My first article here was to describe a health challenge I faced, and finding out that I had had a heart attack, and had ignored it. This story is about just how strange and flawed the Health Care system can be.
After my cardiac stress test, I was told that there were indications that I had had a heart attack, and I did remember a time when I had chest pains that had seemed to be pretty severe, but I did not act on them. The upshot from this test was that I was given an angiogram, in which a catheter is inserted in a vein in my arm, in order to get a direct view of my heart, and insert stents into my blood vessels if needed.
The results of the angiogram were that I did not need any stents, that any buildup in my blood vessels was minimal, and in fact, it looked as though I had spots in my blood vessels which were larger than normal, and I was told my blood vessels were “aneurysmal”. I was also told that I had NOT suffered a heart attack.
Wow. What a shitty word. Especially as several people in my life have had strokes recently, and that is probably my worst fear, or a close second to dementia.
So, what to do? My cardiologist said that there was really nothing to be done, other than getting on blood thinners. He also suggested that I see a cardiac surgeon, to get another opinion. This I did, and went to that appointment.
So, the funny part of that appointment was when the physician’s assistant said to me that my physiology was rather odd, and she hadn’t seen anything like it before. Usually, she said, she knew what the surgeon was going to say, and prepped the patient to understand it, but this time she had no idea what he was going to say. Great.
I am glad to say that the surgeon was very calm about it, and said not to think of it that they were aneurysms, but that I had “generously sized cardiac vessels”. There was really nothing to be done, and that with blood thinners I should live a good life.
I also had some more imaging done, to see if I had anything odd with the blood vessels in my head and neck. All good there.
So, here we are, on meds, and living life. A little tired of doctors, but looking forward.