Time-Life Medical

 

A Personal Account of Angioplasty
(continued)

 

After the recovering, I went home and was told not to travel more than 10 minutes from a hospital until we were sure my artery would remain opened. It was March and I wanted to go on our family boat but the doctor said no, because the artery could close and I could die from a heart attack before the boat returned to shore. I couldn't live like this. My doctor asked if I wanted to see a specialist in Nashville who had pioneered the atherectomy for another attempt. I was willing.

My doctor suggested I be taken by ambulance. I was embarrassed and said no. Old people travel in ambulances. Knowing what I do now about coronary heart disease, I wish I had taken the ambulance. Halfway to Nashville I started having chest pains again. There was no hospital around. My husband sped 80 mph the rest of the way to Nashville. However, once there, tests revealed my arteries were open. I didn't know what was going on. I felt hysteric. Five weeks later, I was back in my own hospital with my artery closed 99 percent again.

By this time, the doctors said I'd need coronary bypass surgery. I wanted to go home and think about it, but the doctors wouldn't let me leave. It felt like an out-of-body experience because I was so young. And being a woman, I was afraid of having a scar. But most of all I wondered if the bypass would work. The angioplasties had failed, why wouldn't the bypass?

The operation took place the next morning. The doctors took a mammary artery from my chest and sewed this above and below the blockage. I spent the next two days in the ICU but I honestly don't remember a bit of it. I was transferred to the cardiovascular unit. I had no energy and was in pain -- not excruciating pain, but kind of like when you have the flu and want to vomit. It was even worse for a big breasted woman because every time I moved, the incision from my operation became sore.

I am the most gregarious and easy-to-laugh person, but I couldn't stand all my friends visiting me. They expected me to be myself, but I didn't feel like speaking, let alone laughing. The third day was the worse. I was sitting in a chair crying when a nurse came in my room. I told her I was sick of seeing people and just wanted to sleep. The nurse put up a "do-not-disturb" sign on my door and left it there for three days. I tell everyone now to take time for themselves after bypass surgery and put up a "do-not-disturb" sign.

I went home after several more days. My husband Jim wanted to stay with me, but I told him to return to work. He'd missed enough already. I told him to give me something to drink and put a phone near the recliner chair. He left and an hour later I tried to go to the bathroom but didn't have the strength to lower the legs of the recliner. I started crying and called Jim, who came home. I was on no medication except for Tylenol. Gradually I felt better. The doctors told me to lose weight and exercise more, suggesting I walk two miles a day.

Occasionally, I'd have chest pain and go to the hospital but my arteries were clear. Three months later, I had pain and it turned out I needed my gallbladder removed. It was also time for my yearly mammogram and it revealed I had a cyst. Hadn't I been through enough already? In six months, I'd had seven angiograms and angioplasties as well as bypass surgery. Now I had gallbladder disease and a cyst in my breast. The doctors removed the gallbladder and cyst at the same time. The cyst was benign. Since then, I've felt great. Three years have passed and I am finally satisfied that my bypass surgery was a success.

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