Excellent history Heart! Now we can see the big picture. What we really still need to know is your ejection fraction if you can find it.

I don't like to call you Halfhearted.....You have a full, big heart, but you should have your butt kicked for not controlling your blood pressure (BP) for so long.

I have a stent in my left circumflex(LCX)and one in my 1st obtuse marginal just like you do. I also have 4, end to end or overlapping starting at the beginning of my Left Anterior Descending(LAD) artery. This is the hearts most important artery and is in a class of it's own, regarding CAD. The LAD supplies the left ventricle and the septum.

As far as "attaching valves" the only valve you listed that could really be a problem is the mitral valve. Notice where the report says "notable MR". It says that you have "valvular heart disease", but goes on to say that your aortic valve is still functioning well (without stenosis or regurgitation). You may have problems with your pulmonary and/or tricuspid valves but it is not mentioned.

Notable Mitral valve regurgitation (MVR) means that you have reverse blood flow through your heart, dependent on the amount of mitral leakage, which causes blood to "stagnate" in your pulmonary vein and possibly your pulmonary artery (in you lungs) which can cause a Pulmonary Embolism (PE)or Congestive Heart Failure.

This stagnation is caused by the left side of the heart pumping against the right side of the heart through the leaky mitral valve. The heart is really 2 pumps side by side, left and right. If one side fails, in time, the other side will fail.

You said "was told that entire side of heart and valves are calcified". If that was/is true, you would not be working on your house. You should ask your doctors about anything you don't understand.

MVR also puts you at risk for a stroke. The Plavix will help that. You really need to STAY AWAY from salt. In your condition, a salty meal can/could jeopardize your life. Salt causes your body to retain water.

The doctors may be talking about going in and attaching some bypass grafts, instead of valves. In other words you may be facing bypass surgery in order to get blood to the lower portion of your heart.

You should be taking and ACE inhibitor it seems to me (a heart medication good for heart failure), and you are taking a beta blocker thank goodness, but the dosage is pretty low. That is probably because your heart is weak.

I don't want to plant thoughts in your head, but you are taking some potent medications that could have side affects, as I am sure that you know.

I also have osteoarthritis and have an appointment today far away, so I have to cut this short.

I am so sorry to hear about your house burning down. YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE WORKING ON YOUR HOUSE, even though you live in Washington. You need some on my a** time :)

G-d bless,

Jack

Here is some reading for you below:

Hypertensive heart disease is a late complication of hypertension (high blood pressure) in which the heart is affected.

Causes
High blood pressure increases the heart's workload, and over time, this can cause the heart muscle to thicken. As the heart pumps against elevated pressure in the blood vessels, the left ventricle becomes enlarged and the amount of blood pumped by the heart each minute (cardiac output) goes down. Without treatment, symptoms of congestive heart failure, Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy, or Ischemic Heart disease may develop.

What Is Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy?
Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is a condition in which the muscular walls of the heart are thickened. This can prevent the heart valves from functioning normally or may keep blood from flowing out of the heart. It usually occurs independently of high blood pressure.

What Is Ischemic Heart disease
Hypertension can also cause ischemic heart disease. This means that the heart muscle isn't getting enough blood. Ischemic heart disease is usually the result of atherosclerosis or hardening of the arteries (coronary artery disease), which impedes the blood flow. This can progress to a heart attack.

{Arteriosclerotic heart disease (ASHD)}

Gee, Jack, you have been doing your homework. :)

Susan:) I was hammering out my $.02 worth, before you posted....You beat me and did a great job as always.

Are we patting each other's back or what? Say something mean to me to make me feel normal......

Jim.....Where are your answers? Ha ha ha. I am staying with you on this deal :)

Ok , I think I got it , I google Imdur , And the isosorbide Dinitrate comes up. Not sure why they didn't just say so...Hey , I didn't know it was a calcium channel blocker. Then again , do i start drinking lots of milk . Fosamax . or just wait for bones to crumble. the imfo , on this bothers me alot . 40% of trial group stopped taking it , due to side affects .I know why . Fda. didn't require them to finish the trial ,required , due to test results .showing vast improvement in test group. Is new on market , so just call me 'Mikey '

Morning Jim :)

Imdur is a vasodilator. It causes our arteries to get bigger and supply more blood to the heart and everywhere. Like the head gets more blood and causes those migraine like headaches. It also seemed to cause me to have body aches and pain, I'm not sure about that though.

Calcium Channel Blockers (CCB) block calcium from entering heart and artery cells which cause them to widen and reduce the work load on the heart. They also have other uses and there are many kinds that work slightly differently.

There has been some controversy about the "Fosamax" type medicines. Fosamax is for increasing bone mass and density, like in osteoporosis.

I have looked these up for you. I really trust the web site RX.list, as you can see. There are many pharm sites.

I wanted to remind you that any angina is the pain we feel when the muscle of our heart, is not getting enough blood due to coronary artery blockages or spasms (spasms are rare). While angina is occurring, our hearts are being damaged to some extent. So remember that every time you are having angina. During my mi, I had unbelievable angina. I had an artery to go 100% closed and it still is (Ramus coronary artery).

Also make sure that you can distinguish angina from chest pain due to heart burn. I and many with CAD, take medicines like nexium and prilosec daily.

Have you found anyone to help you with your roof or house in general?

Were you trying to say earlier that you do not get a lot of support from family members? I really didn't understand what you were saying about this topic earlier.

Have a good day. I am busy worrying about Susan and NW....NW is having a cath.

---

Imdur
http://www.drugs.com/imdur.html

Calcium Channel Blockers

Fosamax

thank You Jack.
Great imformation , I hope N.W. and Sue the best of luck. I survived the first day of the nuclear stress test , go in wed. for the relaxed images , The medication they used to get my heartbeat up there , felt like a ton of bricks on my chest , and my face was flushed beyond red . strange stuff , for 6 min. you are sure you are going to die..

Jim, thanks again for the description of how the heart increase medicine made you feel. I don't think your damaged heart needs to beat that fast, so you have a form or type of angina, which is the feeling that someone parked their car on your chest! I have had this type of angina often.

Years ago, it was the only type of angina that I could feel, and I had no idea it was angina.

Don't they have a medicine that they can give you that will immediately slow your heart down, if they see that a person is having a heart attack? I hope so.

Did the techs give you a hint or did the doctor tell you how you did on the exercise portion of the stress test?

I always get called back for the resting portion of the stress test. It usually means you did not do so well on the exercise or chemically induced target heart rate portion of the test.

Now they want to see if you are getting enough blood flow to the muscle of your heart while at rest. I usually have some perfusion (blood flow) abnormalities on this portion also.

Ask for the same written report your cardiologist will send to your family doctor....or just ask for a written interpretation of the stress test so you can tell us about it. Tell him that you need it for your medicaid records :) You probably do...

Stay still and quit roofing before you have the big one!

Jack

Hi, if anyone can talk, my dad is currently been in the hospital since Monday and was admitted from the ER, it is now Saturday and they want to release him with Hospice to come to our house. He is now worse than when he was in the ER.
My Mom brought him last week because he just didn't feel right. He couldn't explain what exactly was wrong. So test after test showd nothing and he was sent home. Then on Monday, my Dad had my Mom bring him back to the ER and they kept him overnight. My Dad has Dimentia, had heart surgery 5 yrs ago, valve replacement and stent put in. He was not put on a heart monitor in the evening and actually was tied up to the bed all night since he kept trying to get out of bed, to go to the bathroom.
Nobody called us before they tied him and nobody told us the next day that he was screaming all night and the nurses just left him in bed. When my Mom came in the morning, she untied him, washed him up and went about her day. It was found a day or two later the the pnemonia they thought he had was an anurism in his heart. He is 82 and the Doctors do not want to operate. The second opinion my Mom got was from another doctor in the same hospital. Am I over reacting or shouldn;t we be trying to find a doctor that is willing to try to save my Dad life?? I also am wondering why the hospital can tie a heart patient to the bed. I wonder how much damage that caused from him screaming all night an trying to untie himself. Please help me understand.

N.w.
In keeping with your desire to steer toward the heart topics , I am broken hearted your hanging up the 22 ,and passing on a coonskin hat , with winter coming on and all. Jim

It is very hard to understand why your Dad would be tied down and treated like you explained. I am very, very sorry to hear of this. These people should be turned in for what they have done. That can come later with the help of a Patients Advocate or Ombudsman that works for or with the hospital.

I am with you on the second opinion. I don't know about Medicare re will it pay for a second opinion or not. Money is really not the subject though, your Dad's life is.

Have you talked with your Dad's doctors? Have they explained why they cannot operate? An aneurysm particularly within the heart, is very dangerous. Maybe they do not want to end your Dad's life with surgery.

It is such a shame, but if the doctors are correct in that your Dad could not survive the surgery, then you have some time to spend with him at home, and he can pass with dignity and hopefully pain free, if that is his destiny.

The doctors should be able to tell you exactly where the aneurysm is, and show you images of it.

This is all so very sad for you I know, and my prayers are with you.

You only need to ensure that the doctors are right about the diagnosis, and that your Dad cannot withstand the surgery, which I have read is very hard for a much younger person to make it through.

I am sorry that I cannot be of any more help, but I am always here and available to talk to :)

G-d bless,

Jack

Hi 4billg.....I am sorry to hear about your dad. Sometimes it is necessary to tie patients down so they do not injure themselves, as cruel as that may sound, it is better than having them die from a fall. I hope by now you have found a second opinion.....aneurysms can be watched for a long time, and sometimes they never get bigger. Please let us know how things are going, and welcome to the site. Sue

I have just been diagnosed with coronary MVD. On doppler they found mild regurg. in the mitral and pulmonary valves. A 5o% left ventricular ejection factor and a prominent mitral valve A-wave. can anyone tell me if this is all connected?

I am on metoprolo and also Nexium. I have been experiencing joint pain in both of my shoulders, palm of my left hand.Has anyone experienced this? Also if the Succinate has problem, should you take the 25 mg?

Hi everyone, new to this site but wwas looking for support I am 46 yrs old with a very bad heart condition had my first heart attack at 35 where 60% of the heart muscle was irreversable damaged so the other day I wasnt feeling well and went into my cardiologist for my yearly stress test found some irregularaties and went for a cath where they found four new area that are blocked so i am going into the hospital on the 30th to put stents in and also a difibulator kinda scared but I have a strong faith in my god that I will get thru this sorry if I am venting but since I live alone and am retired /disabled dont have many friends to talk to about this so I found this site just wondering if anyone has a difibulatetor and can tell me what it is like thanks dwg if you have any questions just ask thanks

Welcome. This is the place to vent, and we have all been in the same or a similar situation. I have a defibrillator, but it has never shocked me. It is my personal paramedic, and I find it gives me a feeling of security. I push myself harder in activities knowing that I have a back up plan right in my chest. They have found that patients with extensive cardiac muscle damage are at a higher risk of getting dangerous, even fatal arrythmias, so it is protocol to install one of these devices. The procedure itself if quite easily done, and it could save your life. It's one of those things that you hope you never need, but if you do, it is better than dying. Good luck on the 30th. You seem so young to have had all these heart attacks. I will send a prayer your way too. Please feel free to ask any questions here, I am an RN who worked in CCU for 17 years, and I also have heart problems. There are many knowledgeable people on this site who can help, and we are quite used to venting. :) Take care. Sue

Welcome to the board. If it makes you feel any better, I have a friend who is in her mid 30's with CHF and has an ICD. She's had it for a few years now. They found her heart problem the day she passed out behind the wheel of her car. Oops. She's doing extremely well and is on the go constantly. Like Sue said, the ICD is your own personal paramedic, ready to help if and when your heart misbehaves. Hope you'll check back in and let us know how things went.

I also have a private backup plan ICD. No shocks. Welcome and good wishes going out your way.

Hello everyone,
Recently had a cabg @ 54 and found this sight, is this a good place to discuss the future or not. Hope I have a long time but do not know?

Hi there, Tex. This is a good site. Hang in there, and if you need to make changes to your life, now might be a good time. Have a Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

My doctor just put me on Lovaza, which is a purified fish oil, to raise my HDL cholesterol. Its prescribed use is to lower triglycerides, which I have no problem with. I am skeptical, especially given the cost. Has anyone heard of this "off label" use?

Hi, sailor.....I have never heard of this...maybe somebody else has some experience with it.

ps...i LOOKED IT UP, and all I could find is what you said...it is to lower triglycerides...maybe your pharmacist could help. Good luck.

page 6 the table shows an increase in HDL... I did not read the whole thing because I do not yet need help with my cholesterol. Still holding good numbers.

Sailor, Lovaza is a highly filtered fish oil, it's one of the few if only FDA approved fish oil tablets. High filtration is absolutely essential, in my opinion, if salmon is used as the source of the oil, and it is mostly farmed fish. When salmon are farmed, the feed is suspect, plus the offal (fish extrement)is also a factor, and high filtering is essential. Lovaza is very expensive, so I buy mackeral, tuna, sardine oil. These fish cannot be farmed, and their oil is much, much healthier than farmed salmon. Tipoffs for farmed salmon are any Atlantic Salmon and Chilean Salmon. Also, looking at the big picture, Alaskan natives had almost no heart disease. The benefit of wild-caught fish oil is that it reduces the tendency of our arteries to enflame and enlarge, and that can cause blood clots. Since taking a good quality fish oil supplement, 2000 g a day, I've had no more stents or procedures, and it appears my aggressive CAD is in remission. Of course, I'm taking all the good conventional drugs as well. My point is that I wouldn't worry so much about the little details but look at the big picture... fish oil can really help our hearts in my opinion.