Been diagnosed with severe stenosis in the RCA and moderate disease in the circumflex and OM1, anyone got any advice?

[moosechops]

stenosis

[MichaelJH Heart Star]

Hello and welcome to the forum! I imagine as a starter you are on a statin and 75mg aspirin, and maybe a beta blocker and/or statin. As you do not mention age, fitness, BMI, existing medical conditions it is hard to comment. At a guess I suspect they may stent the RCA and medically manage you. However, if the moderate disease is at the top end of moderate a bypass may be more appropriate.

The main thing now is to be as healthy as possible by achieving a healthy BMI, BP and cholesterol in range, healthy diet, exercise within your capabilities (you may need advice on this).

Feel free to ask whatever comes to mind.

[moosechops in reply to MichaelJH]

Hi Michael, have been put on waiting list for stent to RCA and pressure wire test to circumflex and OM1.. I am 62, do an active job, normal weight...currently taking Clopidogrel 75mg,atorvastatin 40mg,Ramipril 10mg and Amlodipine 5mg...also have gall stones that are acting up and have been told my gallbladder needs to be removed but not until my heart is sorted!! 3 things bothering me, how long will it be before I have the stent and recovery time, how long after stent can I have gallbladder op and I have a holiday booked in May and wondered if im still ok to travel

[MichaelJH Heart Star in reply to moosechops]

Apologies for the delay in replying. I had unrelated surgery five months after my bypass. With a stent I am sure the delay would be far less. Would it be minimally invasive? With regards to travel the person to ask is your GP and if going overseas you need to check the insurance situation.

The waiting time for stents or bypass does seem to vary tremendously. After my angiogram I was told about a month but was then referred for further tests which resulted in a bypass! I would give them a call as your last angiogram was in January.

[moosechops in reply to MichaelJH]

Apparently it will be keyhole surgery for the gall bladder with a recovery period of 6-8 weeks, my consultant is aware of the situation but everything seems to take so long, waiting lists at my hospital are horrendous. I have checked insurance and there are companies who specialise so hopeful. Just need to check with my doctor if it`s safe to travel, which i`m sure it will be.

[COYW]

Hi. Sorry to hear that but you are definitely not alone unfortunately . How did they diagnose? Until I went through the catheterisation process I had 80 and 60% blockages. That process showed only LAD needed a stent.

[moosechops in reply to COYW]

Hi COYW, I had 1st angiogram back in October and heard nothing until 2 weeks before xmas when I received call to book me in for invasive angiogram in Jan, to be honest I was shocked. I was then told of the diagnosis. My mother died at 62 from heart attack and my father had triple bypass in his 60`s, so am high risk. I`m still coming to terms with the findings and if i`m honest a little scared. I have been initially signed off work for 3 months as i`m having gall bladder problems every 3 weeks or so and end up in hospital for a few days. All this is putting a strain on me both mentally and physically.

[BillyMct]

From my own experience of 3 stents fitted under a single procedure recovery is more dependent on existing health/fitness and was there any long term damage incurred to the heart as a result of the vessel obstructions. So all other things being well not a massive length of time . If the trust you under has I strongly recommend attending a cardio rehab program which sets you on a path to (better?) health and they should monitor progress through that program. My local trust one runs for 6 weeks though monitoring progress by the attending cardio nurses was more visual with only bp and Post excessive HR recorded at the start and end of the program, no ecgs echos or other heart tests undertaken.

[moosechops in reply to BillyMct]

Thank you for the info....very helpful, how long did you have to wait from diagnosis to stents being fitted?

[BillyMct in reply to moosechops]

I didn’t get through the wait period following initial diagnosis and ended up being treated as an urgent/ emergency admission due to a crescendo angina attack, which was coincidental with my visit to the cardio rehab nurse for initial assessment on attending rehab. The local rehab runs both pre and post heart procedure and they can try and check where you are in the queues. As an aside these can be long and my referral for procedure hadn’t been acknowledged by the treatment hospital over a month from diagnosis though the , admin at either trust involved was potentially a month behind in sending/ acknowledging referrals :/

[moosechops in reply to BillyMct]

spoke to consultants secretary who said it could be up to 5 months!! Have also received copy of email sent to my doctor saying i`ve been put on waiting list..I guess its`s down to consultant to determine urgency but very frustrating for me with work etc also emotionally as now I know what the problem is I just want it fixed...but i`m trying to stay positive and realise i`m not the only one in this situation

[Palpman]

Most of the outpatients in my ward for angiogram had stents placed at the same time if required. No repeat visits for stent placement.

I had gallstones removed via my mouth but the inflammation returned after a month so had keyhole surgery to remove the gallbladder.

I had little pain and went about my normal activities and diet the next day.

The only problem I had was that I could not pass urine after and had to have my bladder emptied via catheter. Returned to normal soon after. This is normal for men over 60 having abdomen surgery with general anesthetic.

Although I had severe palpitations before the surgery, they disappeared after for 3 weeks but returned with a vengeance.