October 2011
Note: I'm providing these details in the hope that my experiences will benefit others.
- As some of you know, I was plagued with a case of bronchitis that had me laid low for several weeks in August while Onward was in RI. As soon as the hurricanes cleared and I felt well enough to travel, Onward booked it south to the Chesapeake where I put into Baltimore. I set up an extensive set of medical tests with my regular health care team in MD. The good news was I was making a rapid recovery from the bronchitis and there was no underlying lung problem or related malady at play.
- As part of my annual physical, they checked my lipid panel - something they've done for >20 years because my brother had a heart attack in his late 40's. My numbers continued to look good but not spectacular with only LDL being on the high side of normal to borderline. So as I was about to be given a clean bill of health (along with an admonishment to watch my diet, exercise more and lose weight) to start south on my 5th circuit, but Deb Jones, my primary care NP, said "since you are going to be far from US health care for several months, I think you should have one more test just to feel better.
- This was a Calcium CT scan at Union Memorial Hospital. It picks up the Calcium formed in plaque built up in the coronary arteries and "scores" it on a 0 to whatever level in terms of how much is there. The test is non invasive and only takes a few minutes. It is still considered experimental so medical insurance doesn't cover it - but it was only $75.
- A few days after the test, Deb called me to say she was making an appointment for me to see a cardiologist immediately because my Ca CT Score had been extraordinarily high. She immediately switched me to a stronger statin drug, Crestor.
- The next day I saw the cardiologist who looked over me and all my data and agreed I was asymptomatic and there was no indication of any cardiac problems - save the Ca CT scan data. My family history was another cautionary factor. He felt that while not clear and conclusive the Ca CT score was so high it needed immediate evaluation by the "gold standard": coronary catheterization and angiography.
- So on Friday, 14 Sep, I went to Johns Hopkins Hospital's Interventional Cardiology Unit where they did a coronary catheterization and angiography. This procedure is essentially conducted as an outpatient procedure. The catheter was put in an artery on my R wrist and pushed up into the heart and dye injected to evaluate by Xray blood flow through my coronary arteries. I was wakeful but sedated and was aware that they found substantial blockage in two of my coronary arteries. They immediately implanted three stents which restored full diameter and flow to the arteries. After an overnight stay I was released to carry on with my life. I feel great (as I did before) with no evidence of the procedure other than the insertion point in my wrist. [By the way, any good thing you've read or heard about JHH is an understatement!.]
- The nutritionist who met with me after the procedure reviewed my diet and said I'd been doing mostly the right thing except for my occasional cheeseburger, french fries, onion rings - and my favorite breakfast of 2 strips of bacon and eggs; red meat and cheese also needed to be minimized.
- It probably won't surprise you but I'm a data squirrel and thus was able to chart up my lipid panel data going back 18 yrs. [I had this data with me on my iPhone via iCloud and used it to talk with my medical personnel.] It clearly shows my numbers being steady and in the normal range except for LDL which had dived when I lost weight and slowly climbed as I allowed it to grow -- a very strong message there.
- I guess a reasonably good diet combined with the meds I'd been taking for prophylaxis kept me from having an "incident" earlier.
- I was also blessed to have cruising friends from RI, Bill and Linda Daley, pull into the Anchorage Marina a few days before the JHH visit and they kindly supervised me getting to and from JHH.
- I'm urging my family members, given our family history, to talk to their doctors about getting a Calcium CT Scan. My doctors tell me that in Scandinavia, they are using this technique regularly to follow the health of the coronary arteries over a person's life and use it to suggest treatment.
- I thought it important to make available the details of my saga because of the fact that my blood chemistry was essentially normal and at no time did I have any symptoms of cardiovascular restriction. The restrictions they found meant that I'd been a walking time bomb - one of those people you read about who were a picture of health one moment and died of an unexpected heart attack the next. The Good Lord was good to me! Sooo I hope my experience will be useful to you all.
- Note: pass on to anyone you think might benefit from my experience.
My Thanks to Steve Jobs
- One of the hardest things about going into JHH was that I had to leave my iPad at home. The first time we've been separated since my children bought it for me the day it debuted, 3 April 2010!
- I make it a practice of taking my iPad with me to medical appointments to take notes and to have access to the records I keep on my medical history. My docs know this and now look at my iPad while in consultation to review things that may not be in their newly digitized medical records for me.
- Thanks to the vision and genius of Steve Jobs, I was able to have my complete medical history and lab data records for the last 18 yrs. accessible on my iPhone - including longitudinal records of my lab tests, data plots, meds, etc. using the Apple iCloud capability. I used this info many times at JHH in discussions with docs and nurses. Neat!