Today, I had an angiogram done to determine the next steps in my quest to regain heart health.
My procedure was scheduled for 8am, so they told me to arrive at the hospital at 6 — the nurse’s workday, however, didn’t officially start until 6:30! Fortunately for me, he arrived early, so I only had to cool my heels for a few minutes (and that was in a waiting room, not the hallway). Once he arrived, things got started fairly quickly; I don’t know exactly when they put the IV in (about 7:30, I think — I don’t know how to get a precise time from a Facebook update, so I can’t be sure…no, wait…I just found the “My Status” app, and it tells me that I had the IV in before 7:13am), and very soon after that, they were wheeling me down the hall to the Cath Lab itself, while someone from the Business Office was collecting my co-pay from Diane (there was a discount offered for same-day payment). I remember the nurse shaving some hair in the area of my femoral artery; further, deponent remembereth not.
After being returned to the “short stay” area, Diane tells me I spoke with both my cardiologist and the thoracic surgeon she recommends (who, I now have discovered, doesn’t appear to be on my insurance! [update: I called his office, and he is on my plan. Glad to know that the “provider search” site is unreliable as well as being hard to use!]). They told us (well, mostly Diane) that, in addition to my stenosis, I also have a constricted circumflex artery (90% narrowed), and that it would be a good idea to have the surgery done soon.
My memories pick up, for the most part, after that conversation (though I must have been tracking to some extent, because I posted the name of the artery to Facebook!); I had a belated breakfast, a sketchy lunch, and then was cleared to go home. Someone, possibly the nurse, said that I should be started on statins soon, but I can’t find that in my discharge papers.
I’m not supposed to do anything more strenuous than walking for the next couple of days, and someone “suggested” that I skip golf class on Thursday, too, so it’s going to be a quiet week here at home.
I go back to the cardiologist on Monday to formulate the plan for the operation.