The last time I had angioplasty for the placing of stints, I knew the surgeon well as a personal friend. They observe the whole procedure using fluoroscopic fluid and can see what they are doing. I was awake for the operation so I asked if one of the monitors could be turned so I could observe. He obliged and I got to see my operation on TV. He even narrated as he worked.

The skill those doctors have is absolutely amazing. Steering the catheter tip takes years of practice and training. Believe it, or not, the technology was developed by studying animals with prehensile tails, and cats.

Back in 2015 I had my yearly checkup and the EKG found an anomaly which called for a Cardiac Cath.
As they were prepping me for the Cath. a nurse ask me what med I was on, Told her allergy meds. and B/P meds. she said at your age, that's all yep. Well they took care of that !!
The Cath. revealed some minor blockage in one small artery now on now on five meds. But they worked for a long time.
A Sunday morning this feb. I woke up with a tightness in my chest @ 1:00 a.m. it didn't hurt but it wasn't normal
I had been having these twinges that lasted never more than a min and my cardiologist and I decided to just keep an eye on them.
Sunday morning at 4:00 am I went down the road to the Ambulance House and the medics ran a strip and found nothing going on, Monday morning I called Dena left a message , she called back a little later, the told me to increase one med by 50% and not over 100% and come in Tues. unless I didn't get relief well the 50% didn't help so 20min I took another 50% and got relief almost immediately .
Wed morning they ran a strip and nothing was showing up, So time for another Cath. Fri. Talked to the surgeon and told him it the blockage was marginal to go ahead with the stint he agreed, well now I have the stint and three more meds. But everything is back to normal. Dena told me I might still have the twinges but with time they should diminish.
Our hike to Greer Spring the weekend before last was a test, I passed !!!

Back in 2015 I had my yearly checkup and the EKG found an anomaly which called for a Cardiac Cath.
As they were prepping me for the Cath. a nurse ask me what med I was on, Told her allergy meds. and B/P meds. she said at your age, that's all yep. Well they took care of that !!
The Cath. revealed some minor blockage in one small artery now on now on five meds. But they worked for a long time.
A Sunday morning this feb. I woke up with a tightness in my chest @ 1:00 a.m. it didn't hurt but it wasn't normal
I had been having these twinges that lasted never more than a min and my cardiologist and I decided to just keep an eye on them.
Sunday morning at 4:00 am I went down the road to the Ambulance House and the medics ran a strip and found nothing going on, Monday morning I called Dena left a message , she called back a little later, the told me to increase one med by 50% and not over 100% and come in Tues. unless I didn't get relief well the 50% didn't help so 20min I took another 50% and got relief almost immediately .
Wed morning they ran a strip and nothing was showing up, So time for another Cath. Fri. Talked to the surgeon and told him it the blockage was marginal to go ahead with the stint he agreed, well now I have the stint and three more meds. But everything is back to normal. Dena told me I might still have the twinges but with time they should diminish.
Our hike to Greer Spring the weekend before last was a test, I passed !!!

When I got afib I got a pacemaker (I had brachycardia so the pacemaker sped things up). I had to add a blood thinner to my meds (just a blood pressure medicine, fairly low dose). Then my arthritis kicked in so I started taking ibuprofin (up to 3 meds now). When I had a tooth removed they advised me to get off the blood thinner for a couple days. No problem.

A couple months ago we went away for 2 weeks. My blood thinner meds were due for refill before we got back but since they said it was OK to get off it for a couple days for the tooth, I just went to half dose to make the pills last through the trip. (half dose for about 6 days). When I got back I got the pills refilled and everything seemed to be OK.

A couple days later I had a TIA. I was taking my wife to the grocery store and I wanted to remind her that we needed cereal. But I just couldn't remember the word 'cereal'. Then there were a couple other words I had trouble with. When I got home I lay down and tried to use my phone but it didn't seem to work right. My wife called an ambulance and I went to the hospital with stroke symptoms. The scariest part was that when the TIA started, I was driving. I finished the trip OK fortunately.

The stroke was minor and cleared up in a couple days but the doctors thought it was due to the reduced blood thinner intake. And my blood pressure got pretty high in the hospital. So the 10 mg blood pressure medicine became 20 mg. They added a cholesterol medicine (for safety) although I have never had cholesterol problems. They added another blood pressure medicine.

My wife has an MD from China but didn't have the language ability to get an MD in the USA but she still has the training so she had a sphygmomanometer and we started keeping track of my blood pressure. We finally got a PCP (there's a local shortage) and I went and she raised the blood pressure medication prescription to 40mg. I also got a cardiologist appointment and he told me to quit the cholesterol stuff since it probably wasn't needed. Just get a choleresterol test before my next appointment.

Since we were tracking my blood pressure at home, we noted that it got pretty near normal in a couple days after returning from the hospital. Then it went lower. So we started cutting pills in half. I had gone back to 20mg blood pressure med so now I went back to 10mg, where I was before. The additional blood pressure medicing got cut in half to 5mg.

That was about 2 months ago and my blood pressure is now normal and has been for a couple months. I'm still on the additional blood pressure med (at half the original dose) and I'll ask the cardiologist if I can drop that. At least I'm back to only 4 different meds and if I can drop the added med I can get back where I was before.

Will be 88 in May-3 days ago had a Transthoracic Echocardiogram. Dr. said "Congratulations" test was normal-I'm happy for that.

My wife's assessment of the situation is that the PCP we saw was young. My wife thinks that young people want to throw everything they have at a problem to fix it quickly (which is why my old blood pressure med went up by a factor of 4) rather than taking a measured approach and more frequent checks.

The cardiologist said my afib is back but at my age, just live with it. The remedies sometimes suggested (ablation, watchman insertion) are not always effective, at least for the long term, and the surgery isn't recommended over 80. It comes and goes and I'm no longer working the farm so I'll just have to live with it.

But at least I'm getting old and not stopping here.

I forgot, this last Thursday I got hearing aids.
Kaiser tested me and the Audiologist said that besides my tinnitus I had loss in the high end and recommended I go to the VA to get them because with my VA disability they might be free instead of a copay at Kaiser. They were free from VA and a higher end model than Kaiser had for me on my teacher's retirement plan.
But on the followup in 4 weeks I need to get these things adjusted, the computer keys, rain on the roof, chewing, hair brushing my ears (the wife trimmed it yesterday etc. are now amplified too LOUD. My world now has too much sound. When I shaved I could hear every whisker getting cut.