Cardiac Day

Today Jeff had a cardiac cath. It all started with an abnormal stress test. The abnormal test results were traumatic enough. Especially since the news came the moment we got home from work at the very beginning of our vacation. As we should have been excited about packing and preparing to head out of town in the morning we were now concerned with can we even go on vacation? Since we were taking the motorcycle, the question in the back of our minds was can we safely travel without harm to Jeff's health?

After Jeff's cardiologist called back we were a little relieved, he could travel on the bike, just make sure we stay on main highways, know where all the hospital signs are and do not hesitate if there are any sort of sensations in his chest to head to one. He was also told to only do light exercise like walking until the cath. He mentioned that he just did a 50K bike ride with no complications so this seems a little weird. We had a serious talk and I told him that only he could make me safe and if he felt he could, I was fine with going. He said he wanted to forget all about having the cardiac cath until after vacation was over and go. No stress, no worries, just travels and new experiences. So we went.

The cardiac cath was scheduled for 8:3o but we had to be at the hospital at 6 am. The staff was friendly and on time. Wendy, the cardiologist's physician-assistant was wonderful. She filled us in with the results of the stress test and the findings. Jeff had a constricted artery in his heart. If all goes as suspected, he would have angioplasty and a stent installed. This meant an overnight stay and he would go home tomorrow. The other alternative would be scheduling bypass surgery if things looked worse than anticipated. The procedure should last about and hour and a half and if the stent is in, he would go up to a regular room, if he needed bypass he would come back to this room as soon as the procedure is over. I was obviously hoping I wouldn't see him come back because that would mean all is fixed and we can get this over with.

By 9:50 he was back. The surgeon was standing in front of me before Jeff's bed was even settled back in its original spot. "What went wrong?," I asked. He explained that his original bypasses were as perfect as the day they were originally installed. Since this is 5 years later, that's wonderful. He went on to explain that he is 70% blocked in one artery. Unfortunately, the blockage is right under the original bypass, and the grafted mammary vein makes too many twists and turns in order to get the stent into place. So he decided to take a different course of action, treat the blockage with medication.

I questioned the danger of walking around with this blockage and the fact that less blood was pumping through that section of artery. The cardiologist went on to explain that since the new blockage is located in the part of Jeff's heart that has previous damage from his heart attack, it required less blood in the first place so the stress should be minimal. Damaged heart muscle never repairs itself so I was still worried about the risks that something bad might happen making things worse. He assured me that with the help of the medication and close monitoring, Jeff would be ok. And if it doesn't work he can schedule the angioplasty and stent procedure again, but it would be complicated and take a long time.

Jeff had to lay still for 6 hours without moving. They fed him lunch and we spent the afternoon watching the National Spelling Bee on ESPN. It was the best thing on TV. The young people who qualify are amazing, the words they have to spell are so tough. The femoral artery was coagulating all afternoon, the doctor ordered an echocardiogram late in the day and after the test was done, we were close to going home.

At 4:30 the nurse got Jeff up to a standing position and took him for a stroll around the ward. He was amazingly stable, which in unusual for him. He's not consistently steady on his feet just from his normal regimen of medication. Speaking of medication, we were handed four new prescriptions. After some post-operative instruction, paperwork, and a handful of bandages, we were headed out the door.

Now that we're home we're thinking about all the things we didn't get answered. What are the results of the echocardiogram? When can Jeff resume normal activities, like his workouts at the gym? How will he know of the drugs are working? How long will he have to go before they stent him if the drugs don't work? Tomorrow is another day. Thank God for that.