Angiogram...

Well, yesterday we spent 9 hours in the hospital ICVR, at the Coronary Care Unit (CCU) so Scott could have an Angiogram. This test is to check specifically for blockages in the arteries. The cardiologist said that even a few years ago they wouldn't have done this test on someone S's age (35), but Heart Disease is being found in younger & younger people all the time, and they don't want any surprises when they get in there. The cardiologist did tell us that this procedure, like many others, comes with risks,.. heart attack, stroke, even death (Gee, thank you for telling me this 5 minutes before you roll him into the O.R.!). The test is an actual surgical procedure,.. they make an incision in the upper leg, in the groin. There is a major artery there, and they run a catheter up through that, and inject the imaging ink so that they can see the coronary arteries on film. Good news,.. Doc says Scott has "Clean Corns",.. (coronary arteries). Scott was out of it for several hours, and reasonably uncomfortable. He did have one bad episode when they tried to get him up from bed,.. he made it 3-4 steps to the chair and sat, but then suddenly got very light-headed and they had to get him back in bed to avoid passing out. Turns out, his BP just dropped too suddenly, but they kept him in bed another hour and a half before trying again. He was fine after that, except for a nasty migraine that lasted about 45 minutes before easing up to being at least tolerable so he could walk around and get released. Because they go in through a major artery though, he's not allowed to drive for 24 hours or lift anything more than the weight a gallon of milk (10#) for the next week,.. any sudden pressure could cause him to bleed out (rapidly bleed to death) so as a precaution, he just needs to take it easy for the next week. I kept him home today, but he'll go back to work tomorrow... he's sore & tired, but otherwise doing great. Doc says he's restricted to desk work though... That's good because the more he takes it easy over the next couple of weeks the better. We've noticed that he seems to be getting worse symptoms-wise all the time,.. in fact, at times it seems he's worsening by the day so the sooner he gets the surgery the better. I'm really concerned with him waiting... Can't wait to have a date so at least I know 'when'. Not that I'm looking forward to him having open heart surgery, but without it we'd end up without him,... I'm just worried about him making to the surgery date. I'm sure everything will be fine, but this is still such a scary thing to face.