Check It Out 

As those two young women exhibited an unusually excited condition almost giddy or silly, there were two choices. To either act like I felt which still was pretty bad or to try to join in and act like those two women. Realizing the latter offered much more promise, joining right in the fun soon actually lifted my spirits. They rolled me into the Procedure Room and just as the literature stated, it was a little chilly. However, with my new attitude, it felt refreshing and my senses seemed more alert. This was where they do the exciting application of technology in today's treatment of Coronary Heart Disease (CHD)!

What they were planning to do in the Cardiac Catheterization Procedure was numb my right groin area and insert a catheter there to extend it up to my heart arteries. At the heart the doctor would inject a fluid into the arteries that would allow viewing them on a video screen. And what a view that was. One could see the screen during most of the procedure (except when the camera was moved so that it blocked my view). Although there was no running commentary from the doctor, it was apparent that things did not look too good. In fact, there was a section of the artery that seemed to be struggling and sort of jumping around awkwardly out of control. I nicknamed it Froggy!

After the procedure, my cart was rolled by those two same women to the recovery area. Things had toned down a bit and I was quite tired from the experience. One of the women had to use her fingers to put pressure on the insertion point on my leg to make certain there was no bleeding. Although it was only a few minutes (10 to 20 possibly), it must have seemed like an eternity for her. Anyway, when she stopped the pressure, there was no more bleeding. A job well done.

Back in my room there was instruction to remain still on my back without moving my right leg or lifting my head for four hours. So tired, the four hours rolled by pretty fast. Later that afternoon, my doctor arrived to share the results of the test.

What he showed me was a diagram of the arteries showing one artery of the Left Coronary with a 70% blockage and another artery with three blockages (an 85%, an 80% and a 90%) and a probable clot. The result of the Heart Attack was damage to 25% of that Left Coronary side of the heart. The Right Coronary was normal. He also indicated that the 70% blockage was in a difficult location and that the second artery with three blockages and a clot looked pretty difficult to improve because of the extent of the damage. He promised he would do his best and that only during the actual procedure would he be able to determine the outcome. After a breath, I promised the same.