02/09/2016
Thanks to all of you for your posts and private messages over the last few days. The procedure was only about 1½ hours and went smoothly. It was fascinating to watch on the monitor. The wire, the ballon to expand the arteries, and the stainless steel stents all pass through a small one-way tube about the diameter of a strand of spaghetti which was inserted exactly the way an IV is put into a vein. Mine was put into an artery in my right wrist. Only pain was when it was inserted... less than the pinch of an IV being inserted in your arm.
I am so grateful to the skill of the cardiologist who performed the procedure. I googled him and found he is known around the world for his research and skill in this procedure and vascular disease.
In my case, this started with a routine med check with my family doctor. I met with a new doctor to the practice (but with years of experience) and the 10 minute med-check stretched into about an hour. She ordered and new EKG and blood work up. She also referred me to a cardiologist that noticed something in my new EKG and exam and he ordered a new Stress Test. I need to thank my insurance company, and Aetna Medicare HMO for authorizing the test. What was thougth would be finding one partially blocked artery, which they did find; another artery was found to have 3 blockages, a couple severe. 4 stents were inserted. I was immediately taken to an observation/recovery room for the night. The staff at Riverside/Mcconnell was fabulous. I can't thank everyone enough.
If any of you reading this are scheduled for this procedure, don't worry about it. There is no preparation for it other than fasting 8-10 hours. In my case, just don't lift anything with that hand over 5 pounds for a week. I only see a mark on my wrist about the size of a ball point pen dot. There was no bleeding at all. I feel great and I'll be beginning a little exercising in a week.
I'll be shooting some home interiors this weekend and ready to shoot at the studio the following weekend. I've held off scheduling anything until I knew how this was going to play out. I'm ready to schedule shooting.
