Wednesday 21st September
After a few false starts the angiogram occurred at 09.00 today (Wednesday).
I got bumped off the surgery list a few times, to make way for proper ‘ambulance pulls up outside with blue lights flashing’ emergencies.
Yesterday lunchtime I was brought down from my ward to pre-op, prepped and ready to go, when there were two blue-light emergencies who bumped me back to this morning.
I’m not complaining.
If someone is strolling about their business in a shopping centre, and then they keel over with a heart attack, they obviously take precedence over me!
Anyway.
As I was saying.
I had my angiogram this morning.
It is amazing that this surgical procedure happens.
In a nutshell, they make a very small incision in one’s right wrist, insert a very long catheter-type tube in to the heart cavity, pump a small amount of dye in and view the results, in real-time, on a 58″ monitor.
And the patient is fully conscious throughout (but with a little injected help to assist with keeping calm).
Unfortunately I couldn’t see much of the display, because the angles weren’t favourable, but there was quite a lot of chat between the various folk in theatre, which was interesting.
The heart is fed by three arteries; one main and two subsidiaries, but they each have a key role to play.
My main artery and right-hand subsidiary were both fine and healthy, but my left artery had a tear in it.
Unfortunately, the human body being what it is, my blood cells were trying to stem the damage from this tear, and in so doing had narrowed the artery, and restricted the flow of blood.
Silly buggers.
After a bit of a chat, the surgeons decided that they would be able to fix things then and there.
So they did.
Through the catheter-like tube they inserted a tiny piece of metal (called a ‘stent’), and manoeuvred the stent in to position where the narrowing was occurring.
Then they inserted, in to the stent, a tiny balloon, which they inflated, pushing the stent in to the right size and shape for the artery.
The balloon was then deflated and removed, and the stent was embedded in place.
Then they removed the catheter and stone me, I was done!
A plastic wrist-clamp was put on the incision, and tightened to a seriously painful level, to close the wound.
And I was wheeled back in to recovery, a repaired man.
The relief?
I can’t even begin to describe the relief.
At 2.30 this morning I had a massive self-inflicted knock-back.
It was an internal monologue, along the lines of Ian’s earlier comments, but with Sam’s words thrown in.
The bottom line is that I told myself that things have to change.
So I sit here on my ward bed, at 4pm on the day I have had, let’s be honest, heart surgery.
And I’m so lucky.
And grateful.
And I know these things.
I don’t know how my life is going to change, but there will undoubtedly be changes.
And if you want another person’s perspective to the last few days, Sam wrote a very touching blog post here.