I had my by-pass on March 3rd and was feeling really good. I was scheduled to return to work on April 14th and was looking forward to it, just getting out of the house was a treat! The Thursday before I was to return to work (April10th) I started having chest pains, bad enough that I broke down and called 911 and got an ambulance out to pick me up. I had another heart attack! But how?
It seems that two of the by-pass grafts occluded or closed up on me. My cardiologist was on vacation and I had another very good heart guy work on me and try to get things straightened up. He worked on m heart using angioplasty techniques for about 3 hours. I felt pretty good and by Sunday I was getting to go home. I got home and sat on the couch for about an hour before I started having more pains and Kim rushed me back to the hospital.
By that time my cardiologist was getting near home and he came to see me. He scheduled another heart catheter for the following day and he worked on getting blood flow back to my arteries for another 2 and a half hours. It worked! By placing two more stents I now have good blood flow and no chest pain. I now have a total of five stents, though one of them has clogged up and was actually the target of one of my by-pass grafts. Here is a picture that Dr. Hollis drew after working on my heart on Thursday.
The two big things that look like lug nuts are two of my early stents. The one in the right coronary artery is fine, a little blockage evident, but after 8 years in there I would expect that. The one in the left artery was 99% blocked and was by-passed with my mammary artery (labeled LIMB) and is in great shape, the mammary artery is a good choice for grafts. The little additions are the failed grafts. The one farthest to the left is the one that is still occluded and is basically a total loss. The one on the right is now opened and has two stent in it to keep it open. Dr. Filardo was able to get some blood flow through the artery of the failed graft so it is not a complete loss. He was able to get me about 30% flow in that artery which is a heck of a lot better than the 3% it had last month!
It is all pretty interesting stuff if you ask me. What would work in the majority of people just didn't work for me. How many thousands of people have by-pass operations each year that work flawlessly? I know I am not unique, there must be a few others that have had this problem. Maybe the vein in my leg wasn't a good choice as graft material, I don't know. All I do know is that I am doing well now and am very thankful for everything.
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