Stroke Survivor Blog

Steve’s heart catherization and angioplasty was a success. He was scheduled for the heart cath on Thursday, but on Wednesday morning his chest pain was so severe that he asked me to take him to the hospital.  The angina pain would let up after taking nitroglycerin tablets, but then after any mild exertion like walking a few steps, the angina would come back. At that point I didn’t waste a minute to get him there. I had been begging him to go to the Emergency Room all week, but he didn’t want this procedure done.

After several hours in the ER, it was indicated by an EKG that Steve had had a mild heart attack. They moved him up to Advanced Care to prep him for the cath lab, which took another 45 minutes or so.

This was a very sobering time for Steve. He was concerned that the heart cath would break some plaque loose which could be fatal, or which would prompt the doctor to open him up for heart surgery. This was a risk, but a small one. Only a half percent of patients have something go wrong, so the odds were in Steve’s favor. However, he only agreed to the procedure on the condition that the doctor would not take him to the operating room if anything went wrong. Right before being brought into the cath lab, our daughters and I encouraged him and told him that we loved him. It was scary for him, because he didn’t know if he’d see us again, and he was very emotional as if he was saying his last good-bye.

But everything went well and several blockages were found, so they continued with the angioplasty. One major artery was 99% occluded (blocked) and the doctor was able to open it up and implant four stents. Another stent was used in a different vessel. So five stents in all were implanted, each with a unique identification number. If we had waited until his scheduled heart cath, it would have been too late. He was only heart beats away from a massive fatal heart attack. But thank God that it was caught in time.

The whole procedure lasted about 2 hours, and Steve was moved to Advanced Care in the cardiac wing where he stayed overnight. As a safety precaution he was kept another night but in another room. He was able to get up and walk around and he did quite well. Today before he was discharged he walked up and down the hallway without experiencing any shortness of breath or chest pain.

Steve just started having all that chest pain within the last two weeks while we were in Florida on vacation. The episodes became increasingly worse. It was such a change from the way he was feeling when he was getting ECP treatments. I think the ECP prolonged his life because he had no chest pain whatsoever during that two and a half month period of time. But once the treatments were stopped, and the blood no longer flowed efficiently through his body, the blockages were revealed with the evidence of pain.

An echocardiogram confirmed that Steve did have a mild heart attack, which I suspected, but the big one was averted with the angioplasty. The echo showed that no further damage was done to the heart muscle itself. Only the arteries were affected.

His doctor prescribed Plavix for one month to help keep the bare metal stents from blocking up. Steve is on other blood thinners so more frequent blood tests will be required to make sure his blood doesn’t get too thin, which may cause a bleed, or too thick which can clot and block an artery or cause a stroke. Some other prescription adjustments were made, and he no longer needs the nitro-patch.

Right before he was discharged, we were in his hospital room talking with the nurse, and a loud announcement could be heard out in the hallway that said “CODE BLUE IN THE CATH LAB! CODE BLUE IN THE CATH LAB!” The risks were very real with this procedure.

Already I can tell a big difference in Steve’s energy level and he’s not as sleepy. I am so thrilled that he has a new lease on life, and I think he’s going to get his motivation back for stroke recovery, because he’s feeling so much better. It looked so grim for months and now we both have renewed hope for the future.

Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.  Romans 15:13