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HempKat

Just A Simple Old Dirt Farmer
Veteran
Recently (last month) I had a test they've done on me every couple of years to monitor my heart health, called a Cardio Stress test which is either done by injecting you with a radioactive substance and then get you on a treadmill to get your heart pumping really hard. Then they have you lie on a table and a specialized machine takes pictures of your heart (or rather the radioactive stuff flowing thru it). Then they have you rest a bit and do it again without the treadmill to see how your heart is doing at rest. If you're older they have a way of chemically inducing the elevated heart rate which spares you from having to do the treadmill (which is the version of the test I had done.

Now there is an area of my heart (about 7-10%) that always shows up as dead. This is the part that died off years ago when I had the heart attack which led to me getting a double bypass. The portion that dies off during a heart attack never recovers so that turning up in the test was expected. Unfortunately in this test they also found an area in my heart that shows it's not getting enough oxygen, likely due to a new blockage and if left untreated could lead to another heart attack and subsequently a new area of dead heart muscle (it's cumulative). Obviously this is undesirable and best avoided thru some form of corrective treatment.

So later this morning at 7am I'm going in for what is called a Cardio Catherization aka Angiogram. There is an artery in your groin that goes from there, up across your belly and directly to your heart. They go in with a catheter and once in your heart the catheter injects a solution with a contrast in it (typically iodine) this allows them to get a detailed image of your heart via x-ray and it reveals where any blockages might be and how severe they are. If bad enough they can expand the blockage with a small balloon on the end of the catheter and then they slide a stent up thru the catheter and in place where the blockage was, to keep the section they expanded from closing back up again and hopefully that corrects the problem. Unfortunately the area where the potential blockage is consists mainly of fairly small arteries with lots of bends and turns. Because of that sometimes they can't get a stent in there and is so they just expand things and that's the end of it (that's usually what they call an Angioplasti). Without a stent though it will likely close up again (usually in 2-3 years) and so the process may need to be repeated again down the road.

Now this procedure is fairly routine and presents low risk so I'm not expecting any complications but you never know until they can get in there and poke around. I'm hoping to get a stent because I don't want to have to keep doing this every 2-3 years. Of course when dealing with ones heart there is always some risk but again that's very low. Anyway if they place a stent or do an Angioplasti, they'll keep me overnight for observation and if all goes well they'll release me sometime Wednesday. There is also the chance that they don't do anything other then gather information which if that's the case they'll let me come home later today and at a future point I'll meet with my cardiologist to discuss where we go from there. The most probable outcome is getting a stent so if I don't show up until sometime tomorrow it's because they kept me overnight and they don't allow laptops or cellphones where they'll be keeping me (Cardio ICU) because it interferes with monitoring equipment. If I don't return sometime by tomorrow afternoon then that means something went wrong and/or other emergency measures had to be taken. In which case I'll either be returning much later or I'll be meeting up with my wife. I really don't expect that to happen though but it is a possibility. So if you don't see me tomorrow that means something else happened. I'll be back to update everyone as soon as I can (most likely tomorrow) if possible.
 

Unca Walt

Well-known member
420club
Recently (last month) I had a test they've done on me every couple of years to monitor my heart health, called a Cardio Stress test which is either done by injecting you with a radioactive substance and then get you on a treadmill to get your heart pumping really hard. Then they have you lie on a table and a specialized machine takes pictures of your heart (or rather the radioactive stuff flowing thru it). Then they have you rest a bit and do it again without the treadmill to see how your heart is doing at rest. If you're older they have a way of chemically inducing the elevated heart rate which spares you from having to do the treadmill (which is the version of the test I had done.

Now there is an area of my heart (about 7-10%) that always shows up as dead. This is the part that died off years ago when I had the heart attack which led to me getting a double bypass. The portion that dies off during a heart attack never recovers so that turning up in the test was expected. Unfortunately in this test they also found an area in my heart that shows it's not getting enough oxygen, likely due to a new blockage and if left untreated could lead to another heart attack and subsequently a new area of dead heart muscle (it's cumulative). Obviously this is undesirable and best avoided thru some form of corrective treatment.

So later this morning at 7am I'm going in for what is called a Cardio Catherization aka Angiogram. There is an artery in your groin that goes from there, up across your belly and directly to your heart. They go in with a catheter and once in your heart the catheter injects a solution with a contrast in it (typically iodine) this allows them to get a detailed image of your heart via x-ray and it reveals where any blockages might be and how severe they are. If bad enough they can expand the blockage with a small balloon on the end of the catheter and then they slide a stent up thru the catheter and in place where the blockage was, to keep the section they expanded from closing back up again and hopefully that corrects the problem. Unfortunately the area where the potential blockage is consists mainly of fairly small arteries with lots of bends and turns. Because of that sometimes they can't get a stent in there and is so they just expand things and that's the end of it (that's usually what they call an Angioplasti). Without a stent though it will likely close up again (usually in 2-3 years) and so the process may need to be repeated again down the road.

Now this procedure is fairly routine and presents low risk so I'm not expecting any complications but you never know until they can get in there and poke around. I'm hoping to get a stent because I don't want to have to keep doing this every 2-3 years. Of course when dealing with ones heart there is always some risk but again that's very low. Anyway if they place a stent or do an Angioplasti, they'll keep me overnight for observation and if all goes well they'll release me sometime Wednesday. There is also the chance that they don't do anything other then gather information which if that's the case they'll let me come home later today and at a future point I'll meet with my cardiologist to discuss where we go from there. The most probable outcome is getting a stent so if I don't show up until sometime tomorrow it's because they kept me overnight and they don't allow laptops or cellphones where they'll be keeping me (Cardio ICU) because it interferes with monitoring equipment. If I don't return sometime by tomorrow afternoon then that means something went wrong and/or other emergency measures had to be taken. In which case I'll either be returning much later or I'll be meeting up with my wife. I really don't expect that to happen though but it is a possibility. So if you don't see me tomorrow that means something else happened. I'll be back to update everyone as soon as I can (most likely tomorrow) if possible.
If it helps your state of mind any, @HempKat -- Getting a stent is now a relatively common thing.
 

Unca Walt

Well-known member
420club
Regarding having The Word beginning to reach out there about the shaky dollar, even COSTCO is now on the gold bandwagon. Ya gotta click on the link... I dunno how to post them .png pics

https://upload.forumfree.net/i/ff13911826/image-17198522072584.png



1720512344461.png
 

Gray Wolf

A Posse ad Esse. From Possibility to realization.
Mentor
ICMag Donor
Veteran
Good morning finely aged and refined borborygmus brothers and sisters!
bigarmhug.gif
puffpuffpass_smilie.gif


Yet another gorgeous clear day starting at 67F and predicted to reach 100F again.

Off to the gym this morning for me and Grayfox is all packed and ready to leave for her annual week at the Ashland Shakespearean Festival, leaving me and the girls to fend for ourselves and engage in unfettered abandon and wanton debauchery.

My sugar wash with yeast has slowed down to a crawl and is close to complete and ready for distillation. I should get about a gallon of ethanol from the five-gallon run.
 

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