HealingWell
Search Close Search
☰

Mom's Heart-Stent Question!

Support Forums
>
Heart & Cardiovascular Disease
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply
❬ ❬ Previous Thread |Next Thread ❭ ❭
Posted 12/25/2010 8:08 PM (GMT 0)
Hello Everyone! Just had a few questions I thought you would be able to help me with. On Monday my mom was hospitalized from severe chest pains, pains shooting up her back to her neck and some other issues. They said she was sitting on a massive heart attack and did a heart cath, found two complelty blocked arteries and put 2 stents in those. They also said her heart is full of cholesteral! While they were putting the 2 stents in she suffered a heart attack. Last night she was moved from ICU to PCU and will be here for a few days. She is in her 70's other than that, is pretty healthy. (she did have a kidney removed about 50 years ago)

So how long do stents stay good for? Will it cause her to have chest pains? Is it a permanent thing? Is there anythign you guys can recommend to help get her heart back on track? I know she has been put on 4 different BP meds and on a heart relaxer along with cholesteral meds!! Other than that, I can't remember what meds she is on! Just looking for advice or your story on how your stent has helped you!!

Thank you so much :)

Posted 12/26/2010 12:50 AM (GMT 0)
Hi Amy,

Welcome to the forum and Merry Christmas to you and to your Mom. I am hoping one of our member who has experience with stents will come along and answer  your questions.

Kindly,

Kitt

Posted 12/30/2010 3:23 AM (GMT 0)
Best wishes to your mom, Amy!
I'm near her same age. I've got a couple of stents after a heart attack, and they are permanent. They can't take stents out. I sure hope they work for a really long time!

You can't even feel stents. They do make you feel better because more blood is flowing through the coronary arteries. Any residual chest pain could be from damage to the heart. I'm sure the docs will do a stress test to check that out pretty soon.

Since my heart attack I've gotten serious about losing weight and am down to normal. I also take cholesterol meds, but fortunately don't need BP meds. Changing diet - getting rid of bread and other carbs is the big dietary key to lowering cholesterol. It's not about eating fat! Your liver takes carbs and turns that into cholesterol. A little fat makes you feel full faster, so you eat less. Exercise helps too, but don't do too much right after the heart attack. I like to walk on my little treadmill - in the TV room - and do my floor exercises while watching the morning news.

I didn't tolerate ANY of the heart meds, but then I don't have high BP. I did take the anti-clotting meds for a year, which is important. Then I was just having too much trouble with bruising and went off all but the aspirin. I started keeping a log of what meds I took and my reactions after the first couple gave me problems. But most people aren't as sensitive to meds as I am.

It's important to keep medical apointments and follow doctors' orders.
Wishing you a happy New Year!
Posted 1/4/2011 8:42 PM (GMT 0)
  I had a heart attack about 4 years ago. They put 3 stints in my heart. No I can not feel them, but I'm glad they are there. I had problems with plavix afterward.

(pain in my arms at the elbows) I refused to take it after 5 months post stint placement. My heart attack occured 5 days after I quit using tobacco . My cardiologist told me that if I lit up again (smoked) It would kill me. I craved badly 24-7 for the next 10 wks. Then the nicotine cravings left me. That was 4 years ago. Back the I couldn't walk 1/2 mile without getting winded and having to take a break. Today I spend 20 minutes on a treadmill and cover 1-1/2 miles  and only get slightly tired.Diet and exercise are extremely important. The heart will repair itself after a while. It can grow colateral circulation around those stints Thus doing its own by-pass. I'm still on B/P meds and a beta-blocker. I have problems with statin drugs (acid reflux and GERD) so am looking into taking niaspan for hyperlipidemia.  Other than that. I'm in better shape at 56 years old then I was when I was 36!  Three years ago my 1st grandson was born. I so look forward to seeing his children. smilewinkgrin

Posted 2/6/2011 3:32 AM (GMT 0)
Thank you guys for sharing your stories. It makes me feel better but I do come back with some worry. My mom had another follow up visit with the cardiologist and her EKG has complelty changed. So they had her doing stress tests active and non active, and then other tests where they inserted dye into the veins and watch the heart pump. So at her follow up apt, they told her she had another heart attack since she had been released from the hospital which caused damage to her heart. That there was nothing they could do and they would see her again in 6 months. That if she felt wierd or had any questions to call her primary doc! Is that normal??? Should i encourage her to see another cardiologist? I wish I could bring her up to NC where I live, we have one of the best heart clinics around!! What do you guys think?
Posted 2/8/2011 1:33 AM (GMT 0)
Amy -
There is nothing that will bring back dead heart muscle. They probably did put her on blood thinners and Beta blockers or other heart meds to prevent another heart attack or further damage.

If she has any chest pain (or back pain right behind the heart) she needs to chew up an aspirin go to an ER, not wait for the PCP. I hope she knows the symptoms of a heart attack! My mom had only back pain. I had the regular chest and arm pain.

It's a good idea for older people to have a RED folder with medical records stuck right on the side of the refrigerator. In areas where there are a lot of older people, ambulance people know to look there for emergency information.
Posted 2/9/2011 12:27 AM (GMT 0)
I hope your Mom is feeling better now. I had 3 stents put in my LAD in July of '09 and you cannot tell they are there. I am on heart meds, HP meds and cholesterol meds. This past December '10 we were traveling and I felt funny but no chest pain. I ended up in hospital and they found an 70% blockage within the original stents. They said that it can happen. Was so glad we found it before I had another heart attack.

Take care of her and my God bless her.
Posted 5/2/2012 11:33 PM (GMT 0)
rock on

Welcome to HealingWell.  Thank you for sharing your experience with all of the members here in the forum.  I was just started on  Pravastatin last week for a high LDL.  I cannot say I like this med as it is making me feel icky -  but I am serious about chaging my eating plan.  I also have several other medical issues so adding another med was a hard pill to swallow.  shocked

Keep on taking care of yourself and know we are always here to suppport you.

Kindly,

Kitt

✚ New Topic ✚ Reply