Two months ago I found myself on an operation table in the Feiring heart clinic near Hamar, Norway. Two months before that Angina had been found during a specialist’s check up in Lillestrøm. I have had physical discomfort problems during the last two years and in fact these last months I could hardly walk the stairs anymore..
At 8.30 I was made ready for an angiography procedure in which dye is injected into the blood vessels to determine the blood flow into the heart muscle. A small guide wire is inserted into the femoral artery through a small incision in the pulse or upper thigh. At 9.00 it was clear that my right coronary artery (left on picture) was totally blocked whereas on the left side two side arteries were also blocked. A bypass operation seemed inevitable and the surgeon went to consult with his colleagues what to do next. For this I had not prepared myself at all. Years ago my twin brother had to undergo a severe triple bypass operation and he had warned me to check my health status since Angina is genetically determined. But my now retired GP didn’t see cause to have me checked. Already I had learned from the assessment two months earlier that my reduced heart capacity had not been a matter of some months but an ongoing process for many years.
The team agreed to further examine the blood flow in the left heart chamber; a more detailed search in order to determine if a stent treatment could be considered anyway. A stent is a wire metal mesh tube which is used to pop open an artery that has been clogged. It will be placed through a balloon catheter that is transported through the artery to the blocking area. When the balloon is inflated, the stent expends, locks in place and forms a scaffold which keeps the artery open and thus improves the blood flow to the heart muscle. A method surely to be preferred to a bypass operation which always involves heavy surgery since new arteries have to be placed in such case. Miraculously I passed the test; new arteries had been formed on the left side of the heart (see pic) leading to the periphery of the right half and thus keeping a blood flow to the ‘bad’ side ongoing. ‘Very uncommon and not supposed to happen at all’, according to the baffled surgeon who gladly announced then that two stents were going to be placed on the left side in order to improve the blood flow at two stress points there.
10.15: Stents are placed and I'm back to the recovery room; a few hours later I am walking along Lake Mjøesa enjoying the autumn sun. Saturday morning I was allowed to go back home again. Though I will have to take medication for the rest of my life to prevent more plaque forming (anti-clotting) in my blood I was assured that the hearts works one hundred per cent and I can life to grow old with it. Was I lucky, absolutely but always having been a sportsman, also in later years obviously has stimulated the heart in a wonderful way. So live strong and use your body as well as your mind….
Update December 2009-12-09
Just back from the heart clinic again after ongoing angina complaints brought me back on the operation table to have another angiography. A rather sceptical surgeon went into the heart arteries again for a new assessment after I urged him to take a second look; something definitely to my believe was not right and again a buypass operation seemed inevitable. And what appears, one of the larger arteries on the right side that was considered to be totally blocked could be opened by placing a 60 mm balloon and a 32mm stent in it. In this way a considerable blood flow is made possible again in that part of the heart muscle and this should get me back on my feet in no time. Well anyway in the near future, so I can get those ski’s on again and bike those hills…..
Live strong
Hubert
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