Angioplasty

[TheVTCGuy]

Some of you may remember, I had some very scary times last month when my mother was hospitalized with AFIB and a pulse of 150. She is 84 years old. It turns out, the issue was probably triggered by the terrible flu she had, an infection, dehydrated, etc. Right as they were getting ready to due a procedure called an "ablasion" her heart "converted" (I learned a lot of medical terms that week) and ever since has been absolutely perfect. She has a pulse of 72 and P waves, T waves, M waves, whatever are absolutely perfect. Another huge thanks to Terry, DJ TT 2002, an MD who was kind enough to give me his phone number and explained a lot of what was happening; (poor guy, I am sure he regrets giving me that number ). My mother had a serious heart attack 30 years ago but other then that is in excellent health, usually with more energy then I have. A retired Nurse, she volunteers every week at the very hospital she was in. She had every heart test known to man completed, echo-gram, stress test and things I can't pronounce much less spell. Her heart actually turned out to be in very good condition, the echo showed an efficiency of 65%, for someone of her age anything 50 or over is considered good. BUT... they found some blockage, and have recommended an angioplasty.

It can't be tremendously serious as they said "in the next few months" but we are scheduling it for a couple weeks from now. I am actually familiar with this procedure, when I was a junior engineer with Sony, I stood in ORs as this was performed and I transmitted the images to Medical schools all over the country. I must have seen 100, and there was never an issue or problem encountered in any of them, but this time, it's MY mother lying on the table.

They say it is an outpatient procedure, she will have it in the morning and monitor her during the day, if everything is fine she will go home that evening. Of course I will be there and stay with her a couple days. She says she feels fine now and is back to her old self, but also agrees to have this procedure; being a retired Nurse she trusts her cardiologist.

Do any of you TRFers have experience with angioplasty? Maybe a friend, family member or even yourselves? I would love to hear your experiences, anything that I should know, watch out for, expect etc. My father has been gone 20 years. I am at the age that someday I will have to face the same with my mother, but quoting my favorite line from the movie Gladiator: "Not Yet my friend...Not yet."

Thank you,