Ursa Minor

No problem lets plan to ride it next year ... lol or whenever it is. When is the next one?

Charlie

CommuteCommando

Your proceedure, being non-emergency, you may not notice the difference right away like I did, but when you get back in the saddle you will.
This is me too. I keep the wife happy by ocassionally going on group rides, and going on well traveled routes in San Diego and Orange Counties-Took the Coast to Torrey today. Inland I follow well traveled routes like Elfin to Escondido/Del Dios/Rancho Bernardo etc. (If i'm not mistaken, you're from around here.)

Here's to you getting back inthe saddle soon (It took me three weeks, but that was more to keep the wife happy than the docs)

DiabloScott

Was this for the stint? How far up there are you talking about and why did they need to shave it?

eja_ bottecchia

The catheter tube went up the right femoral artery. The insertion point is right on the groin area, right up close to the family jewels. They shave it for some of the same reasons we shave our legs, to keep the incision area clean and clear of hairs.

A hospital is not a place for the overly prudish...on either side of the op table.

Dudelsack 

At the time of my catheterization I remember a hushed gasp when the nursing staff beheld my massive uncircumsized member.

Not really. It was pretty embarassing.

eja_ bottecchia

I feel your pain brother. In my case, the fact that the nurse was young and pretty only added to the "pain."

CommuteCommando

I got a male nurse for "the shave". I think it was hospital policy that is was better to make a male nurse jealous than to embarrass a female one.

eja_ bottecchia

Next one in SB will be October 2014.

I am going to hold you to it....

eja_ bottecchia

I am Hispanic...no way I am letting a guy with a blade get anywhere close to the family jewels.

eja_ bottecchia

Update:

Today took my first post angioplasty-stent ride. Forty easy, flat miles along PCH.

At first I was a little tentative until I "told myself" that I had been riding, fairly hard, with 90% blockage of the "widow maker" artery, so what did I have to fear? (Other than the collagen plug "popping" out of the incision site and my bleeding all over my bike. )

It was a beautiful day for riding, great weather, mild temperatures and hardly any wind along the coast.

It felt really good to be back on the bike. Until I forced to take a couple of weeks off I never realized how much riding means to me.

This experience taught me a few things (which I would like to share if I may).

1. Health is important. Listen to your body's signals and don't ride through unusual pain. Rule #5 notwithstanding, we don't have to be macho, tough riders all the time--sometimes it s OK to ignore the HTFU "rule" and just ride smart.

2. Strava "suffer scores" are useless for most riders. The suffer score is based on how long you ride a, or above, a certain bpm threshold. Looking at my Strava data for today's ride I noticed that my "suffer score" for the same speed range, was lower than in past rides over the same course. The answer is simple, I did not suffer "less"--my heart just had less work to do because it did not have to pump blood trough an artery with 90% blockage. Less work = lower bpm = lower suffer score.

3. Finally, I think that this episode has made me into a nicer person. In the past, I had a tendency to be a bit of an arse about many things. All my life I have been the poster boy for Type A personality. Being an immigrant in a new country that was not always a bad thing to be. This event. however, has made me realize that, in the long run, being #1 in all things is not necessarily the best way to live life. I may still be a bit of an arse, old habits are hard to break, but I will be a kinder and gentler arse.

I want to thank all of you who wrote here or PM me to express your concerns and well-wishes. I love this community!

cplager

[QUOTE=eja_ bottecchia;16214402] I may still be a bit of an arse, old habits are hard to break, but I will be a kinder and gentler arse.
/QUOTE]

Nicely said. These are words to life by.

Glad your doing well.

Notgrownup

I don't cycle as much as i should but i do and that is better than don't...Any kind of exercise is good...Period. Eja, glad you caught this early...I started cycling because i am type II diabetic and have severe RA and Cycling to me is fun. I started slowly and now after about 700 miles in 5 months i can easily do 25 miles on the weekend and that is BIG for me having been off a bike for over 25 years....MY family History is Heart disease and cancer so i quit smoking 11 years ago and now trying to stay a little more fit...Slowly but surely i am getting stronger...
I hope you stay well.

phoebeisis

All your news is good. You had enough circulation-collaterals etc- to do a high work load-despite the 90% block. You had no muscle death.
So now you have the same heart muscle cells-but they will eventually be able to do a bit more work-with no pain.
Now I don't know how great an idea it is to push it THAT hard at whatever your age is-guessing early 50's??-but it didn't kill your before-so it probably won't kill you now.
All your news was good-as good as it could be considering your chest pain history.You could have had a lesion that wasn't "Stent-able" or many lesions in very small arteries. Yes-you hit a grand slam "good luck wise"-great heart now made better.
The only penalty is maybe 3 added meds-2 anti+platelet and maybe a statin- they might have given you a tiny bottle of tiny nitroglycerin pills -just in case-also.
My wife had a MI 6 months ago-muscle death-same LAD as you-but completely occluded-"heartburn ignored etc"-so I have gotten a mini seminar on this stuff.

Angina folks- WHY IN THE HECK ARE NITROGLYCERINS PILLS SOOOOO SMALL.How are "in pain poor eyesight oldsters supposed to handle those TINY pills"? Yes you want quick absorption-lotta surface area-but surely there is a higher tech way to get surface area-geez!! Oh my wife seems to have not much of a problems doing it-perhaps the chest pain increases her concentration!

overthehillmedi

Phoboeisis, they make nitro spray, which is just sprayed under the tongue. No little pills for you to drop and lose.

phoebeisis

overthehillmedi
Thanks for the tip-my suspicion is insurance companies LIKE the old style NTG pills-CHEEP CHEEP- the gel and the spray-gotta be pricier co-pay.
Her insurance-medi whatever-is quite good-low copays-except on "not common" doses and forms of various meds
Funny the tiny pills don't concern my wife much-
guess I remember The Exorcist-old priest-fumbling around with his pills
Thanks
Charlie

overthehillmedi

Get her doctor to write a letter to the insurance saying that the spray is more effective for her and see what happens.