This time I got to go through the BORING recovery TWICE and the procedure once.

As I was lying on my gerney waiting for to go to OR for procedure, a woman who was having a heart attack was wheeled into the next bay. She had collapsed at her office for no known reason. After getting some background info from her, they rush into OR for an angiogram to determine what is happening. About 15 minutes later they pick me up for carotid artery stent procedure. Now my surgeon is the head cartiologist and if there is going to be any complications in this emergency in the other OR, he is likely to be needed. They get all the equipment set up for me, do the prep work, and then the IDIOT intern decides to run the IV lines into the groin WITHOUT checking to see if my doctor is going to be available to do the procedure. Two seconds later my doctors associate comes in to apologize and say my doctor has been called in on the emergency. I COULD KILL that intern. Now I have to do the 8-10 hours don't move or talk for a procedure that wasn't even done. Plus when he is trying to get my blood back to normal clotting level, he gives me to much of the drug and then has to thin it out again. I almost went into shock at one point. The bruising is so bad this time I can barely walk because this idiot also didn't know how to correctly apply pressure to stop the bleeding. So that was fun.

Needless to say Thursday procedure went without a problem. Doctor was delighted with the results. He was able to get carotid open far wider than he expected, don't know how much, but he was hoping for 70%. Even gave me a before and after picture to show me the blood getting to the brain. That before picture is a pretty scary shot.

The woman in the emergency was doing well. She was a 40 year old that collapsed out of the clear blue. She has some rare condition that occurs in 1-500,000 people where her arteries just collapse. they were collapsing before the doctors eyes as they were wroking on her. Took 4 doctors several hours and multiple stents to make her stable.

They wound up keeping me an extra day trying to get my BP up high enough for release. They want you on the high side as it takes a couple of days for the carotid to recover. So they are IV feeding me something to up the BP and then the silly nurses come in and want to give my BP medicine. I question the wisdom of this and they check with doc on floor in coronary care unit. He says, OH that is for arhymthia (sp) and it is OK. I say ARE YOU SURE because it also lowers my BP. Oh he sure. Next day my BP still not where they want it. Turns out I should not have had in BP meds for 48 hours after procedure.

So it is now 6:PM and they decide since it is so late, I might as well spend another night in coronary care so they can monitor overnight. I agree. Well, 10:30PM, in bounces my adorable two nurses who announce that I am 'going to take a walk'. They are throwing me out of the room in coronary care and sending me to a regular room where I won't get monitored cause they need the bed in corinary care. Fun and games.

I am doing well, although very badly bruised. Still have difficulty walking and climbing stairs but I think I can thank the idiot intern for that. It will probably take me twice as long to heal this time. Last time I had no difficulty after a couple of days.

So thanks for all the good vibes and prayers. I survived another one.

Take care,
Eileen