Anyone have a heart stent the normal way?

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Depleted

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#1
#1
Abnormal way -- have a massive heart attack and then get whisked off while semiconscious.

Normal way -- have a catheter going up your arm (or groin) to see if the arteries are blocked first.

My real question is do they immediately put a stent in then or do they delay it so you're prepared differently?

(Just didn't think to ask the doctor at the time, and I'm pretty sure he won't get it immediately, because they didn't do stents 1.5 years ago in the hospital.)

AND, are you really awake for this, or is it that "light sleep" where you don't really remember anything or local anesthesia, so, Yessiree, Bob, you're going to feel it?

AND, if you've had one, did you go home or stay in the hospital overnight?

AND, (because there just aren't enough "ands" already), if you went home how long before resuming normal life again?

AND, what should we know that I didn't think to ask?
 
blue_ladybug

blue_ladybug

Senior Member
#2
Feb 21, 2014
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#2
When daddy had a heart attack last year, (he's 86) they put a stent into one side of his heart. I believe that they sedate you before they do it. Then daddy had another heart attack, so they put in a pacemaker. I think you can go home after a couple of days..
 
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#3
#3
blue_ladybug said:
When daddy had a heart attack last year, (he's 86) they put a stent into one side of his heart. I believe that they sedate you before they do it. Then daddy had another heart attack, so they put in a pacemaker. I think you can go home after a couple of days..
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But that's the abnormal way -- directly linked after the heart attack. (That's the version John had the last time.)
 
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#4
#4
I got my answers today. I figure it might help someone in the future, but I want to make it clear, this is what the VA does in America. Your results may be different.

7:30 is appointment time, but before getting there, you have to get admitted (at Admissions), followed by bloodwork. So we went an hour early to get that done.

He went in the other room to get prepped at 8, and I was told he'd be taken up in half an hour. So, he was taken up at 9. (Be prepared for "hospital time." It's like being at the edge of a black hole. Time doesn't mean the same thing to them.)

He had a peg in the back of his hand, and he was happy they already took the other line out. (Expect more than one needle and an IV.)

I followed him up, and asked how long he'd be. "At least a few hours." I don't know about you, but waiting a few hours is different than thinking "it will take about an hour." But, again, this is hospital time, so I took "a few hours" to 90 minutes, just in case. (A few hours was two hours.)

He was taken into the OR and given a sedative. "Sedative," this time, meant something so mild he didn't even feel the effects.

And then the doctors came in right before they started and told him, "If there is something wrong with one stent, we'll replace it. That means you'll stay overnight. If it's more than one, we have to send you over to the other hospital, (they don't do stents in this particular VA, so they outsource it to the seventh best cardiac care hospital in America), and do it immediately. Then you stay there for a week. If nothing is wrong, you'll go home."

Which, for the VA's record is also Hospital Time, where
1 day = 5-7 days.
1 week = 7 days, until they find out there are no beds for him to come back to the VA, so will turn into 8 days. And then he has to be returned to the VA for at least one day. And, if that 1 day is in the ICU (which it shouldn't be, because he shouldn't be vented), that then means he has to be transferred to a regular unit before being discharged. AND, at the regular units, they will come up with some excuse to ignore what he really needs, (like say FLUIDS or FOOD), to the point that his readings start going bad, and then they'll blame that on something else, decide he needs another tests, boggle that up for a week or so, and he might get home in 1-4 weeks. (Repeat experience. I'm not making this up.)

Personally? I think it would have been nice to know he might not be coming home again for a while. We would have prepared differently.

BUT, turns out his stents are marvelous. "Look brand new." But, some smaller vessels are clogged, so he's back on Plavix.

And, "he should take half an hour before he's done," was also hospital time. They told him he had to stay resting for one hour right after they went through those doors I wasn't allowed behind.

AND, since they really did roto-rotor a main artery in his right hand, he can't use his right hand for the next week, nor can he get the bandage wet for one week for fear it will become an artery bleed. (Note: He's on a blood thinner again.) Oh! He's right handed, and told them that.

Just a heads up for anyone who might get stuck using the VA to check on their stents.

7:30 appointment. He got out at noon, which is the best-case scenario, so this isn't bad news. This is good news -- kind of. (We really would have liked a heads up though.)
 
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oldethennew

Banned
#5
Feb 28, 2016
11,311
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#5
we're so sorry sweethearts for all of the sorrow/pain/worry that you are both are suffering at this
time of your lives...but, so many times, at least for us, things just seem to get better by-and-by -
I mean, from what they were...everything 'always-changes', for the better, no matter what the world
thinks, for those who Love their Maker...

at this point in our lives, our hearts are about to burst in our gratefulness for what He, our Saviour
has brought us both through and for the assurances that He has promised us...
somehow, afterwards, usually NOT during, it all seems so worth it, when we realize what
He did for us...and I know that you know what we mean, Sister...GBY you both...
 
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Depleted

Guest
#6
#6
oldethennew said:
we're so sorry sweethearts for all of the sorrow/pain/worry that you are both are suffering at this
time of your lives...but, so many times, at least for us, things just seem to get better by-and-by -
I mean, from what they were...everything 'always-changes', for the better, no matter what the world
thinks, for those who Love their Maker...

at this point in our lives, our hearts are about to burst in our gratefulness for what He, our Saviour
has brought us both through and for the assurances that He has promised us...
somehow, afterwards, usually NOT during, it all seems so worth it, when we realize what
He did for us...and I know that you know what we mean, Sister...GBY you both...
Click to expand...
Hey, we're doing pretty good. John spent months after he could talk again planning grilling turkey. He spoke so much about it, it felt like I was listening to Forrest Gump's friend Bubba talking about shrimp. The day after Easter, we got that grilled turkey. So happy we both cried.

The first food he smelled when he still had the feeding tube was popcorn. (Hospital entrance has a popcorn machine.) He finally had popcorn tonight.

We finally got out to the cherry-blossom festival we've been wanting to go to for years.

All in all, things are going great. Just getting a little worried because he can't catch his breath sometimes. That's how it started last time, except then he called it "indigestion," and he doesn't feel like he has that.

We're like newlyweds again. Enjoying fun times together as often as possible.
 
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