ghost95

Ok, I'll try and keep this short.

I had some heartburn with shoulder pain in the right shoulder. No big deal right? That's the wrong arm for a heart problem but since my dad, uncle, and cousin on dad's side had heart problems I pushed for a stress test.

Well, EKG came back normal so insurance didn't see the need for a stress test. Talked to the Doc some more and he re-coded the result so insurance would cover. Did a stress test. It showed a slight ischemia on the left side of the heart. One Doc said he would not have even called it an issue. Possibly a rib shadow but it was recommended that I have a heart cath because of where I work.

(What I learned is that you will either be told your stress test is normal or abnormal but there are lots of results in between. It's very hard to get a Doc to tell you this though)

Anyway, I schedule a heart cath. Remember I had no heart pain, no out of breath, or fatigue, just heartburn.

The doc comes in and talks to us, says he doesn't think there is any big issue but we agree if there is a blockage we'll stent it if time allows. (kidney test determines how much dye therefore time you can be worked on)

In suergery everybody is laughing and kidding around. Easy day. Procedure should have taken 45 mins. At about 1 hour I noticed the mood in the lab changed. No more joking. I asked if they are almost done and thay said yeah almost done. I asked if there were any blockages. Yes.

Not bad right?

100% left circumflex artery.

WTF?!?!?!?!? How did I walk in there?

Turns out that the blockage was genetic, same place as the rest of the men on dad's side of the family.

Turns out that the heart had compensated and grown new arteries.

They were able to open the blockage to 100% so I'm better than new. No heart damage. Never had a heart attack.

I'm feeling better than I have in a while.

What I learned is that the heart is an amazing organ. It fights to live. But if you have an issue that's not right get it checked.

Heart medicine is preventive now. You can fix allot of stuff IF you find it. If you have a problem get it checked. EKG's might not tell the whole story. Get a stress test.

By the way...I'm 41, 200 lbs, 5'11"

Try'n Hard

Dang that's scary! Glad you got it took care of!!

Realtor

yeah, your a lucky one..... I had several (5-6) attacks in the spring of 2011. 1 after a shark fishing trip, 2 in the ambulance (than god for nitro pills), 3 of them in the hospital over night, the following morning right after the last one (I guess I passed out) I was on the table getting 3 stents, then went back a month later and got a 4th. I have not had heartburn, pain in the arms (doesn't matter which arm either) restless leg syndrome, (well I still have a little of that), cigarettes, or irregular heart rhythms since.

If anyone even thinks there may be an issue and the doc doesn't think so, do yourself (and your family) a favor and ask for a second opinion, that's when they really start to pay attention to you......... you know your body better than anyone else.... hint, Hint..

I am so glad you are getting squared away. hang in there and my prayers are with you. No kidding, they really are....

__________________
Jim Summers
www.PensacolaSharkFishing.com
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daniel9829

I had My open heart in 1/98. Prior Oct I had just had a stress test BP normal everything good... well Thanksgiving I get nauseated and sick wind up throwing up felling better. I kept getting gas and Nauseated when I laid down at night.

Went back to PCP and to my Heart Dr. Rerun stress test everything good.. I come home from work on a Thursday night and had the wife take me to the er. When I arrived BP 270 over 200 they gave me nitro patch and one under the tongue. BP dropped so fast I passed out and my wife went crazy after getting BP under control the ER dr ran an EKG again everything normal.

They decide to keep me overnight and about 3am I woke up sick and pulled the leads off of my chest trying to call a nurse and they came in with a crash cart. After everybody settled down and realized that I was not crashing the Dr. ran another EKG which was all over the place. The Thoracic surgeon came in and told me that I had Three small arteries that were cramping and if I had actually had a heart attack I would be dead before he could do anything. Well 5 Bypasses later and now 17 years I am still ok. We spent 6 weeks trying to find out what the problem was.

ghost95

Yeah, I was surprised how much good info came back that I still had a 100% blockage. It seems like all the basic tests they do don't really mean anything. That's the scary part to me. Yeah, you're good, don't worry about it....Oh you have a huge blockage, my bad.

Not taking anything away from my Doc's I owe them allot. They did a great job with the info they had. It's just the info didn't point to much.