had my cath today-home now

[Megan]

hey all. so i had my cath done today and it went as well as was expected with a little twist or two. plus 4 hours of waiting-ugh! and that was only before i went in. the good news is that my corornaries are beautiful and my pressures are good in all chambers. the expected bad news...the stenosis is severe-valve area of .5 and mean gradient of 56- or 58- cant quite remember. for all of of you congenital patients out there who have had numerous caths though- here is something new..aparently I dont have a working artery in my right leg! it was all clogged with scar tissue from my previous caths (i think ive had 3)...i guess the blood just diverted itself into a bunch of smaller veins or something like that.. i dont have the full details yet as it was quite painful during the procedure becasue they had to use the smaller vein to go in and up so they gave me double doses of fentynl and versed( good stuff!) i didnt get a plug so had to lay flat on my back for 3 hours, then walk for 30 minutes and they i went home. goin to catch some sleep now!

 

[Marguerite53]

Yeouch!! that does sound painful. The only thing similar I'd heard was when my cousin, an angio tech, took me back into the labs of his hospital 10 years ago and showed me the cath film from my father before he had his by-pass. He was amazed at how incredibly blocked he was, but similarly, the blood was maneuvering around tinier veins to compensate as hard as it could. My cousin was amazed, hadn't ever seen anything like it. That by-pass held for 10 years and wasn't what brought him to his demise at all. (he lived a grand life of 88 years).

Good luck. Sounds like surgery is right around the corner for you.

Best wishes.

Marguerite

 

[Mary]

Glad the cath is behind you and you're on the fast track to replacement. I believe one of our members, Yaps, has a similar issue with her arteries due to claudification, but that's the only other member I can think of.
When you get your date, let us know.

 

[john79t]

God Bless and good luck with your replacement. John

 

[lbecker]

Megan, read this after my note to you, sounds like you will be making a decision
and having the replacement very soon, keep us posted when surgery will be and
what valve you go with. I have had 2 heart caths., so wonder what they will find
when they go in this time? Guess you never know. Laura