There are several different types of stress tests. Many people are familiar with the treadmill/exercise stress test. Depending on your age and physical fitness, the doctors can do different types. The doctor did not do the treadmill one, but one of the others instead for Eldy.
- Dobutamine or Adenosine Stress Test: This test is used in people who are unable to exercise. A drug is given to make the heart respond as if the person were exercising. This way the doctor can still determine how the heart responds to stress, but no exercise is required.
- Stress echocardiogram: An echocardiogram (often called "echo") is a graphic outline of the heart's movement. A stress echo can accurately visualize the motion of the heart's walls and pumping action when the heart is stressed; it may reveal a lack of blood flow that isn't always apparent on other heart tests.
- Nuclear stress test: This test helps to determine which parts of the heart are healthy and function normally and which are not. A small amount of radioactive substance is injected into the patient. Then the doctor uses a special camera to identify the rays emitted from the substance within the body; this produces clear pictures of the heart tissue on a monitor. These pictures are done both at rest and after exercise. Using this technique, areas of the heart that have a decreased blood supply can be detected.
After the angioplasty, the doctor told Eldy he had blockages all over the place. He said that Eldy was looking at SIX bypasses. We were shocked! The surprising part of all this is that they did NOT put him in the hospital immediately, but that a couple of days have gone by since we found this out. We are thinking that although six bypasses is severe, that perhaps the degree of blockages are not severe enough to warrant immediate hospitalization. The report is currently being sent to the surgeon and on Monday, we should be hearing when the surgery is going to take place. It should be sometime this coming week....
Before anybody says that Eldy should be in the hospital NOW and not waiting, (which is the hard part), know that this area has many, many qualified cardiologists and surgeons. If the cardiologist felt that it was not necessary for him to be admitted immediately, we trusted that decision. The cardiologist has excellent credentials. What we didn't realize is that the cardiologist does not perform open heart surgery. It will be done by a cardiothoracic surgeon. The open heart surgery is going to happen this week so we know that he's going to be well taken care of and soon. He is resting and taking it easy till that happens.
If anybody has experience with bypass surgery and what recovery is like, we'd be grateful to hear. We're just not sure how much assistance will be needed at home. We're sure we will be much better informed after hearing from the surgeon's office on Monday. Sparky will do her best to be a good Nurse Sparks.
We will keep everybody informed as to his progress and recovery.....Thanks for still being here to read us!