Widowmaker and other Heart Problems Club

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Jadaharabi

FABO Gold Member
FABO Gold Member
Joined
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Location
Peoria, Illinois
If you have had the unfortunate experience of a blocked Widowmaker artery this is your club. There are no discounts on parts just the joy of still being among the living.

April 29, 2020 90% blockage, 2 balloonings and 1 stint.
Type 2 diabetic since 1995 also.

Not counting the wife, I would leave behind a
73 Duster
76 Dart Sport
73 Dart Sport
Lots of Dodge Trucks.
 
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Memorial day 4 years ago 2 stints didn't have the usual symptoms -- lots of sweating and it was like someone putting a knife between my shoulder blades all I remember is the EMS giving me lots of nitro got to the hospital and off I went to surgery woke up Tuesday morning and they did another stink like an idiot back to work on Friday ---- Thanks GOOGLE
 
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If you have had the unfortunate experience of a blocked Widowmaker artery this is your club. There are no discounts on parts just the joy of still being among the living.

April 29, 2020 90% blockage, 2 balloonings and 1 stint.

73 Duster
76 Dart Sport
73 Dart Sport
Lots of Dodge Trucks
Glad you made it, friend!
 
in 2015 at the age of 47 i was 99% blocked on my widow maker and 95% and 93% on my other main arties and was lucky enough to not have a Heart attack a quad bypass fixed me up .
 
In 1996 at the age of 44 was roofing my garage and started profusely sweating and felt fatigued. My wife, a former CNA, drug me to the local clinic and was then airlifted to the nearest major hospital. Angiogram found a 100% blockage near the bottom of the right circumflex artery. No stents, no angioplasty, the cardiologist at the time said that portion of the heart below the blockage is dead and there was no saving it. So I am alive but missing about 15% of my heart.
 
Well I'm glad e everyone is still vertical!
Very young for that kind of blockage.
 
Hi my name is Roy, and I had a massive MI. On 7/30/2020 I took my new dump trailer full of scrap steel and my 7 year old grandson, (Bucket Head) to town to sell it. This was 10:50 am, at about 12:40, after leaving the scrap yard while driving I had a massive heart attack. I took a telephone pole out and drove thru a block wall. My grandson escaped with a few bruises. I woke up in the hospital the next morning. Had 4 stints and 2 ballon plasti procedures done. I was very fortunate that the block wall I ran thru was the back yard of a VA nurse, a big guy named Troy stopped and picked me up out of the truck and laid me on the sidewalk so the nurse could do CPR. I’m6’4 290 lbs so he must have been big. Another woman named Barbara stop and took care of the grandson till my wife got there. I was truest blessed that day. They defibrillated me 3 times. Twice.

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My membership card.

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Second row shows pre stress test with nice blood flow to my heart. Nice round donut. The third row shows after the stress test with little blood flow to the front of my heart. 99% blockage. Then after the first surgery Nov 3 we discovered I'm allergic to the blood anticlotting medicine and I had emergency surgery on Nov 4, getting 2 more stents. Since then I've changed my eating habits and walked 60 miles.
 
April 21, 2020 went in to get for heart to see if I had any blockages !! Been having chest pains for months ! Had all the usual test. Two stress test, echocardiograms, multiple ekg’s , X-rays with and without constrast . All test said I was good to go. So I suggested a heart cath ! Doctor said let’s do that ! They wheel me in and begin heart cath ! They go in the widow maker and the other two ! Doctor sees I am 90% blocked on all three arteries . Doctor also sees that the blockages are in a location that stints are contraindicationied ! They roll me back out. Doctor informs my wife that I need triple bypass. Less than 8hrs later I received a triple bypass .. now Im good to go !! I never had a heart attack. So no heart damage ! I’m a very lucky man !
 
Happy New Year to all! You're all very blessed to still be here with your loved ones. Each day is a gift, try to remember that. Alot of the time we take our health for granted, until we have an issue. God Bless and be well! 65'
 
Hi my name is Dustin 39 years old, fit and exercise. I went in for chest pain and numbness from shoulders down to fingertips on 12/24/2020. Went in for a stint, somehow I had bruise swelling on my heart partially blocking my LAD widow maker artery. Spent 3 days in the ICU. Glad still be here, Drs not sure why it happened. Ultrasound showed my heart is weakened, now I take 4 meds each day. Lived my whole life on O meds.
 
Let’s see, Spring of 2010, started experiencing fatigue and had a hard time doing stairs. Went to Springfling in May and was having trouble just walking short distances. Got home several days later, went to my regular doc and he got me into the heart center. Went to the cath lab and they found three arteries blocked, widow maker at 95%. Went ahead with the stent. Put on Plavix.

6 months later went to Fall Fling. The day after the show I’m unloading my trailer at the Pomona swap. Start having chest pressure. I stop, rest and it goes away. I call my two buds who are at the entrance to the swap. Tell them, they freak out but I explained I’ve had this before. Went ahead and walked the swap. As long as I walked fairly slow I was ok. I called my wife who’s a nurse and told her. She was visiting our son who was two hours south. Told her to pack her bags and I’ll be down to pick her up. I didn’t want to get into a LA third world hospital so we made the trip back to WA. We mapped out all the cardiac hospitals along the way just in case.

Got home 20 hours later, parked the truck and trailer, jumped in my wife’s car and off to the ER. THE visit to the ER is another story. Anyway, the ER doc contacted my cardiologist and I was admitted and sent off to the cath lab. Got stent #2

2015 moved to Mesa, AZ. All is well until the fall of 2017. Went out one morning to clean up after the dogs when I started having actual chest pains. Told my wife and off to the ER. Once again admitted and sent to the cath lab. They went in and found another blockage in the widow maker.
So, They did aanother stent, #3 and kept me on Plavix fo another year. The doc told me that this blockage was more extensive than the first. However, he found where my body created its own bypass around the blockage and allowed just enough blood to bypass. The human body is amazing.

It’s now 2021 and so far, knock on wood things are going good.
 
I'm very glad to see all of you all made it through this. Unfortunately I lost my Dad like this. He never saw his 55th birthday.

I agree! FABO lost too many brothers already.. I'm very glad to read these members made it.
Sorry to hear about your dad, lost mine the same way 27 yrs ago. He was 66.
 
2006 for me. 2 Stents and i have been good since.I am very lucky and probably shouldn't be here.
The thing is i have always been super active, did everything by hand and was even walking 3 miles a day when i started to have chest pains.We had a 45 year old guy on our hockey team die sitting on the bench during the game.It isn't always bad lifestyle and poor health.
I think we should allow those who have had a stroke, Angina, high blood pressure and even chest pain in this club too!.
 
31 years ago at age 40, Full blockage Left posterior artery. 15% of left bottom Heart gone. Next two years I had 96% in Widow Maker but back then they did atherectomy and cleared it. Last one in 92 was 95% (don't remember where ) and another atherectomy.. Not a lick since then until now,I'm negative on the China Virus but they were concerned about my ticker because I have been totally exhausted the last month. Echo showed significantly less function and they suspect a leaky valve. Go in on the 12th to the cath lab so they get a better look. At 71 I'm somewhat worried but not a lot. Medicine is amazing in this day and age. By the way on all three attacks I had normal EKG's...It took Blood Enzyme tests to know.
 
About 3 years ago, had 2 98 % blocked, they did stints but didn't like it, and then Hurricane Harvey it Houston where I was hospitilized. Waiting to get a trile bypass, but......... no surgery with hospital on generators unless emergency, Army helicopters bringing people in and out, nurses that can't get home 7-8 days straight, flood water just 1/4 away. 18 days there!!! Was not fun. They did the deal on Tue after Labor Day and was home on Thur AM>> Yes they were ready to do the deal on a Fri BUT no such on a holiday weekend!!! hahahahahhha
 
I dodged the bullet. I was hearing a strange squeaking noise from my chest that my Dr. caught and sent me to the cardiologist. I needed a mitral valve repair and after further testing found I was in need of a bypass while they were in there.
 
Wow, I am humbled reading all of your posts, and I am very glad you are all doing well. At the same time I am saddened for those who didn't get the help they needed.
At 57 I am pretty healthy, not exactly a poster boy for fitness, but that doesn't seem to matter. God bless you all and I wish you a long and healthy life.
 
I dodged the bullet. I was hearing a strange squeaking noise from my chest that my Dr. caught and sent me to the cardiologist. I needed a mitral valve repair and after further testing found I was in need of a bypass while they were in there.


WOW! Your chest actually squeaked? Damn....that’s crazy. Glad you caught it.
 
I dodged the bullet. I was hearing a strange squeaking noise from my chest that my Dr. caught and sent me to the cardiologist. I needed a mitral valve repair and after further testing found I was in need of a bypass while they were in there.
Yeah a squeaking noise would have freaked me out.
 
Hell is a medic for 27 years in Tampa and I never ran on a patient that had a squeak that you could hear.
 
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