"Flying Pig" wrote in message
...
Yesterday I was stuck in both arms; one for an IV, and the other for a
line into my heart...

The back story is one that some of you may already know; I had a stress
test 6 years ago based on my family upline male history. That stress test
was interrupted due to a large abnormality, despite the many EKGs which
had been taken due to my shoulder surgeries having been entirely normal.
Stents were installed, and I went on a lifetime medication regime which
totally altered my cholesterol readings. No ill effects noted, ever, and,
suddenly, I was able to continue to breathe when I worked hard (my marker
had been how little I could row, despite not being physically fatigued,
without stopping to regain my breath).

Clogged arteries no doubt. I bet they put you on about 20mg of Crestor
aka rosuvastatin. That will clean them out over a period of a couple of
years. . . The stents managed to bypass the clogs in the heart arteries.
You'd probably be dead now without them.

Fast forward to the present, when I had an infection which I pursued
courtesy of Medicare. The meds prescribed for that, we assume, had
some negative side effects, because I was constantly tired. In addition,
the work we’re now doing on the boat involved a couple of instances
of nearly total depletion, heavy sweating, and shortness of breath.
The doc recommended a stress test in any event, but as a good
followup, now that there had been a lot of water under the keel, so
to speak.

So, I did another stress test. The surface results were very good.
Quick uptake on heart rate, no difficulty in maintaining it for quite a
while, while it continued to climb (no breathing or strength issues; the
tech said “Wow – you must be a runner!” – which I’m not, at all), and
a quick recovery. However, the EKG suggested some anomaly, and
my followup appointment was moved up by a couple of weeks.

Some anomaly? The trouble with EKG's is there are not very many
qualified cardiologists who can read all those squiggley lines and
ascertain causality. It's mostly a crap-shoot unless you can find a
real expert.

The cardio guy wants to do a catheterization. That’s where they
run a line into your artery and follow it to the heart, where they look
around, and, if needed, as in the first case, resolve any problems.

The chief difference in last time to this one is that they now, if possible,
go in through the arm, rather than carving a hole in my leg to get to the
groin artery. No problem finding MY artery (the sticker said I could
be a model for a phlebotomy class), and, a half-hour later, I was
finished.

Big bulging veins and arteries generally indicate chronic hyperrtension.

No problem found, including in my previous stents, and I was out of
there before noon, as there was no waiting time for my excavation
(in the groin) to heal/scab. While I didn’t get to talk to the cardio guy,
and will have a followup appointment in a couple of weeks, the word
was that he was very pleased, and there are no indications of the
need for anything in my medications or activities to change.

He's probably going to tell you something like you have a valve or
two that aren't in tip-top shape but, at your age, they will just have
to do as they aren't bad enough to indicate replacements and
something else will probably kill you before the leaky valves do.

Also they will probably tell you that they detected some muscle
death in the heart itself - probably caused before you got the stents.
Not much can be done about regenerating those heart muscle cells
barring intervention with stem cell therapy and yours aren't damaged
enough to warrant invasive surgery.

So, all is well. While I can’t do anything more strenuous than picking
up a mug of coffee for a couple of days with my right hand (the scab
on my artery, if it were to fail, could bleed me out in a matter of
minutes), we’re continuing to work on Flying Pig, where we’re
VERY close to finished.

Hurry up and get her launched - you sound like a ticking time bomb
to me. LOL! Oh, and stop wasting precious Medicare dollars.

Here's a valuable tip. Start taking Co enzyme Q-10 - at least 200mg
daily. It's one of the best things for the heart and for overall energy as
it nourishes the mitochondria which are the energy producers in the
cells. Muscle cells like the heart need increased number and
efficiency of mitochondria and Co Q-10 will do that for you.

--
Wilbur Hubbard