Erskine please help

RJ,

Sorry I did not respond before this. I am taking a cardiac MRI class in St. Louis during the week, so am traveling every weekend and did not see your postings until today.

I do not know much about this new Cypher stent, so I cannot comment on it. The Cypher stent is very similar to the Taxus stent, but I do not know much about the "junction" Cypher stent or whatever they are calling it.

History of proximal LAD/left main stenting. Back when angioplasty/stenting were just getting started, tehre were fairly often (10-20%) of the time complications at the stent site--which would cause acute closure of an artery. If this happens in the RCA or the circumflex, it causes a heart attack, but the patient would live--if it happened in the proximal LAD or left main, that was pretty much a death sentence. So when patients had proximal LAD or left main disease, they got bypass. However, now that stents are better with decreased complication rates, we are stenting more proximal LAD's and left mains. (In case you have not figured it out yet, we cardiologists have a bit of an ego--anything a surgeon can do, we can do better.)

So my advice to you (and again, this is not treating you--just my advice from the material you have given me), have the stent--should keep the areas safe from restenosis. If there is a complication, then you can get the internal mammary artery to LAD as a backup plan. One of the worst things I see is when there is some flow in the LAD and they attach a mammary--the competitive flow from the LAD makes the mammary look even worse.

Just my 2cents (although I still wonder if it is worth that).

UAB probably does have some of the best in the Southeast. Good luck at UAB.

Thanks Elisha and Doc :)

I am feeling much better today, so far. Thursday afternoon, night and Friday were a nightmare for me. I have never dealt with such angina before. It is much better now and I do not know why, nor do I care, lol. I am not going to Birmingham today. It is 100 miles away. I may talk with someone there tomorrow, about having the procedure there. Huntsville has at least offered their stent "expert" to do this, so, I don't know.

I do hope that you and all of our members here are feeling as well as possible. Big Bama hugs to all :)

RJ

Dgirl I have no promises that my blockage can be stented. I'm almost sure that Erskine is aware of this also. While on the cath table the doctor told me that the blockage was normally repaired by bypass surgery. I told him that I didn't want to have bypass surgery. He said it may could be stented. He left the cath table and phoned the stent expert. He came back and told me that the expert would attempt to stent the blockage. I realize that stenting may not work and I may have to have emergency bypass surgery. All I know for sure is that I cannot survive without repair of this blockage.

I hope you are feeling well,

RJ

Aldo, i'm so sorry your going through all of this, and i know your scared. Any one would be, and i should know. You have been a friend to all of us since you became a member of the HW and we will be here for you as you go thru these problems. It seems unfair at times for some to be so healthy and then us and others aren't, but we will win this battle. Some times when i read your posts i say to myself i wish Aldo would stop looking up all these ands and ifs then i laugh because when i first started having heart problems i did the same thing. So keep being that loving guy you are and i wish you all the best and i'll keep you in my prayers. With all the love i have, double hugs to you Aldo. DELTA

---

{ Listen to your body talk. } Deltacece

I am worried about RJ too.  I hope they didn't have to do the bypass.  Hopefully we will hear from him soon.

---

~elisha

HI ALDO,IHOPE YOU ARE DOING WELL.I HAD QUAD.BYPASS SURGERY IN 2002 SO I KNOW IT IS VERY SCARY.MY PRAYERS ARE WITH YOU AND HOPE WE CAN CHAT FOR THE FIRST TIME SOON.