God Bless Ya and Cross Your Fingers

It was 3 months almost to the day since my bypass. I was scheduled to meet with the EP guy Dr. Annoni the following week. Things seemed to be going well.

July 6th I was working on this blog. I was tired and decided to give it a rest, even though it was only 9:30 in the morning. Getting up from the computer, the same pain I had grown to recognize reared its ugly head. "Ignore it". Pace, sit down, pace again and pray it’s not what you think.

I called to my wife, Cathy. She silenced my protest and called 911. I was taken back to Pepin. Tests were done, blood was drawn.

The frustrating thing is, is that I know my body and I know what this particular pain feels like. But before the results of the test were back I had an ER doctor telling me that it could be many things but almost definitely not cardiac. I had a feeling he was going to discharge me.

As it turns out my troponins were up which meant it was a cardiac event. A small event but never the less it was a heart attack.

Once again I was scheduled for a heart cath. My LAD bypass had closed. However the LAD stent which had been occluded was now open. I'm not sure if the stent opened and therefore the heart decided the bypass was no longer needed or the opposite. Or maybe the heart attack was from a small vessel in the heart somewhere. Only God knows for sure.

Dr. Pascual had thought that since I was in the hospital anyway I should go ahead and have the ICD. He would inform Dr. Annoni to start the wheels rolling. However, since it was a cardiac event, Dr. Annoni said I would have to wait another 30 days per protocol. I'm beginning to wonder if protocol is getting in the way of my health.

What's with this protocol? Another way of saying your insurance doesn't want to pay for this so lets wait and see if you live another 30 days?
God bless ya and cross your fingers.

Well I'll show em.