Has anyone had a heart cath?

Hi. The recent, upward revisions of my pm settings have not taken care of the breathlessness. Purposely yesterday, I went for a long, fast walk; knowing I was having a pm checkup today. The tech asked, "What happened yesterday"? Since he was asking about the hours that my friend & I were out for a walk & had to practically run home to avoid rain & thunder, I knew that was the problem. Top chamber of my heart was flooded with blood. Several times I had to stop & catch my breath. My doctor's next guess is that I have a partial blockage. I did not get to see him today because he was delayed at the hospital. No doubt that he's going to say the heart cath is next. Compared to a hysterectomy and a pacemaker implant--what are we talking about? Is it going to be a "piece of cake"? Thanks to anyone who can fill me in. I've googled info and it doesn't sound too bad; but then, those articles also made a pm implant sound like a cuticle repair, --and mine was nothing that easy.

8 Comments

Caths

by SMITTY - 2010-10-21 11:10:23

Hello Meema,

As Paul said a cath is not tthat bad. I've had at least 17 of them since 1982. The last one in '07. Over the years the procedure has improved to the point that while it is not a walk in the park it is not as bad as a pacemaker implant.

While I understand different doctors do this differently on different people (I don't know why) here is the procedure I've had each time.

1 - I report to the hospital about 2 hours ahead of the scheduled cath.

2 - The do the vitals bit, ask a bunch of questions and then since mine are always through the femoral artery in my groin the area is bathed and shaved. After that I usually get a pill or two, one being a valium to "relax" me.

3 - Later I'm wheeled to the OR area where I'm put on the most uncomfortable bed in the place and lots of draping takes place. By then the valium has me not really caring what they do.

4 - I am giving a shot to deaden the area where they will make the incision to insert the cath. This can be uncomfortable, but only onetime have I ever had it to be painful.

5 - They insert the cath and if you are lucky you will be able to see the monitor and so you can see the cath as it is inserted into the arteries of the heart. You may see what looks like a dark cloud flowing into the heart and that will be a dye used to improve the visibility of what the doctors is looking for. This entire procedure will take anywhere from 5 min. to 30 min.

6 - Somewhere along the line they will have given me a diuretic to help get rid of they dye they injected as quickly as possible and by now that has taken effect. The doctor and the assistants know this is going to happen so don't hesitate to tell them you gotta go. (I was dumb a few times and waited thinking they would be through soon and I wouldn't have to ask for a bucket, but not anymore)

7 - After that they remove the cath and suture the incision. You will be moved to a room and where you will have to lie on your back and not move that leg for one to several hours. It all depends on what kind of incision closure procedure used.

Sometimes I have stayed over night and sometimes I have been allowed to go home 4 to 6 hours after the procedure is completed. At no time has my pain ever been greater than a 4 or 5 on the 1 to 10 scale. And the worst pain was never lasted more than a couple of minutes.

It is not bad at all considering the information the doctor can get about your heart.

Good luck,

Smitty

Been there done that

by pacerpaul - 2010-10-21 11:10:24

Hi Meema,
The cath isn't bad (honest). I've had a couple of them and for me the worse part was having to lay in bed for several hours without moving my leg! The first time I had one I was very nervous and worried because I was afraid it was going to hurt. However I was surprised at how much it didn't hurt! Good luck and keep us posted on what happens.

Paul

Thank you so much!

by Meema417 - 2010-10-22 06:10:35

Hey, Paul & Smitty; thank you so, so much for taking the time to tell me about the heart cath. I'm a realist and can handle anything, as long as I have an idea of what is coming. For someone who doesn't smoke or drink, has said "no" to French fries since I was 16, grow organic vegetables, don't eat fast foods or enough red meat to keep anemia away, I am surprised (and a little mad) that I have all of these heart problems! Yet, I always remind myself that there are children battling cancer and dealing with worse things than I am--so I try not to whine. Once I get the procedure out of the way, along with my first colonoscopy and my annual mammogram--it will be time to go to the dentist and he will find something expensive to correct, too! ;-)

Heart Cath

by biker72 - 2010-10-22 06:10:55

I've had 2 but way back in 1987. Mine were almost painless. I stayed in the hospital overnight both times to make sure the incision was not leaking.

Meema417

by sugar - 2010-10-22 09:10:29

Hi,

I don't know about caths of the heart after the pacemaker is put in - I will see the dr. today and my main complaint is shortness of breath.

I had last year both a hystorectomy and everything left over was rebuilt and none of that was as bad as the pacemaker for me as far as time to heal.

I also think of people who have things much worse and we hear it alot on here how much people have going on and I consider myself a mild case of anything.

Be well, Patty

Heart Cath

by riodog - 2010-10-22 09:10:38

I've also had 6-8 caths done over the years. All of them were just about pain free. Only had one problem when they went up the artery in the groin to close a hole in my heart. Didn't hurt, cool to see the picture on the monitor of the little umbrella thingy open up and do its job. However when they asked me to stand after several hours, my leg collapsed. Seems they got too close to a nerve and the leg wouldn't operate until the next day. So...I stayed overnight in the San Francisco hospital and my daughter picked me up later in the day and we drove 5 hours to home. It was really a weird feeling.

gretchen

Heart Cath

by mommabird - 2010-10-25 05:10:38

I had a heart cath three weeks ago, for some "out of breath" on exertion thing that is happening to me . I had to have a pacemaker inserted in early August 2010 for heart block. Apparently my out of breath symptoms are not pacemaker related.

My procedure was as the previous person has described in detail. However, I chose not to be "awake or alert" during my cath procedure. So they turned up the "sleeping" drug and I slept through the whole thing.( I am a wimp) I get unnerved at medical interventions so that was the way to go for me.

The pain afterwards was very minimal for me. I only took one Tylenol when I got home. The bruising at the groin site caused some very minor discomfort a few days later. After the procedure I rested in a hospital room with my leg immobile for several hours and then of course had to be driven home by a family member and took it easy for a few days.
Good luck if you need this done.
Imommabird

had 3 of them

by Skyking - 2010-11-18 01:11:33

NOTHING to worry about, completely painless. Ask to watch the monitor as they snake it up and into your heart...it really is quite amazing for a variety of reasons and they LOVE it when someone takes an interest in their profession.

The cath lab is LOADED with utter professionals, youre in GREAT hands, relax

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