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I was the poster that wrote a couple of months ago about using the drug Chantix back in December to quit my habit of 2 packs a day since 1970. It's now been five months and I'm still smoke free, however after 36 years of smoking I did damage my heart.
About a month of ago I went to my doctor complaining about my feet hurting, he ordered a whole list of tests and x-rays, one of which was a nuclear stress test. A week after the test the cardiologist called and wanted to see me right away, he found blockage in my heart.
Last Thursday I went into the hospital for what's called an angioplasty. Your in a regular operating room enviroment but your in a twlight sleep condition, you can hear and see what's going on and you can answer their questions but you don't feel any pain, you will feel some pressure in the hip area when they are performing the procedure. The surgeon snakes a wire type device up to the heart from the vein near the top of the leg next to the groin. They put dye in your blood and can watch what they're doing with an x-ray type machine that is just above your head. After reaching my heart they found one artery was 100% blocked but had created it's own collateral artery in it's place, which they said is common. The middle artery was 50% blocked, so this is where the term angioplasty comes into play. The end of the wire can expand, they call it a balloon, and this expansion knocks out the blockage and then they insert a hollow metal section to reinforce the area. Much the same way a plummer puts in a new piece of pipe, this tubing is called a stent. My artery on the rightside was OK, so nothing was done to that one.
After one night in the hospital I was back home on Friday and really didn't feel much pain, it was a fairly easy procedure considering they are working on the heart. My doctor said to rest a week and then I can resume normal activities and I'll have more endurance than before since my heart will be working much better.
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