vifferman

Whelp, things were ticking on waaaaay too slowly for me, as having to constantly think about impending ops, while feeling weird arrythmic bumps and whatnot was reminding me things aren't right. So... I got onto the cardiologist and asked how long before the next two procedures (cardiac angiogram and trans-oesophageal echo, or TOE) would take place (these have to be done before any surgery can be scheduled). Turns out the angiogram is 6 months off, so I tell them we'll go private rather than wait, and the same for the valve grind.

Soap - it's all scheduled for next Friday. At the moment we don't know what "it" will be - it might be both together, or just the angiogram. Either way, I have to spend the day in hospital, or mebbe longer if things go wrong. What they do for the angiogram is stick a catheter in the artery in my thigh, wiggle it up through my body closer to the heart, and inject a special dye in. This gives me a nice warm glow, and show up all the blood vessels around the heart area in stark contrast, so they can see if any are blocked.
The TOE involves sticking an ultrasound sond down my throat until it's in the oesophagus next to my heart. Then they can do an echogram of the heart without having ribs and ligament and muscle and other giblets in the way.
Both these tests are designed to make sure there are no other heart problems that either need to be done when the valve is, or that might prevent surgery taking place at all if my heart's too buggered to recondition.