Took Todd to the hospital Saturday evening with chest pains &
shortness of breath. Spent several hours in the ER undergoing EKG,
blood work & the like. They administered nitroglycerin, which eased
the pain. This was the first measurable indicator that this was a
heart situation. After three nitro pills to ease the pain they
decided to admit him for further observation. We got to the ER around
6:30-7pm got put in a room around 1am. They indicated he'd probably
do a stress test to evaluate the heart the following day. That night
was filled with the usual every half hour poking & prodding. In the
morning (Sun) the cardiologist stopped by & indicated that the over
night blood work & second EKG indicated that he had in fact had a
mild heart attack. He was scheduled for a cardiac catheterization
this afternoon (mon) but luckily they took him in around 8am. He had
a sever headache all night (worse pain then the heart attack) from
the nitroglycerin drip. When they did the cath they called me in to
tell me that they had found blockage. In fact he had over 75%
blockage over the 4 arteries. One artery is 100% blocked & has been
for several years. Luckily two of the other arteries stepped in &
took over supplying blood to the heart below the blockage. If that
hadn't happened that part of the heart would have died requiring
immediate bypass surgery. The second worse was the one that triggered
the heart attack. It was 95% blocked. They did an angioplasty and a
stent in that one. There is some damage to the heart below the 95%
blockage but I don't think that was a major concern. The other two
are 70% & 40% blocked, those are the ones that took over for the 100%
blockage. The plan right now is to see if the stent works on this
artery & heals properly. If that goes well they'll most likely try
the angioplasty and stent for the 100% blockage. If any of this
doesn't work he faces open-heart bypass surgery.
All I can say is Todd is a very lucky man. It's amazing his heart
attack wasn't more severe (I drove him to the hospital). He's also
lucky his heart didn't clog completely necessitating emergency open-
heart surgery or the ultimate worse.
If recovery goes well he may be able to go home tomorrow.
Deb
Twin Jugs Racing
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