pamela said:My cardiologist is an IC at the hospital where I had my first cath, however, since they wanted me bumped up the surgery list he asked a colleague to do mine. I blithely proceded into the OR and he made the incision. Shortly after I saw the tube bumping into roadblocks inside my silohuetted abdomen. The cardiologist asked me if I'd ever injured myself in the past.
I said yes and I also reminded him that I'd had pelvic DVT in my right leg (exactly where he was inserting the catheter). He blew up and yelled at me for not telling him sooner.
I tried to stay calm as I waited for a chance to tell him that it was written on my chart. He denied it was there and by then I'd been reduced to tears from worry, stress and valium. The nurse was facing a doctor in a tantrum, a patient in tears with a vein wide open and lord knows what else, when she took the chart from the doctor and flipped the page to show him the highlit info about my previous clot.
He ordered them to prep my left side. I don't believe the freezing had taken before he made the incision since it hurt. He couldn't get through to my heart on that side either and snarkily asked if I'd had a clot on the left, that I'd neglected to mention. I told him that I hadn't had, to my knowledge. All I really wanted to tell him, at that point, was that I'd see his ass in court.
Post-procedure they used plugs and sandbags but I had to lie flat for 4 hours since they'd opened both sides. When I rose and put the weight on my leg the plug on the right let go and I began to hemorrhage. The nurse used her fingers on the blood vessel for 30 minutes until she could let go long enough for the C clamp to be positioned. 2 and a half hours later they allowed me to try again and I managed to get out of there and back to our friends' house a short 14 hours after I was admitted for day surgery.
The hemotoma was black from under my right breast to below my knee and wrapped around the inside half of my thigh. It took about 6 weeks to go away. I recieved an apology from the cardiologist that did the procedure. I told my cardio that he had to promise that that man wouldn't lay hands on me again.
It turns out, if my cardiologist had done the procedure on me that day, I would have had it through my arm and been out in an hour after the cath.
Thankfully, my experience is NOT the gold standard of heart catheterizations.
Sorry for the long post.
Hi Pamela. Sorry to learn about your "not the gold standard Catheterization" and interesting comments about the cardio that did the procedure. Sometimes right-arm catheterizations have problems too. After mine I had to lay on my back for 4 hours probably due to blood loss. I wish another non-invasive test could be devised.
As I was reading through your post I thought we had been in the same hospital with the same cardio and then realized you are out west. At least he apologized.
