Another Day, Another Stent

Yep, I just got back from the hospital a few hours ago. I found myself getting shorter and shorter of breath and waited until I had a pulmonology appointment last Monday to see a doc. He sent me to the cardiologist for an echocardiogram, but cardio doc said meet me at the hospital in 1 week at 6 am. Soooo, this past Monday morning I was there, he was there and we did another angiogram....my 4th. He found 3 spots in my LAD artery that needed attention. Two of them he used a balloon cath on, the third one he put another stent in, my 5th now. I'm feeling better even after 1 day. Hopefully this will solve my immediate problem. I figure now it's time to start doing research on why the arteries are getting clogged (ok, so I have cholesterol oat 220, triglycerides at 230 and my HDL/LDL levels are out of whack. ) Yep, I think he's finally gotten my attention.

Anyway, looks like it is time to make some dietary and lifestyle changes. Dang it!

Kajun

 

Good Docs are the key to a long enjoyable life.

 

Best of luck and hang in there. Wife had 3 or 4 bypass and the Dr read her the riot act and she decided that the Lord has got her attention. It is very hard to get your sodium and cholesterol down as most processed food become a no no on the new heart diet. Much of it is very sneaky, you can eat turkey breast with no skin if it is fresh, but most of the frozen turkey has a broth in it to keep it moist, and it is high in salt. Almost all the store bought soups, canned veggies, broths, cake mixes, muffin mixes, breads, crackers,canned meats, sausages, etc are to high in salt or cholesterol to eat. End up with fruits, veggies, and primal for most of the diet now.

While I may complain about the world we live in and all its problems, I thank the Lord for the care we have received from the medical system as my wife and I both would be long gone from heart problems, appendix problems, pancreas problems, infectious diseases, etc.

 

It's all about Portion Control.

 

Most of your plaque problems are probably being caused by white sugar and too many carbohydrates in general.

Both damage the layer of muscle on the inside of artery.

Cholesterol then builds up to protect the damaged areas--like a scab inside the blood vessel.

Bur the damage never stops, so the scabs form scabs on top of scabs, until the blood flow is constricted, and you have a "cholesterol problem".

There are many references available, on You Tube, especially.

Like anything else, you have to do the research to learn the truth.

Here's one reference, just to get you started:

You're on your way.

 

Take care of yourself TX.

 

I am glad you are here to post and you will be making some lifestyle changes. Your body has been giving you signals, now it is time to listen. Please take care.

 

Thank you Uncle Morgan for the information. They used to say that the perfect profession was to be a dermatologist, your patients never were totally cured and they never died. As a nation we spend many billion's of dollars on drugs to lower cholesterol and they have never really proved that they actually lower your risk of a heart attack. It takes a change in diet and lifestyle to prevent artery damage and to try to heal the damage and no magic genetically modified snake oil offered by the pharmaceutical industry is going to do it alone. Most people want the easy way out and really don't want to change anything and the medical industry is willing to hold their hand and make a fortune doing it and will attack with a total vengeance anything that even remotely threatens their cash cow. People with a natural lower cholesterol level do have less artery problems, but as the good Dr said, it is due to the body not having to create cholesterol in an attempt to heal the damage caused by bad diet and lifestyle choices, and not due to some artificial attempt to drive the level as low as possible with chemicals. There is some good information on the net on artery disease, but there is also a lot of sales pitches and bad information and it can be really hard to know which to believe. I tend to trust the ones most that aren't trying to sell me and my Dr some pill that cost $300 a month and that I am supposed to take for the rest of my life. While not covered by my medical insurance, that amount of money will buy a lot of good wild salmon and other high omega fish, grass fed beef, organic fresh free range turkey and chicken, fresh and dried fruit, fresh veggies, nuts, etc, and with some exercise and weight loss will be a lot more effective in treating your arteries. That being said, the stents and surgery may well be very necessary in order to keep you alive until you can make some changes. It seems to me the necessity of doing "additional or more corrective" procedures would be a red flag that something needs to be changed as the root cause of the problem still exists.

 

Got 3 of them myself... sux!

 

Here's to a speedy recovery

 

I'll bid with two Double Bypass, two stents and a valve job with gore-tex sleeve.

 

Yeppers. Happy to share it. Hope it works well for you.

Despite all our modern technology, we live in a primitive culture saddled with thousands of things that are detrimental to the simple process of staying alive--quite aside form things like politics & religion.

Sometimes we just have to embrace the suck a little longer to be able to engineer a radical suckectomy--and maybe actually beat the system. At least a little. For a while.

But, in the long run, it's no big deal. I know from personal experience that when we die, we get a brand new body.

The only problem with that is that we all have to re-learn those damn multiplication tables.

The Big Wheel keeps on turnin'.

 

I have no experience in this but have met others that do, that is by going to a strict FRESH FOOD DIET you can beat these problems. even diabetes and many other health issues including over weight .
A pamphlet I read a while back written in the 70 by a doctor doing research on stale food found that by putting his patients on fresh food a great many of his patients cleared up well .
It largely depends on the discipline of the individual maintaining the diet.
he believed that the stale food is like a sludge wit no food value that gets stuck in our circulation that is the root of most of our problems . Clog up the arteries that feed each organ and things start shutting down.
Breads are basically dead food , chips and crackers are not even food .
Fats that are clear are still living tissue the body can process correctly.
Fruits and vegetables that are cooked too deeply have lost most of their food value.
Remember that our bodies live on "living tissue" .

One of my jobs years ago was working for Abbott Vascular, building stents of all sizes .
Very proud to have been a part of the high quality manufacture that make these gems.

 

Hang in there Kajun, prayers inbound.

 

Then again AGENT ORANGE Over Rides All.

Research on Health Effects of Herbicide Exposure
Dioxin is a highly toxic substance found in Agent Orange and some other herbicides. Studies suggest that this chemical may be related to a number of cancers and other health effects in humans.

VA and other Federal Government Departments and agencies have and continue to conduct extensive research evaluating the health effects of Agent Orange exposure on U.S. Veterans.

VA epidemiology studies on Vietnam Veterans

The Vietnam Era Health Retrospective Observational Study is a nationwide study on the current health and well-being of Vietnam era Veterans. Researchers will compare their health to similarly aged U.S. residents who never served in the military.

The Army Chemical Corps Vietnam-Era Veterans Health Study is a study of 4,000 Veterans who served in the U.S. Army Chemical Corps sometime between 1965–1973 to determine if high blood pressure (hypertension) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are related to Agent Orange exposure during Vietnam.

The Long Term Health Outcomes of Women's Service During the Vietnam Era is the most comprehensive study to date of the mental and physical health of women Vietnam Veterans. The study will be used to shape future research on women Veterans and to plan for appropriate services for women Veterans and the aging Veteran population.

VA's Epidemiology Program, a research division of the Office of Public Health, has many publications on the health of Vietnam Veterans.

CDC studies on Vietnam Veterans
In 1984, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published an important study, partially funded by VA, regarding Vietnam Veterans’ risks of fathering babies with birth defects.

VA also funded the CDC Vietnam Experience Study published in 1987 and 1988, and the CDC Selected Cancers Study published in 1990.

HMD reports on Vietnam Veterans and Agent Orange
VA contracts with the Health and Medicine Division (HMD) (formally known as the Institute of Medicine) of the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, a non-governmental organization, to scientifically review evidence on the long-term health effects of Agent Orange and other herbicides on Vietnam Veterans. The HMD regularly updates its reports on Veterans and Agent Orange.

 

partially disabled... I'm told it was due to that crap...

 

It caused all my cardiac problems, as well other med problems.

Thank God we adopted so it will not be passed on.