My Heart

My natural world has been greatly restricted the past three weeks due to a heart attack and subsequent surgery. I'm slowly feeling more normal and I am able to sit at the computer long enough to share these images of my heart.

Each of the pale grey areas indicates a blockage in a main coronary artery. The LAD (left anterior descending) was completely cut off. The Circ (circumflex) was getting little blood. The OM (Obtuse or Marginal artery) was not functioning at all.

These images were made when I went to the emergency room on July 6. I'd been in pain for months, but the severe pain that day had been ongoing for about 12 hours by the time I decided I had to go to the hospital.



BELOW: In this image the RCA (right coronary artery) is completely blocked and has an obvious aneurism. The curly line going to the top of the image is a catheter that was run through my femoral artery up into my heart. The doctors were attempting to stent the artery (with no luck).



That morning (July 6) they inserted a helium-powered pump into my aorta to allow the heart to rest while I waited for open heart surgery to bypass all of the blocked arteries.

To say I was in shock about all of this would be an understatement. The doctors I'd seen starting in April had convinced me I had some gastro problem that would be resolved with medications.

BELOW: I had few scars prior to the open heart surgery. Today, not so. This is my torso 3 weeks in. A 2-foot scar runs from my adams apple to near my navel. There were holes under both breasts and at the navel end of the scar along with holes in my navel and both sides of my groin. The doctor's keep telling my how nice my scar looks. It is itchy and tingly. I've lost 20 pounds since the surgery.



I have nurses and physical therapy people coming to the house. I'm not allowed to drive. I have a stack of orders for medical tests, x-rays, etc. My only allowable activity is to walk. I'm not supposed to lift my arms above my head for another 3 weeks. . . nor pick up nor pull anything that weighs more than 5 pounds.

The inactivity is mind numbing. And. . . I'm quite cranky.

Some notes on the coronary arteries:

The three major coronary arteries (Left Anterior Descending (LAD), Circumflex (Circ) and Right Coronary Artery (RCA)) and their respective branches each supply a designated portion of the heart, as follows: The LAD supplies blood to the front (anterior) portion of the heart and the septum (muscle partition that separates the Left Ventricle (LV) and Right Ventricle (RV)). The Circ supplies the back (posterior) portion of the LV. The RCA supplies the bottom (inferior) portion of the ventricle and also the RV in 90% of cases. In the other 10%, the Circ sends a branch to the inferior wall of the LV.

The Circ moves away from the LAD and wraps around to the back of the heart. The major branches that it gives off in the proximal or initial portion are known as obtuse (pronounced Ob-tews) marginal or OM coronary arteries. As it makes its way to the back or posterior portion of the heart, it gives off one or more left postero-lateral (PL) branches.