The Cardiologist Says To You 'HEART DISEASE'
*PATIENT*
--So angiogram was in my immediate future. I’m told
this is a safe and relatively painless
procedure and not to worry. There were plenty of things to
worry about however. They
don’t want to shove a camera up through my body and into my
heart because of no reason.
Still, an angiogram is an outpatient procedure where the
your leg and works a camera into the heart muscle arteries. It sounds a lot worse than it is
but the benefit is that you know exactly what the status of your heart and arteries are at
that point in time. So I’m ready!
At least this will finally answer how serious a problem, if any, I truly had. The
Cardiologist however must have been concerned because he scheduled the angiogram 4 days
later.
On the day of this adventure, I checked into the Cardiology center at a local hospital and
prepared to undergo the angiogram. An IV was inserted and I was ready to go. Once in the
angiogram theater, I was given sedatives that although kept me conscious, there was no
pain, nor did I hear anyone working as they sent through me to check out the problem.
When the nurses and technicians talked directly to me in a loud enough voice however, I was
able to respond.
The good thing about an angiogram is that if blockages are found, the cardiologist can usually
place metal stents or pipe like devices in the arteries to maintain blood flow if needed. This is
a far cry from the open heart, crack your chest type of surgery that would have been
required just a few years ago. After about an hour, the doctor apparently lowered the dosage
of sedative as I remember him giving me a status on my condition.
The Verdict!
The bad news was that I did have calcium deposits on the inside walls of my arteries.
This was what they had seen with the other tests. The good news however was that my
arteries or pipes were absolutely smooth on the inside and were considered very large. Big
pipes with a thin smooth coating of calcium equaled a potential problem only.
Being a big person from a family of big people for many generations, the fact that my
arteries were considered “big” didn’t surprise me. I can’t prove it but have to think that the
vitamins and minerals I’ve been taking for over a decade have protected me from developing
a life threatening heart disease at this point in my life. The cardiologist however continued to
be concerned for long term survivability given the high calcium scores from the blood tests.
Where we go from here!
So it’s changes in lifestyle for me. I’ve gone from a relatively sedentary person to one
who rides an exercise bike almost 7 miles a day, everyday. I continue although now on
doctors orders, to take an adult aspirin daily and have changed my eating habits. It’s a
process so there’s some good days and some worse but I’m now sensitive to how much and
what I eat. Although my bad cholesterol is at 90 (anything under 110 is considered good) the
Cardiologist has prescribed statins to lower the bad cholesterol even more. Once again I can’t
prove it but I do believe that statins will soon be considered a critical part of living a long
healthy life.
So that’s my story. Exercise and an aspirin a day to thin out the blood. Statins to lower
bad cholesterol even more and daily vitamins just because I’ve done so well with them up to
this point. With any luck, I’ll live long without having to deal with the debilitating effects of
serious heart disease.
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