Been there, done that a few times in addition to having my chest sliced
open 12 years ago. I'm surprised at your comment about a camera.
Anytime I had it done it was with fluoroscopy
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluoroscopy> with an on-screen monitor
image that I could clearly see and fairly well interpret myself.
Anyhow, except for the time I had my chest sliced open the procedure was
followed by a stent. Those didn't always work (they clogged up soon
after) which is why I've been there more than once. The last time was 5
years ago after a 2 year delay in waiting for adequate stocks of a drug
eluting stent. Drug eluting stents were in short supply then and they
don't know what size they need until they get in there. That seems to
have worked but they have since discovered some undesirable side effects
of these.
If I knew then what I know now (I've studied a lot over the past dozen
years) I'd have asked for a second and even a third opinion on having my
(triple) bypass surgery. They had me and my wife scared to death at the
time but I didn't actually have a heart attack and I think the data show
that bypass surgery doesn't actually show any improvement in overall
mortality. But the hospital sells what services it has to offer by
whomever is available at the time at least for them what's covered by
good insurance.
Oh, BTW, my surgery started very late... seems the surgeon was up ALL
night attending to emergency cases. It's 12 years later and my chest
still aches when I exercise. But it isn't angina. My current GP says
maybe chostochronditis or damaged nerves in the rib cage from the
surgery. None of the doctors at the hospital would ever venture a guess
as to what was wrong with my chest. I had to leave the area and get
different doctors before anyone would tell me "I think it could be...".
Incidentally, this was not an East Podunk hospital. It was Mt Auburn
Hospital in Cambridge, MA, a Harvard Medical School teaching hospital.
So much for the practice of medicine in the US. :-)
Watch out for them guys with the knives. They have a very vested
interest in using them which may not be in your interest at all.
Chuck Norcutt
Bob Whitmire wrote:
> Well, this past Saturday morning, like Alice, I tumbled down the
> rabbit hole. Chest pains, sweats and such. Doc said go to the ER. Off
> I went. Tests at local hospital didn't show anything conclusive, but
> the hospitalist told me I should stay in the hospital until Monday
> morning and then do a stress test. Come Monday morning I did the new
> and improved nuclear medicine stress test, and apparently passed with
> flying colors. Proud to say, I went the distance, nothing obvious
> showed up, and the doc said I had the exercise capacity of a health 60-
> year-old man. WoooHooo!
>
> However (you knew that was coming, didn't you).
>
> The stress test results are sent to cardiology at Maine Med in
> Portland, which apparently is one of the country's top heart
> hospitals. The hospitalist showed up in my room to tell me they "found
> something" that appeared to be an occlusion in the lower quadrant of
> the heart. The cardiologist's best guess was a 70 percent chance of
> blockage. Most of you know what that means: cardiac catheterization.
>
> That damned rabbit hole got deep quickly. Before dark I was in an
> ambulance headed for Maine Med.
>
> Cardiac unit, Maine Med. Cardiologist came around to talk about the
> procedure, scheduled for noon Tuesday. He said based on his reading he
> was not really expecting to find anything. Turns out stress tests are
> highly reliable if they're normal, but not so much if they are
> abnormal. Too much stuff in the body to occlude the images. So,
> despite having a roommate from Hell (too long a story to tell here), I
> survived until Tuesday. Note they didn't let me eat anything from
> supper Monday night at Miles until a very late lunch on Tuesday at
> Maine Med.
>
> The procedure was a breeze. Very cool. Some of you may already have
> had it done. I was fully conscious. While I was still on the table,
> the cardiologist stuck his head around the camera and told me he hoped
> his own heart looked as good. So they cut me loose after making me lie
> on my back for four hours. Right after the procedure, a nurse had to
> apply pressure to the entry site (the groin) for about twenty minutes.
> Hard pressure. I told her I hoped they were paying her a lot of money.
>
> I couldn't tell whether the camera they used was an Olympus.
>
> So now I'm back in place, with orders to take it easy for a few days.
>
> That shouldn't be hard.
>
> --Bob Whitmire
> www.bobwhitmire.com
>
>
>
>
>
--
_________________________________________________________________
Options: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/listinfo/olympus
Archives: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/private/olympus/
Themed Olympus Photo Exhibition: http://www.tope.nl/
|