Now I have two

A funny thing happened in my angiogram–I got another stent. Ok, Joyce doesn’t think it is funny.

Last week I had an annual heart test. In past years, it was an ultrasound of the heart to see how it was working. This year, because I mentioned I was occasionally short of breath (but who isn’t when they exert themselves?), my cardiologist wanted me to take a stress test.

So I did.

And he didn’t like the results. There was something that showed up under stress that wasn’t really visible when at rest. So he sent me in for an angiogram.

Angiograms are invasive. In my case, they sent a catheter into my wrist all the way to my heart. Injecting a short-living dye, they can take pictures and see where the blood flows.

Guess who had another blockage? Go, me.

So they put another stent in. Same artery, just a bit further into the heart.

The part Joyce doesn’t find funny is the comment in the report that the blockage was 70-80%. Not very far from another heart attack. Sigh.

But it is fixed and the whole process was uneventful (defined as nothing bad or unexpected happening during the procedure).

For that, I am grateful.

Other posts about my heart attack

• I almost died the other day.
• How Are You Doing?
• My Heart Attack: Joyce’s Story