Posted on 06/07/2018 2:14:13 PM PDT by CodeToad
Glad to hear you’re still on this side of the grass. Simple information leads to great results. Thank you for your story.
The Left anterior (in front) descending artery (the LAD) is the “widomaker”. It is the first coronary artery that comes right off the aorta coming out of the Left ventricle (the pumping chamber that takes fully oxygenated blood and pumps it out to the body. Right below the bending down loop of the aorta- IOW nearly at the junction of the aorta with the start of the aorta—comes out/down the LAD, which supplies the BEST full oxygenated blood to the main heart pumping muscle.
If the LAD had a lesion that fully blocks it—it kills the heart muscle which cannot then get oxygen/glucose, etc.
Assume your “scan” was a cardiac catheterization with contrast agent, not a calcium score. If it was calcified at 95% blockage.. would require a bypass. The expandable stent could not open such a blockage. The stent is like a reverse Chinese finger puzzle— expanded by a balloon spreading out and making “purchase/attachment” to the artery wall lining. Typically is has growth hormone imbedded in it’s “hooks” to inspire the artery wall cells to grow over and through the stent- to make a healthy repair. LADs that are not “compensated” over time by the natural “grow around” branch arteries that may form to deliver oxygen to the Lventricle— just enough stress- high bp, even a fatty meal, and boom— muscle is damaged and ventricular fibrillation (unorganized beat conduction of all the fibers (literally fibrils- looks like little worms wriggling instead of beating in synchrony) and sudden cardiac death.
Glad you had it taken care of. Rest is up to you.
The Cardiologist had a heckuva time getting the stint in. In fact, he told me he was about 1 minute away from doing a bypass. If it had been a few more months without being noticed, it would have blocked totally (at least that is what the Doctor told me.). I had another angiogram about a month ago and I am still getting some calcification, but not enough to put in another stint or do a bypass. Keep me in your prayers, but it looks like I turned a little corner. He took me off of all blood thinners except for baby aspirin, which is good because I was a bleeder. All in all, my health is good now. I am walking at least 3 miles per day and my diet is much healthier. Bless God!
BTW, this started with the discovery of A-fib, which was deetected when I had a Colonoscopy, which found Cancer. I had a third of my Colon removed, but they caught it early and I am now cancer free. So, the moral of the story is to get a Colonoscopy. In my case, I found I had an A-fib, which led to a Calcium scan, which discovered blockages, which were dealt with by stints. Don’t avoid your routine checkups, Colonoscopies, EKG’s etc., when you turn 50 years old. I waited until I was 65, and it could have shortened my life.
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