Cath 3 days before valve replacement- question

[Meanjellybean]

So I had my cath today and they had a lot of trouble with the right wrist and had to go to the groin instead. After 6 hours of recovery my wrist blew up (hematoma) and had to painfully squeeze it down. No big deal in the grand scheme of things, but babying a wrist and a groin tonight. I’m hopeful there won’t be other ramifications with the wrist - clotting, IVs on surgery day?

How long till your surgery from the cath?
I had my cath last tuesday and they had significant artery spasms which resulted in alot more meds and they changed the catheter size to a smaller one.

I had the same experience with the haematoma which the nurses pit pressure on. Took about 5 hours for the wrist cuff to come off for me.
They didnt have a option to go through the leg for me as i had a bleeding risk but i had some real pain for about 1 week.

I ended up going to the GP for endone which didnt do much to be honest.
As long as its not infected it will heal but go to the GP if it starts to swell again or shows infection signs.

 

[Amy]

they had a lot of trouble with the right wrist and had to go to the groin instead.

They did that to me too. I had a hematoma, scary arrhythmias, felt awful... ended up staying in the hospital from 1pm that day till noon the next day. The best part was being blamed for the radial spasming due to ‘being emotional’.

 

[MarkZ]

Amy, sorry to hear that they blamed you for being emotional, that’s very unprofessional. But I’m confused about the arrhythmia part - if they were unable to reach the heart, how could the radial vasospasms result in arrhythmia? Or was that due to the cath itself?

 

[Amy]

if they were unable to reach the heart, how could the radial vasospasms result in arrhythmia? Or was that due to the cath itself?

I wanted to know the same thing but never was able to get a definitive answer from anyone on exactly what caused the crazy arrhythmias. Everyone had different ideas, (but only offered them of course when I insisted on hearing them) . One possibility was that they used too much of the drug combination, fentanyl and ... I forget... or someone thought it was the nitro. All I remember is multiple ‘doctors’ saying they had to use way more drugs than they would with ‘normal’ people. Because of being emotional. I wish I’d known about refusing treatment from psychologically ill ‘doctors’ at that point. Do not forget that you have the right to do this.

 

[Chuck C]

Having posted the original question and having had my angiogram (cath) 3 days before my valve surgery, if I had it to do over again, given a choice, I would opt to have the procedure 2-3 weeks before my AVR.

It is a minor procedure and there are rarely complications, but there are some occasional complications, as Amy has shared, and to me I just want to make sure I have fully recovered from any impact whatsoever of the angiogram.

Also, they stressed that it was very important for me to stop taking my 81mg baby aspirin 10 days before my valve surgery, as the effects of aspirin last 10 days, although the effect diminishes as the days pass. Yet, as is routine for the angiogram, to reduce the risk of clotting, they gave me 320mg of aspirin the morning of the angiogram, just 3 days before valve surgery. So, my platelets were significantly affected by the aspirin heading into the surgery. It did not lead to any issues for me, but if the standard of care is to not have any aspirin in your system going into valve surgery, then I would prefer to not have any aspirin in my system and space the angiogram 2 weeks or so before surgery.