heart issues continued now with stents...

[worriedshrimp]

greetings once more,

exciting times at the hospital for me. i presented myself for a final invasive ct angiogram this week and after being prepped i submitted to the procedure... the good doctor shouted found it! and declared he had discovered the errant artery hidden behind the heart that was giving me trouble, it was completely blocked - calcium. he showed me on the screen and said we should waste no time and have it stented... an attending nurse told me i was lucky that it wasn't worse which would warrant open heart surgery, i agreed... that same afternoon i was hustled off to the cath lab where i underwent a difficult 2 hour procedure which culminated in the placement of two overlapping drug-eluting stents. i was released the next day and am now happily home off gassing the cocktail of drugs they gave me... i have two new drugs - clopidogreL taken daily with asprin and nitroGLYCern in case i have heart pains.

yesterday I notified my DAV nso who told me to secure and send to him the complete medical reports to include post op details etc... He told me that he'd file a claim since iam  a vietnam veteran with agent orange presumptive status... i found an online form at my regional cardiology center that allowed me to have the full reports sent to me via email. i can forward these to my nso as soon as i get them.

never been hospitalized before... never had such a claim filed before...

 any input by those who have would be welcome... fingers crossed and hoping for the best.

thanks for a great forum.

 

[Dustoff1970]

Congratulations on your success.  Was it painful and did you use VA or private heart doctor as I did in 2014 and now rated 30% for AO IHD/CAD?  

[GBArmy]

Congrats, worriedschrimp. Your VSO is onto it. As Dustoff11 said, you should meet the criteria for CAD.. Look up diagnostic code 7005. You will meet the 10% for sure; 30% % rating, or higher will be determined by your symptoms on METS evaluation. Pay close attention to other new things that you start having problems with, as you may be able to pick up some secondary disabilities if the symptoms are ratable. For example effects of the new meds you take like stomach issues (GERD) or ED. Sounds like you are one lucky hombre finding that hidden blockage.

[worriedshrimp]

thanks!

Dustoff i used tri west for my local cardiology hospital via VA community care i think it is now called. both procedures were uncomfortable. they only allowed a mild sedative since i was obliged to respond in the form of breath in and breath out etc... the angiogram catheter was administered thru the groin, just a sting... however when it was removed a nurse had to pinch and pressure it HARD for fifteen minutes and that hurt! the stent operation was really long and abnormal i was told later since they couldn't drill out the calcium/plaque and the balloon wouldn't open it adequately for a while i thought they were going to give up... however they employed another tool some kind of sonic wave (similar maybe to shattering gal stones) anyway that remedy was able to push the calcium forward like a wave until enough was push away to allow the balloon to expand to the necessary diameter and two stents were inserted that over lapped each other. i have not yet seen the images.

GBArmy i will pay attention to what you've elaborated on... i do hope things go as you mention... i could use an extra monetary boost. and my new DAV nso seems really keen on me getting  as much compensation as possible he seems to think i have a wealth of possible claims. i did declare dislocated shoulders years ago it was denied since i'm sure i never attended a C&P exam... i exited a huey from extreme height while being inserted into one of those 'hover holes in the a shau... also he says i have a ptsd claim that was denied but i have never filed for ptsd or i would have remembered... maybe that was a result of being deported from australia in the early 90's... a lot of water under the keel in 72 years for this old fart. 

thanks for the valuable input

 

Edited July 29, 2022 by worriedshrimp