I RECEIVED GOOD NEWS TODAY.

I RECEIVED GOOD NEWS TODAY!

 I put this picture of a human heart here, because that is the topic of this posting. I had an appointment with my cardiologist yesterday as a follow up to my latest heart cath where 2 additional stents have been installed. This makes 22 stents for me so far. I think this may some kind of record. Shown below are scans of the x-rays of my latest 2 stents.

Before stents were installed.                                            After stents were installed.


The four very dark ovals are the wire ties that hold my rib cage together.
If you look closely you can see 2 areas circled with a pen showing the artery with no blood flow, notice that it is the same artery clogged in two places. On the right you can now see the blood flowing after the stents have been installed. This particular artery supplies blood to the a.coronaria sinistra(see the heart pictured above). Imagine if you can the heart not having the necessary blood flow to keep it pumping. Yes! it damn well hurts when the blood doesn't flow, and if allowed to go on too long, it will kill you.

Now, too the good news, my Doctor told me that the 30 to 40 percent loss of function that I incurred in my heart a little over ten years ago is now working. It seems that when I underwent the experimental surgery to open my front main ascending artery, which had been closed off for over ten years, caused that part of my heart that had not been working to start beating again. This means my heart is now functioning at almost 100% efficiency. The Doctor said, my heart apparently had not died, it had been stunned into stopping. While they were testing my hearts response to the new stents, is when they found the heart fully functional. Believe me when I tell you, I was stunned to find this out. I asked the Doctor if has happened before, and he said he didn't know of anybody having it happen.

In other news I am to stop taking two other medications used in controlling blood pressure. Since my blood pressure has been under control and on the low side, we are giving it a go.

I hope this has been as enlightening for my readers as it has been for me.

God Bless us all. from the gahillbilly.


"(C) Copyright by Victor Winebrenner"

Too many times in the Hospital.

Too many times in the hospital. This time was the same as last January. I had another blocked artery, which required a roto-rooter plus angioplasty, and finally another stent. That did the trick, my blood started flowing again.

Why did I go in the hospital in the first place? because I was having angina pain, also known as heart attacks, because of the lack of blood flow. If my memory serves me correctly this is my 15th stent.

It has started to seem like a routine operation to have a stent installed. But believe me folks it is anything but routine. Blocked arteries are extremely serious business, and if you don't pay attention to it, you will die, it isn't a maybe thing, it is a sure thing.

So in the end, I am grateful to still be alive.

God bless you all,

gahillbilly