Partly blocked arteries.

[Bonefish Blues]

I had the same, but they went in through my wrist, it’s most peculiar looking at your arteries on a huge tv screen

...and seeing the Doc feeding it in just like our chimney sweep does our flue.

 

[DRM]

When they open up the blood vessel to get the catheter in, there's a fair bit of blood leakage which ended up on the green rubber sheet I was lying on. It looked quite alarming but I didn't see it until the end of the procedure. In order to stem the leak, they use a collagen plug as a sealant and that stays on your thigh for a few days. Fortunately I'm not particular squeamish because I used to watch my veterinary surgeon father operating on animals from early childhood. I think that they do offer patients some sedatives if they ask for them.

I think they thought of that as they went in on my right wrist and said look at the big screen on the left, it was bizarre seeing the arteries showing up after a squirt of dye, then they injected something to get your heart rate up, whilst laid there doing nothing, a very strange sensation

 

[Bonefish Blues]

I think they thought of that as they went in on my right wrist and said look at the big screen on the left, it was bizarre seeing the arteries showing up after a squirt of dye, then they injected something to get your heart rate up, whilst laid there doing nothing, a very strange sensation

Yes, it's an out-of-body moment, for sure

They told me, after testing, that whilst there was a narrowing - which I could see - the flow wasn't obstructed, so nothing to do, but then the Registrar confidently stated that he would see me again in the future, which I though distinctly unhelpful in the circumstances.

 

[PaulSB]

I've had a stent fitted with insertion through the right wrist following a heart attack. In this procedure the "wire," for want of a word, is pushed up to the heart to clear the blockage and insert the stent. It's quite an amazing sight to suddenly see blood flood into an artery and veins which were not visible a few moments before.

I don't know how far the "wire" is inserted for an investigative angiogram as being discussed but after a heart attack this operation is initially an investigation.

In my experience it's not something to worry about but is far from pain free. I was able to feel the pressure of the wire being pushed up my arm and more so as it crossed my chest.

There was one point when I felt very real pain which was obviously noticeable to the surgeon. He commented "that's what you would have felt with a severe heart attack."

It's better than the alternative!

 

[oldwheels]

I got dye and a tube put up from my groin to check my kidneys which would be similar to the heart procedure. We were given to understand that a sedative would be given beforehand but this was not forthcoming. I mentioned this to a nurse and she said they only did that if you tried to jump off the table.
After the procedure I was given a pad to keep pressure on the insertion point and taken back to the ward where I was told if it started bleeding to shout loudly for help immediately.
This was in 1981 so things may have changed by now.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Wouldn’t you have symptoms potentially, like angina?
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/angina/

blocked arteries, aka atherosclerosis
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/atherosclerosis/

Invited for a health check every 5 years. Ha ha ha ha ha. Even in pre pandemic times that didn’t happen.

 

[DaveReading]

That’s what I suspected would happen, by going in via the wrist I suppose it’s a junior doctor that’s available to do something else, the bracelet used on me did look like something from the Spanish Inquisition!

Coincidentally, during the same spell in hospital at one point they had me wired up to a real-time BP monitor for 24 hours.

A junior doctor inserted it in my wrist, taking 20 extremely painful minutes to get it in, to the barely suppressed amusement of the nursing staff.

 

[Deleted member 1258]

An angiogram will show how clogged your coronary arteries are. The doctors feed a thin tube into a fairly major blood vessel in your upper thigh and thread it up through your vascular system to your heart. Don't worry, you don't feel a thing but it can be a bit uncomfortable while they make the initial incision. Then they inject a dye into your heart that shows up on X rays. From that, they can see how open or clogged your arteries are. I've had a couple of them and they don't take very long, about twenty minutes. You don't need any anaesthetics and it can be done as an outpatient.

When I had my last stent fitted they went in through the wrist, with the first 4 they went in through the thigh.

 

[DRM]

Mine was blocked at a 3 way branch, one of the three being blocked, the surgeon did say that because of where it was it couldn’t have a stent, also it stated on my record that the heart attack occurred whilst on a long bike ride, and the surgeon was asking what bikes do you have and was saying his new titanium bike was being returned for a 3rd time due to a cracked frame again, it helped take my mind off things at least

 

[DRM]

Coincidentally, during the same spell in hospital at one point they had me wired up to a real-time BP monitor for 24 hours.

A junior doctor inserted it in my wrist, taking 20 extremely painful minutes to get it in, to the barely suppressed amusement of the nursing staff.

Ouch, I suppose they have to learn, but blimey surely someone should have stopped him

 

[DaveReading]

Or, in this case, her.

 

[presta]

An angiogram will show how clogged your coronary arteries are. The doctors feed a thin tube into a fairly major blood vessel in your upper thigh and thread it up through your vascular system to your heart.

I would have much preferred the wrist, not least because of the embarrassment of having a stranger fiddling about in your groin.

I've not had an angiogram, but they put a catheter up the vein in my groin when I had an ablation. That involves burning the inside of you heart with a radio frequency probe, so it was done under sedation. The last thing I recall was the nurse tearing the paper underpants off.

When they finished they fitted a bracelet thing that screwed down tight on the incision iirc it had to stay on 20 minutes, possibly longer, to give it a chance to clot, I can’t imagine what is used in the groin area

I had a DSA (cerebral angiogram) a couple of years ago, with the probe going in through my groin. In my case, it involved 20 minute sustained pressure on the incision by a junior doctor once the probe was pulled out.

The first thing I recall when I was half conscious coming round from the sedative is the nurse taking my right hand and pressing it onto the dressing on my groin wound, and by the time I went home a few hours later there was no dressing on my groin at all. Some patients describe waking up in the middle of the night at home, and finding a pool of blood in the bed....

The only problem I had following that procedure was wanting to pee .I had to have a short period laying down to recover Despite only being a couple of steps from the toilet the nurse wouldn’t let me get up and gave me the dreaded urine bottle This is where it got embarrassing I couldn’t stop and filled the bottle to overflowing The nurse did have a bit of a laugh .Must have brightened her day

I needed a pee in A&E after I pranged the car. I needed three hands, one to hold the bottle, one to hold my tackle, and another to hold the dressing on my nose. The nurse chose to hold the dressing.

then they injected something to get your heart rate up, whilst laid there doing nothing, a very strange sensation

A high heart rate goes with the territory when you have atrial fibrillation. I've sat in the armchair chatting to paramedics with a HR as high as 260, but there are doctors who won't believe that's possible, and insist I'd have been unconscious if my HR was as high as 200.
You know when the computer crashes, and you switch it off and back on again? They do that to your heart when you have an arrhythmia, a shot of adenosine to stop your heart altogether for several seconds.

A junior doctor inserted it in my wrist, taking 20 extremely painful minutes to get it in, to the barely suppressed amusement of the nursing staff.

I get that every time they put a cannula in, gouging at one vein after another trying to ge it in. They see my bulging blue veins and think it's going to be easy, but it isn't.
"Aah, nice easy veins!"
"That's what they all say"
"Nonsense, they're no problem"
Then after another gouging session: "Ooh, you're not wrong, are you"

A paramedic once saw my whole forearm black and blue:
"What's all this!?"
"Oh that's where they were putting a cannula in"
"Who did it, Stevie Wonder?"

I'm told it's the valves in the veins that obstruct the cannula.

 

[Fab Foodie]

I think @Fab Foodie has had stents fitted, perhaps he can give you some more information.

I think @slowmotion has answered perfectly. If you suspect you have heart-related issues then an Angiogram is the only way AFAIK.

 

[Fab Foodie]

It's quite possible to be symptom-free if you are otherwise pretty fit and taking regular exercise

Agreed - my 'symptoms were atypical until I had a massive Angina attack...only then I figured what those strange sensations in my back were.

 

[Fab Foodie]

...and seeing the Doc feeding it in just like our chimney sweep does our flue.

It's exactly like that!!