high lift cam, sport suspension, quad carburetor....
Oh YOU'RE going in for work, not your car.
My dad had his aortic valve replaced aprox 10 years ago and at 87 is still driving us crazy with all his activities.
John in Wauwatosa
John in Wauwatosa
Tch, tch, tch, John
Don't you know carburetors are so last century!
I went outside once. The graphics weren' that great.
Everything will be okay
Elrod -
I agree with everyone else. You have nothing to worry about and you are going to feel better than you do now.
Installing a stent is almost out-patient surgery these days.
I look forward to hearing how you are doing when you get home.
Be Well
I hope everything works out for the best for you!
Please be well and get back in the saddle again as soon as possible.
*hug*
- Terry
Elrod in 2001 they did an angiogram on me & told..
me while clamping closed the artery they had sliced open to do the procedure that I needed a triple by-pass which was done 2 months later and after an hour waiting for my groin to seal enough, I drove home the 45 km from the hospital. Stents can go in the same way or through the armpit depending on which artery and where they decide to enter.
Doning heart surgery is called a plumbing operation in the cafeteria of the hospitals. The biggest risk is from infection from other patients!! LOL
The most dangerous part is in travelling the roads between home-hospital and back again. Some day you should arrange your affairs so at least all the important information is in one place and you executor can find it all. You never know when crossing the street could be fatal.
Don't worry & let us know tonight how everything went.
Ruth
May the sun always shine on your parade
My thought's go with you, ;-)
My thought's go with you, ;-)
Done, and no blockage found.
Done, and no blockage found. Still a mystery as to why it's weak, but we can try treating it with meds instead of a stent or bypass.
Imagination is more important than knowledge
A. Einstein
Great!!!
Taking a pill has always been my preferred way of taking medications! OHS may be routine but if its all the same I'd rather skip the surgery.
I went outside once. The graphics weren' that great.
OK, good good good. Now they
OK, good good good. Now they just need to figure it out. Be patient though as I'm sure it will take time for them to figure it out. Took my doctors for ever to realize my chest pain and dizzyness was from gas...
*prayers*
Best wishes and prayers.
Take care of your self, do what you have to to be healthy.
Stents
1 year after I retired (2006) they put 2 stents in my ticker as I had a 98% blockage in my main descending artery. net day I went home no probs since then bad thing is I had no idea I had this. makes one wonder but all is well on back checks . So don't worry my friend .
Feel Better, Be Better
Prayers on their way