why do they have to do the heart cath?

[Lynlw]

It is pretty routine to do a cath pre op. It gives the doctors the best view of inside your heart and they can get good measurments of all your pressures (veins arteries, different chambers) ect. Also depending what they see during the cath, they might be able to do some intervention, with balloons or stents.
They are pretty safe as far as invasive proceedures, and Justin has had many (over 20) and has had problems for a couple of them, but for the most part all is perfectly fine.he used to be allergic to the dye they used 20 years ago, but the newer (about last 10 years) is much better than the older dye. My Mom also had a problem during one of hers, BUT the good thing is even IF you run into a problem, experienced doctors have seen it all and know the best thing to do to help fix the problem.
As others have said, most places will give you something to either calm you down or knock you pretty far out, if you ask about it, If you think you'd prefer not to remember anything, you might want to tell your doctor a day or so before and not wait until the morning of the cath.
The hardest part for Justin is the laying around afterward, So we usually take his Ipod and laptop and that helps the time go faster, also there might be a TV in your recovery room.

 

[Jeanie]

My cath procedure turned out to be less of a big deal than I feared. I pretty much slept through the whole thing, and the time until they were able to move me back to regular room. Be very glad they are doing it though, for the following reasons!
1) It is not enough to know what percentage of blockage you have, they have to know WHERE any blockages are, precisely.
2) They want to fix everything they can in one surgery, so as to avoid either having you die of non-surgical reasons like an MI (heart attack) or of having you needing another surgery in close succession to the first.
3) Heart surgery is major surgery, so it is to your advantage to allow the surgeons to know as much as they can before they open you up, not have a nasty surprise once in there. The more they know, the more efficiently they can repair/replace what needs repairing/replacing.

 

[sweetbanker]

I have had 11-12 angio's and have had 9 stents placed. I've posted a link (if it doesn't work let me know) for a womens heart site that anyone can use and look for others experinces. Cath experiences are pretty much the same. You'll probally get the leg seal , this helps in the amount of time you'll need to stay in bed with the your leg straight Make sure you pee before you go in to Cath Lab , it's cold and the dye will make you need to go.
I had a bypass during my AVR and talking with my Doctors we decided that the bypass was best to do to the 85% blocked artery with 2 stents .
I also had a Cath a week before surgery , my Doc wanted to see what other blockages I may of had . No surprises.

Everything will be fine.Take one day at a time and before you know it , all will be over and you'll be on the road to healing.Wish you lots of luck .




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