Several weeks ago I started having "chest pains". These came at odd times at first. Like when I was driving into the office or during times of stress rather than exertion. This made me think it was some kind of anxiety not any type of heart condition. But as time passed and the pains got more intense and more frequent, I started to become concerned it was something more than anxiety. The kicker was when it started to interfere with my daily lunchtime walks. I decided I needed to see a doctor, even if it was just to ease my mind and prove it was actually anxiety after all. So I make an appointment with a GP my wife recommended. I go to see her and she finds I have really high blood pressure so she takes an EKG. Actually her very attractive assistant hooked me up to the machine the whole while making small talk. Asking me where I work, yadda yadda and then, while leaning over me to hook up a lead, she tells me she used to work at Hooters! So now I am thinking my EKG is going to be all over the place after this little stress test. But what do you know, it turned out to be rather normal. However, the doctor still referred me to a cardiologist for a stress test. So I set up an appointment for my stress test the next week.
At the cardiologists office they take my BP and then hook me up to their EKG. The cardiologist comes in and starts the test after hearing the whole story. The treadmill is supposed to start off level and then incline 15 degrees every 3 minutes. Well he starts the machine and tells me to get on and right away it goes up 15 degrees. I'm OK at this point but he insists on talking to me while I am walking which starts to wind me a little. Then the speed increases and the angle goes up again. By this time I am thinking, he is trying to get me to quit early. I figured I had two options, quit or push it. Well I started to feel a little chest pain so I told him my chest was starting to hurt so he stops the machine right away.
After I cool down a little he pulls the graph off of the machine and starts to go over it with me. He points out certain peaks and valleys trying to explain to me what it all means but he might as well have been speaking Greek. Actually I might of understood that better. Anyway, when he finishes with his explanation he tells me he wants me to go to the hospital. I ask when, and he says now. What?!? He wants me checked in where I can be monitored. Then he wants to catheterize my groin and run a tube up to my heart where he can check for blockages. However, the hospital he wants to send me to right then doesn't have the facilities to do a procedure if he finds something while exploring. I would have to be taken my ambulance about 25 miles away to another hospital where the procedure can be done. Now I am convinced this guy is nuts. I am not going to the hospital right now and if he can only do the whole thing at the one hospital then that's where I will go; but only when I can schedule it. He didn't like me telling him no but we scheduled the procedure for 2 days from then. He told me I could not do anything until that day. I had to sit home and veg until that time. OK, so now I am liking him a little better but I am still in shock, as you can imagine. I go home and let my wife know what is going on and then call my boss to let her know what is going on as well. My boss was really cool about the whole thing.
Two days go by and it is procedure day! I am scheduled for 3 and get to the hospital at 1 to get prepped and what not. We get there and sit in the waiting room until 2, then I am taken back to the pre-op area where I have to put on one of those no back gowns and then sit on a really uncomfortable table for another hour. Towards the end of the hour a nurse comes in and hooks me up to an IV of saline. Big ass needles are not fun at all. While I am sitting there getting jabbed, a nurse comes into the nurses station, which was right in front of me, and starts telling the others about this patient, who, while having the same procedure as me, gets a ruptured coronary artery because of the angioplasty. Great, just what I wanted to hear!
Another 20 minutes go by while my butt gets more sore sitting on that torture table. Then that same nurse with the horror story comes in and starts to tell me that they are almost ready for me and asks if I have any questions. Damn straight I have some questions! What happened to the last guy?? "Oh, sorry, did you hear that?" she says. Well she goes on to explain it and make everything all better for me. She was actually very nice and professional. One of the assisting doctors came in and tells me they are all ready to go- they just need my cardiologist to come down and sign something. Now it is about 3:40 and I am getting really tired of this whole thing and then finally the cardiologist shows up. After puttering around the nurses station for about 10 minutes or so he comes in and explains everything about the procedure. He gives me a choice of stents in case he has to put one in. Finally I am wheeled into the operatory and the procedure begins at 4.
I won't go into all of the gruesome post op details but suffice it to say that I had an angioplasty and stent put in due to a fairly blocked coronary artery. I am all better now. I have gone from no medication to 5 different pills a day now. Hopefully, with some work and dedication I will be able to go back to no medication in a year.
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