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What's New

2008-05-01 13:20:00

What’s new?

Question: What’s new?

Answer: Thank you for asking. As one gets older, he or she looks for new experiences in life. They don’t come along that often. When one does, you want to tell others about it. Such was the case recently. Let me give you a little background information first, then I will tell you what happened. In late February and early March of 1993, my wife (Brenda) and I were in the Phoenix/Scottsdale area with another couple who lived in Wichita but who also owned a condo in Fountain Hills, AZ, just a few miles East of Scottsdale. We had been there several times before with them. Each trip was always loaded with lots of golf, shopping, sightseeing and great dining at the finest restaurants in the area. I had a regular practice of jogging in the mornings back then and did so each morning before the others would get up. The only thing that was different from back home was that each morning as I would get about a mile or so under my belt on this particular trip, I would experience chest pains. I had what doctors called a myocardial infarction in the Fall of 1986. I think I remember this is just another name for a heart attack. Anyway, at that time, the doctors, after doing a heart cath, chose to treat it medicinally as opposed to doing any type of surgery. That was good. I was only 35 and wasn’t looking forward to the operation. This trip to Arizona was about 6 1/2 years later. I tell you this so you will know, when I got these chest pains, they were things I had felt before. I always carried nitroglycerin with me, although I seldom ever took a pill. I think during the entire time since that heart attack in 1986, I had only taken two of them. But that 7 days I was in Arizona, I took one each day, and one day I took two of them. I thought, “Wow, something must be wrong!” When I got back to Wichita, I went to see my cardiologist. I say “my” even though I hadn’t seen him for an office visit since the heart attack. I told him what I had experienced. He thought it best to get me in for a heart cath. He did so the next day, which was on a Friday. When he was finished he came out and spoke to my wife. He said he had found of the four major arteries, two were 100% blocked, one was 90% blocked and the other one was 85% blocked. He told her, “Charlie is very lucky to have been given the opportunity to get this fixed. We need to get him in for bypass surgery immediately.” Now, when someone says something like that to you, if you haven’t been paying too close of attention, you begin to do so right away. Calls were made to surgeons to see who could do it. My cardiologist and his staff were most instrumental and influential in getting me what I learned later to be one of the best there was. The surgery was set for the next morning. I would be the first one in. The operation took about 5 hours. He did five bypasses. I’m not sure but I think that is pretty close to the maximum they can do. Later, when told how many, I was sure “more was better.” I was on a ventilator when I got out of surgery. Brenda said I looked ashen in color and was cold to the touch. She was pretty sure I wasn’t alive. But, I came around. So much so, that the next day I was moved out of intensive care, on the cardiac floor, and was walking around. I was ready to go home. There is another chapter in this story that fits here, but I am not going to go into it as it is not relative to this article. I remember Brenda and I were talking to the surgeon the next day. I asked him, “Doc, how long are these bypasses good for.” He said, “Quite often, they’re good for 8 to 10 years.” Okay, that’s all you need to know about this part of the story. Since the heart bypass surgery, I have had several heart caths where they “looked around” and twice my cardiologist put in a stent or two. I am going to move forward in time to about three weeks ago. I am doing a regular checkup with my cardiologist. I ask him, “You know Doc, I remember asking the surgeon back in ‘93 how long those bypasses are good for, and he told me 8 to 10 years. I have just passed my 15 year anniversary in early March. Don’t you think we ought to check things out and be sure that everything is still okay?” He said, “That makes all the sense in the world. But instead of doing another traditional heart cath, I’ve got a machine that is totally non-invasive, and will tell us all kinds of information, including most all of what we would ever find out with a traditional heart cath.” I said, “Oh yeah, tell me about it.” He did. I scheduled it and had it one week later. Here’s the deal. It’s a machine called a 64 Slice CT Scanner. You have to be off caffeine for 24 hours prior, and all food and drink for two hours before the test. You lay down, they put you into this open tube like thing, and a voice says, “Hold your breath.” Then, about 10 to 15 seconds later, the voice says, “Breathe.” Then they put some die in you intravenously. They let the die circulate a few minutes, then put you in the tube like thing again, with the same voice saying, “Hold your breath.” Then, a few seconds later, it says, “Breathe.” They get you up. They make sure you’re not dizzy and that the die isn’t giving you a problem. They escort you to the front lobby and you’re on your way home or back to the office. One week later, your cardiologist visits with you about what he found. When you see the scans, you won’t believe them! Then, if you’re on good terms with the cardiologist, he might take you on a trip inside your body. I’m serious. They can turn the arteries on the scan a full 360 degrees. They can take you on a trip inside of your veins and arteries. They can show you previous stents and whether or not they are closed, closing or still wide open. You can see what happens inside your artery walls before the stent, and after the stent. You can see your carotid artery and all blockages. You can look at other organs in the body...the pancreas, the kidneys, the stomach, the veins and arteries in your leg, your lungs, your entire body! All of which can be blown up, magnified, or turned a certain way to view everything that might be a problem. All of this made me think of so many people I know who didn’t know they were in trouble. They died. Some died immediately and most unexpectedly. Some appeared to be in perfect health and all of the sudden experienced a massive heart attack. Others were paralyzed from a stroke. One good friend I went to college with almost died from an unexpected complication with kidney stones. He never knew he had them. Yet, when I looked at other scans that are possible with this test, you can see, a sack of things that look like small pebbles. They are kidney stones. The cost of this test for my heart was $400. I later asked my cardiologist, “What if I would have wanted a full body scan? What would it have cost?” He said, “He wasn’t sure, but no more than a couple hundred dollars.” But, insurance doesn’t pay for this test. Why? I don’t know. They will pay for a $7,000 to $10,000 heart cath, but they won’t pay $400 for a non-invasive heart cath. Wow! But, even this is not my point. My point of this entire article is this. Why would anyone not have this test done, whether just the heart or the full body scan, and not find out everything that is going on inside? I am not trying to downplay the cost. $400 is $400, but it is a most insignificant sum when compared to the information that it will provide. As I was driving back to the office after my follow up visit with the cardiologist on my scan I was left with the thought, “Gosh, why would anyone...any longer...die from something that was a surprise?” Of course, I guess I’m like Dennis Miller. “That’s just me. I could be wrong.”