by plaidcanary » Thu Dec 09, 2021 8:15 am
To answer your question about my history...in brief, I had a heart attack October 10. And may have had a precursor heart event a couple weeks before then. But, I didn't identify them as such at the time and didn't go to the hospital. They were bad, but I pulled through at home. I also have an underlying health condition that most people and doctors have never heard of, "MCS"(multiple-chemical sensitivity), which means I'm allergic to, or highly sensitive to, almost all foods, chemicals, and pharma -- literally. I don't, and can't, take pharmaceuticals for the most part. Only safe exceptions found so far have been lidocaine for dental and cipro for pneumonia or strep years ago. I survive by avoiding food/environmental exposures to things I can't ingest or be around to the best of my ability. I'm also vegetarian and experienced with alt-health modalities, albeit I confess that I have been eating frozen veggie entries and lots of croissants and caffeine to get by in an unusually stressful work/life situation and have been sedentary on my work pc for 12+ hrs a day--so I can see the connection of why the heart attack happened. Also, genetically speaking, father died from MI at 38 and grandparents diabetic. I don't even have a doctor any more, and haven't gone to one for years. So, after some research I was curious to see if I actually had had a heart attack and managed to find a cardiologist that accepted new patients. She put me in the E.R. overnight so I could get tests there the following morning, then a couple weeks afterward I had an appointment to get more tests in her office. Apparently, it was a heart attack, there's 55-70% blockage in an artery, and heart pumping is weak, and diagnosis is cardiomyopathy/heart failure. [I've also been prescribed, and am taking, the lowest possible dose of Metoprolol Tartrate--which, fortunately, I haven't had a reaction to.] During a follow-up consult appointment a couple weeks later, during which I finally got the results of all these tests, she asked me whether or not I wanted a stent, my choice. And then, after I asked a series of pointed questions, she tells me what would happen if I *don't* get the stent (increasing fluid in heart/lungs/legs etc until basically I'm incapacitated for the next '5' yrs statistic average, then death). So, beyond the usual concerns of heart patients, I'm actually most concerned because I could very well react to the medicine coating the stent, the meds (if taken) during the procedure, the meds after the procedure for life and etc. So, I've been researching the meds, the procedure, etc., big time. Plus, research indicates there's currently no sure-fire way to test whether or not a person is allergic to these meds at the present time. A kind of warped lose-lose situation. I'm all in for a plant-based, strict nutrition regimen, plus lifestyle changes, and hope that solves it. But, still nervous, obviously. And appreciate the extremely helpful insights I am receiving from this forum so very much.