• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

Stents

L

Lazell123

Active Member
Messages
38
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
I'm 56 years old and have been type 1 for 53 years. I've recently been diagnosed as having angina and I need to have 2 stents inserted. Can anyone who has experienced this please give me any advice?
 
My non-diabetic wife had a heart attack 10 years ago. She collapsed at the swimming bath. She felt funny in the water & got out in time.

She now has 3 stents & no further heart trouble, though she is on a range of medications. She is basically fit & well & continued swimming 1 Km most days until they shut the baths, & goes to the gym twice a week - the gym class is a heart rehab group & those attending after variosu heart procedures seem all fit & well.

The procedure involves, injecting a dye, inserting a catheter into an artery in the upper thigh & locating artery constrictions, then inserting minute stents that hold the artery open.

I don't think you need to be worried.
 
IanD said:
My non-diabetic wife had a heart attack 10 years ago. She collapsed at the swimming bath. She felt funny in the water & got out in time.

She now has 3 stents & no further heart trouble, though she is on a range of medications. She is basically fit & well & continued swimming 1 Km most days until they shut the baths, & goes to the gym twice a week - the gym class is a heart rehab group & those attending after variosu heart procedures seem all fit & well.

The procedure involves, injecting a dye, inserting a catheter into an artery in the upper thigh & locating artery constrictions, then inserting minute stents that hold the artery open.

I don't think you need to be worried.
Click to expand...
Thank you Ian. That's quite reassuring. The problem is, where I live the waiting list for this procedure is 6 months. I've had to cut my swimming by half because I get very breathless. Same with walking. I don't think I'll be able to wait 6 months.
 
Presumably you had a cardiac catheterisation procedure in order to obtain your diagnosis. Inserting the stents involves a similar procedure...in fact, I'm surprised they didn't put the stents in at the same time...they would have done if they had thought it was really urgent (unless there were other complications/considerations at the time). In any case, don't worry about it... the procedure is no worse than the catheterisation. You may even find they do the insertion through your arm rather than your groin, and that's a less uncomfortable method .
 
I had 2 different stents inserted over a 10-month period in 2013-14 (after my fiftieth birthday). A 6-month wait isn't out of the ordinary. It's a very routine procedure, and nowadays surgeons prefer to do the insertion through the wrist rather than the groin, which means you can be pottering around more swiftly afterwards. In the meantime do keep your GP and the hospital posted about your angina and any changes in your condition. If you are lucky you might get one of the new dissolvable stents (they are doing trials so you can sometimes get them fitted for free)
 
Hi Lazell. I had a mild heart attack just recently in mid November last year. I was taken to hospital in an ambulance and laid out on a bed and wheeled into the theatre. Above me was a scan machine and around me some theatre staff. The surgeon kept asking for the the scanner to be moved into another position and then I just heard a click as the scanner took another picture. Within 45 minutes the surgeon had inserted 2 stents and the operation was finished. Please believe me when I say
I DID NOT FEEL A THING! NOTHING, NADA. In fact when the surgeon told me he had finished, I thought he meant finished taking the scans, when in fact he had finished the whole thing. All the time I was awake through this looking at palm tree leaves on the ceiling.
I still can't believe how there was NO PAIN WHATSOEVER. I was then transferred into a ward and had a blood sample taken and it was because of this I got told I might be diabetic.
I really can't put into words how amazed I was at how it just didn't hurt at all and that comes from someone who used to hate hospitals and needles. Now I would walk or crawl to a hospital to have another procedure done.
 
Marvin said:
Presumably you had a cardiac catheterisation procedure in order to obtain your diagnosis. Inserting the stents involves a similar procedure...in fact, I'm surprised they didn't put the stents in at the same time...they would have done if they had thought it was really urgent (unless there were other complications/considerations at the time). In any case, don't worry about it... the procedure is no worse than the catheterisation. You may even find they do the insertion through your arm rather than your groin, and that's a less uncomfortable method .
Click to expand...
Thank you Marvin for your reassurance, I did have a cardiac catheterisation procedure in December last year and it was done through my wrist.
 
adrian207 said:
Hi Lazell. I had a mild heart attack just recently in mid November last year. I was taken to hospital in an ambulance and laid out on a bed and wheeled into the theatre. Above me was a scan machine and around me some theatre staff. The surgeon kept asking for the the scanner to be moved into another position and then I just heard a click as the scanner took another picture. Within 45 minutes the surgeon had inserted 2 stents and the operation was finished. Please believe me when I say
I DID NOT FEEL A THING! NOTHING, NADA. In fact when the surgeon told me he had finished, I thought he meant finished taking the scans, when in fact he had finished the whole thing. All the time I was awake through this looking at palm tree leaves on the ceiling.
I still can't believe how there was NO PAIN WHATSOEVER. I was then transferred into a ward and had a blood sample taken and it was because of this I got told I might be diabetic.
I really can't put into words how amazed I was at how it just didn't hurt at all and that comes from someone who used to hate hospitals and needles. Now I would walk or crawl to a hospital to have another procedure done.
Click to expand...
Hello Adrian. Thank you for telling me about your experience. I feel better already!! I had an angiogram last month and the doctor said fitting the stents was a very similar procedure. Hope you are feeling better now. Was you diagnosed as being diabetic?
 
desidiabulum said:
I had 2 different stents inserted over a 10-month period in 2013-14 (after my fiftieth birthday). A 6-month wait isn't out of the ordinary. It's a very routine procedure, and nowadays surgeons prefer to do the insertion through the wrist rather than the groin, which means you can be pottering around more swiftly afterwards. In the meantime do keep your GP and the hospital posted about your angina and any changes in your condition. If you are lucky you might get one of the new dissolvable stents (they are doing trials so you can sometimes get them fitted for free)
Click to expand...
Thank you. I had an angiogram through my wrist last month and was told the stents would be fitted in a similar way. I'll do some research about the dissolvable stents.
 
Lazell123 said:
Hello Adrian. Thank you for telling me about your experience. I feel better already!! I had an angiogram last month and the doctor said fitting the stents was a very similar procedure. Hope you are feeling better now. Was you diagnosed as being diabetic?
Click to expand...
Yes, I was diagnosed diabetic after they had taken a blood sample and Blood sugar level test. My initial reading was 27 so they put me on a sliding scale insulin drip and monitored my bs every hour or 2 if I was lucky.
If you've already had an angiogram then it will be exactly the same.
 
Back
Top