Stents vs better living

Mark Williams

Mark Williams

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I had a stress test a few days ago and the cardio doc said my heart isnt getting proper blood flow to the rear of my heart when under stress. The doc and I decided to wait on putting in a stent/stents for a couple of weeks to see how I do with some new meds for blood pressure/cholesteral etc.

Curious as to if any of you guys would share your experience with getting the stents vs meds and lifestyle changes. Cant do much about exercise , but I am about to quit smoking and my personal chef (Deb) is going to start feeding me what I need rather than what I want.

Doc said if I dont start feeling any better after a couple weeks then we will move forward on the blockage problem.

Mark
 
if you find you need the stint,it's a pretty simple procedure these days.I have a friend that had 4 procedures years ago and he's doing well.Hopefully the diet and meds will fix you up.I guess my meds have saved me (so far).Ive had the angiogram twice,but they were plumbing my brain for a AVM.Worst part is laying still in bed for 4 hrs after.Good luck!Sux getting old.
 
As a paramedic and one who has family who have had stents placed, I would say to be careful. Stent placement is an extremely common and effective procedure and can improve quality of life dramatically. Stents work even better with hypertention and cholesterol meds....I hope that helps...Jim
 
My recommendation would be to quit smoking, eat right, and get the stents. After that, you might find some sort of exercise not as much a problem as before.

And if it applies, lose a few pounds.

Best of luck to you ,Mark. We want you to stick around a long time.
 
Stents! Do it!

If your veins are clogged to the point you need stents, diet and exercise aren't going to help.

My father got his first stent a few years ago. He kept telling my mother afterward, "I just don't feel 100%." Mom told him, "Joel, you're older now, you don't exercise, and you've had a heart attack; you're never going to feel 100% again." Nearly a year to the day later, he started having tightness in his chest again so went back to the ER. The doctors came in and said, "The technology has changed in the last year and we picked up an issue that we just couldn't have seen last year." He got his second stent in the Left Anterior Descending Artery (an area they call "The Widowmaker"). When he woke up he told my mom, "I feel like I could go jogging."
 
My Dad had a heart attack 3 years ago. He thought it was minor and would be repaired with a stent but it turned out he needed a quadruple bypass. This was major surgery and it took him a year to get back to normal. He had never smoked, had been in fairly good shape but he had bad eating habits. I think that diet and heredity play the biggest role in heart problems. You can't change heredity but diet can always be improved.
 
I've been on three types of blood pressure meds now for at least ten years. I started working to control my cholesterol about 5 years ago. I'm not taking statins for the cholesterol... well, not prescribed statins anyway. My doctor prefers more natural solutions, so I'm taking two 1200mg Red Yeast Rice pills a day (one morning, one afternoon), along with 1 flax seed oil capsule a day too. These, along with the healthy diet, got my cholesterol under control.

Lifestyle choices DO work, but you have to actually commit to them. No half measures. You can't eat healthy some of the time, and eat crap most of the time. That's never going to work. I know it sounds like a sentence worse than stents, but in truth you get accustomed to eating healthy and after a while the crap you prefer now will taste bad to you. All that high fat food will taste like so much gloppy grease once you get used to eating lean foods. All that salt you probably love today will taste awful once you get used to low sodium food. Mayonaise will offend you and you will come to prefer mustards (and there are so many kinds out there). The crappy, creamy salad dressings will no longer call to you, and you'll start to love viniagrettes.

All these things will happen... if you let them. And when you do, the weight will come off, the cholesterol numbers will get better and you will feel much better.

Problem is most folks are too weak to take the first step and stick with it.
 
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+1 on quitting smoking! I don't have any experience with stents but I quit smoking 3 years ago after smoking for almost 15 years and its the best thing I've ever done. After you get over the cravings and can go thru the day not wanting to smoke, you feel so much better. You feel better and have more energy, and its just plain good for your health to not smoke!
 
Quitting smoking has become easier with the E cigs available. They will deliver the nicotine without the smoke and tar, and with time one can completely wean oneself off without the withdrawl of stopping cold turkey which is stressful on the body. Cravings will diminish for both smoking and eating through exercise. A good walk everyday will help with your cardio issues too.
 
One more thing to note... when you quit smoking your taste buds will start working better... eventually. Right now the smoking is affecting your ability to taste what you eat, which will lead you to eat things with more extreme flavors (e.g. too much salt). When your sense of smell starts to return and your tongue is no longer coated with smoke residue you will actually taste what the food is. It's quite different from what you are experiencing now. Sadly, for me at least, I never completely recovered my sense of smell (even 18 years after quitting my 2.5 pack a day habit). So food tastes are still a bit duller for me than for my wife (who never smoked). But trust me, it's WAY better than when I was smoking.
 
Thanks Guys!

I'm going to go ahead and get the stents. i've been taking the new meds religiously and have been eating better. The toughest thing will be stopping the smokes. I personally know more people that quit heroin than cigs.

RANT ON

It's always kinda pissed me off when our elected officials start with their bullshit nanny laws every few years. No driving after as little as one beer, wear seatbelts, no sugary drinks, take the guns, blah blah blah. All this crap to save lives. If the crooks on the hill want to save lives, maybe they should all quit taking money from the tobacco lobby and save 400000 lives every year in the U.S. alone by banning tobacco.

I started smoking when I was child. I picked up a lit cig dropped by a share cropper on my grandfathers farm. Hooked i was. I used to buy cigs at the local Mom and Pop store when i was 10 years old. Back then there was no warnings.

RANT OFF

It's going to be hard but I can do it. Quit for 3 months and felt great. Picked one back up after a few bourbans.

Thanks for all the advice and kind words

Mark
 
You're too mean to die Mark!!! :D
My Mom had a stent put in in 2002 after she had a light heart attack and she has no problems at all since!! "Thank God!!!"
I'm with all you guys about the smoking!!! Never thought I'd say it but I'm giving up the cigars!! I have 6 left in the box and when they're gone, that is it!! I was smoking as many as 3 a day, sheesh. I've slowed down to about 2 a week now so when I run out I don't think I'll miss them at all! Lmao, they don't even taste good anymore!!
I'll talk to the man up stairs for you so you'll get some help Mark!!!
God Bless!!!
 
I think this is an excellent point.

Addiction isn't about force of will. You can't beat an addiction simply by wanting to all the time, sometimes you need help. Since you mentioned you have been smoking since childhood, it sounds like there is a strong habit backing up your addiction.

The other advantage to using something like an e-cig is that you can disassociate the addiction from many of the negative side effects. You might still be addicted to nicotine for 6 more months, but you won't be subjecting yourself to the same heart and lung damage as you would be from smoking.

IMO, in situations like this, you have to ignore any notions of how you should or want to do things and approach it pragmatically. You need to stop smoking cigarettes ASAP, and if something like an e-cig is what it takes, it could be in your best interest to explore your options.

Sincerely wish you the best of luck in what will surely be a difficult road

Bufford said:
Quitting smoking has become easier with the E cigs available. They will deliver the nicotine without the smoke and tar, and with time one can completely wean oneself off without the withdrawl of stopping cold turkey which is stressful on the body. Cravings will diminish for both smoking and eating through exercise. A good walk everyday will help with your cardio issues too.
Click to expand...
 
Stents... Do it. I had a wonderful little episode with my LAD ( the widowmaker ) last April. Long story short, I had a wicked heart attack. I knew for some time that something wasn't right but didn't act on it until it was nearly too late. I'm glad that you are being proactive. You will feel a lot better when it's done, mentally and physically.
 
Had a stent installed three weeks ago. Rt coronary artery completely plugged.
Took 3.5 hours.:eek: They went in through my wrist.

You gotta do the stent and the lifestyle change and cardiac rehab if you
want to get the best result.

Good luck to you.
Bill
 
Bill Hoffman said:
Had a stent installed three weeks ago. Rt coronary artery completely plugged.
Took 3.5 hours.:eek: They went in through my wrist.

You gotta do the stent and the lifestyle change and cardiac rehab if you
want to get the best result.

Good luck to you.
Bill
Click to expand...

I guess we're brothers at heart Bill. I had 100 percent blockage of the RCA also. They went in through my groin.
I had the sheath put in at one hospital and was then taken to another for the stent placement. Feeling pretty good right now.
Kinda sucks though. My dietician's advice was " if it tastes good, spit it out". :)

Thanks Guys for all the advice and well wishes.
 
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Expect to feel a little depressed for a while. Just about everyone I've spoken to
who have had this surgery said they had some depression for up to a year!:eek:
Holy Cow!

My dietician has given my wife and me some pretty good advice about diet changes.
Actually pretty good. A little wine and a Mediteranean diet. Do-able. Lots of
fish, fruit, vegetables, and not much beef. Oh, well.

Good luck to you.

Bill
 
Very lean beef only... no bacon... no mayo... no hot dogs... very limited eggs... limited cheese... nuts are okay.

The problem is the food industry has us hooked on fats, sugar and salt. All the things we shouldn't be hooked on. Some fats are okay, but not the ones they feed us. Most Americans eat more than ten times the amount of salt they should. Yes, we all need a little salt, but if you start noticing the Sodium content of what you eat you'll see they put it in EVERYTHING... and LOTS of it. Check out Ramen noodles, for example. A single serving has over a gram of salt... WAY too much. You think you're eating healthy, but you're not. Ditto for most canned veggies and frozen foods. All use salt to mask the fact that they processed all the real flavor out of the food.

Cooking your own meals is definitely smart. Doing it right you can avoid the things that kill you and still love your meals.

- Greg
 
Mark...there is life after stints. I had a heart attack about 32 years ago. I had 3 by-passes put in. Fast forward to Jan,2010 and I had a new heart valve installed along with 4 by-passes. I changed my diet and exercise regiment after the first heart attack and have felt fine...and I feel fine today.

Mark, the one thing that has kept me going is exercise. BUT, I HATE exercising. What I did was buy a Schwin Air-Dyne stationary bike and put it in front of a television set. I get out of bed, drink a cup of coffee, and ride the bike for 1/2 hour while watching the morning news.. I tried going to gyms, but that took too much time. This way, I just take a shower after riding and get on with my day. BTW, I bought the 2 air-dynes I have (one I've worn out and keep for parts) used through the classified adds. You can really save buying exercise equipment used.

Diet and exercise will keep you going...for a long time. ...Teddy
 
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