Pico de Orizaba

Pico de Orizaba
Taken from Huatusco, Veracruz, the closest town to Margarita's family's ranch.

Saturday, March 14, 2015

How does that Billy Joel song go?

"Oh, but workin’ too hard can give you/A heart attack-ak-ak-ak-ak-ak/You oughta know by now"

And that was the diagnosis two days later...  In a few hours Margarita and I leave for a hospital where the emergency Cardiologist will be placing at least one stent in one of my heart arteries... it all depends what else they find in the imaging...

But, this is what we work for...  Paying for pick-ups accidented and destroyed by other's careless driving... and for extremely expensive "surgeries" due to my very own decades of intentional carelessness... And, yes, I knew... But, I didn't care... until I met Margarita... but at first I didn't believe... and we didn't have the economy for eating healthfully... for years...  

4 comments:

Marsha said...

Ross where are you and what was the procedure that was done? I am so sorry that you are experiencing medical problems of such significance! I hope thta you will keep me informed of what is going on.

I am very sorry that we aren't having any contact but I regularly check your blog. I will assume that the stent or stents have been placed. How are you feeling and how long will you be in the hospital?
Love, Mom
Please let me know if there is something that I can do!

Ross said...

Margarita and I just returned home from the hospital around midday... We were there since 5:30pm yesterday. I had an Angiogram and two Angioplasties done. The heart attack was in the 3rd and smallest heart artery, and I didn't respond sufficiently on time for saving it... The specialist said that it realy doesn't make a difference. However, the first and largest heart artery had suppusedly a massive lesion, howevery, without a heart attack. And the second heart artery also had a lesion... So, those two arteries had stents placed in them...

In the middle of installing the second stent, I had an alergic reaction to the resonance ink (iodine, since I'm allergic to some seafoods, although "they" didn't ask me that)... My body went into incredible shivering spazams and my pulse increased from 68 to 200... It took 30 minutes for them to remove the reaction (with over $500USD of medication)... I lost consciousness and then my sight for a few hours)...

Before the reaction, the doctor commented somewhat surprised that I was NOT hypertense... I guess most of his hypertense patients exhibit signs of high BP during the proceedure... My BP has been "normal" or below normal since Thursday's heart attack... I drank coffee and fresh ground cocoa beans yesterday before going to the hospital... And that didn't raise my BP, which was around 107/68...

Marsha said...

What a terrible experience you had!What happens now? Do you have specific instructions now that you have these stents.
Margarita must have been so freightened for you. I am sorry I couldn't be there to support her. I am assuming that you are in Guadalajara now, is that correct?

Ross said...

special requirements... 4 medications that I am not taking, since one says "if you have a history of asthma or respiratory problems"... the doctor didn't ask... another says, "if you have a tendency towards hemoraging"... he didn't ask either... the J-Pouch while running... It's much like what happened during the angiogram with the iodine... what is so difficult to ask simple questions... The woman in billing who told us that the cost increased greatly due to the emergency care was, first surprised that he charged us for that emergency care... second, surprised that it is not standard proceedure to ask if I have alergies to other things other than medication... Supposedly I was the first patient of his to have this problem and only 10% have reactions against the resonance ink they put in the heart... Margarita was great...and continues so. Certainly not much different from her mother-in-law.

Diet... Truthfully, there isn't much diet the doctor can prescribe that I'm not already doing. One month without running, which is a problem for me. And then we leave for our most intense fair during the year; one that I've not so joked around that could kill me... No, it's not really an approapriate comment, since there isn't space now for being poetic. But, yes, this is a great concern of mine... I've gotta do a bit of reading about stents etc and what to expect. One does not have a plaque-related heart attack just out of the blue... And all of the statins and other drugs the doctor prescribed me are to prevent the stents from filling up with plaque... He said "cholesterol"... If I'm correct, it is not an accumulation of cholesterol but "emergency management" materials, kind of like a scab...