OK, things are beginning to happen. I've had a several lab and radiology tests done in the last week or so. First, I had lots of blood tests done. The usual CBC, Metabolic Panel, Lipid Panel, etc. The results are all A-OK. My total cholesterol is 186! WOW. The LDL is 123, though, a little too high. More oatmeal, please.

The BIG one, though, happened yesterday, 1/28/09; I had a cardiac cath. Dr. Henry Cusnir was the master of ceremonies for that one. Dr. Cusnir also did my mother-in-law. No! No!, not that way; he also did a cardiac cath on Jean about a month ago. - that's how I met him. Lauren and I really liked him and his demeanor. When I found out I needed a cardiac cath done for my surgery, I immediately thought of Dr. Cusnir.

The outpatient procedure was done at Florida Medical Center. After a very brief and efficient registration process, I was sent to the "Comfort Zone". That's where folks wait for their scheduled procedures and where they return to recover. Anita was my nurse and she was absolutely fantastic! She, living up to the unit's name, made me feel very, very comfortable.

Here I am getting into my comfort zone attire. 

 

Anita explained everything about my procedure, started an IV line, and marked a couple of Xs on my feet.The Xs marked the spots where the nurse found my pedal pulse before the procedure. Since the cardiac cath consists of poking a hole in your femoral artery, which delivers blood to your legs and feet, if there's no pulse on the Xs after the procedure is done, something isn't right.

The primary reason for doing the cardiac cath was to measure the size of the aortic root and secondarily to see the condition of my coronary arteries. I'm happy to report that both were just fine. My aorta is well rooted and minimally dilated, and my coronary arteries are in great shape.

I refused any kind of anesthesia before the procedure; I wanted to be involved. I was talking to the doctor and the staff the whole time. It was phenomenal! At one point the wire must have hit something and my heart complained. The nurse, who was monitoring my heart rhythm (rhythm is a weirdly spelled word, isn't it? Why isn't it reethum?), announced that my heart was getting irritable. The cool thing is that I was able to confirm that for the doctor because I felt it. The next time it happened, I was the one that announced it and the nurse confirmed it..

Here are a couple of narrated films I've posted on YouTube taken directly from a CD we were given of the procedure.

Aortic Root


Coronary Arteries.


My next step is to donate blood. I'll do that very soon and post the info here.