right coronary artery! crap crap

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Beha

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 15, 2008
Messages
77
Location
Chattanooga, Tennessee USA
ok so yesterday (thursday) I had a cardiac CT (w/contrast) at Emory...
I just got a voicemail from Dr. McConnell (cardiologist at Emory)

"Hi Rebecca, This is Dr. McConnell from Emory. I am calling in regards to your CT on Thursday. There is an abnormality in one of your coronary arteries. The origin of your right coronary artery is not normal, we need to discuss this and discuss it with Dr. Kogon (surgeon) prior to surgery, please call me back, I will be here monday...."

So of course since I got his on friday night I have to wait allllll weekend to find out what the F&^% is wrong with the origin of my right coronary artery....since in 24 and have been a vegetarian since I was 12 I am fairly certain it is not clogged...what else could it be? wtf? stupid weekend! (and I dont often feel that way)

sorry...im just not in a pleasant mood...i was going to right a nice message about how well all my tests went at emory this week, but I guess not.

crap
crap
crap
 
Hi Beha,
The only thing I could think that this might be is what is refered to as an Anomolis Origin of the Right Coronary Artery. My brother had this problem. It is congenital, so he was born with it. He found out from his cardio after a CT, and they had him in surgery 2 days later. They like to fix this particular problem quickly. I believe when they refer to the "origin" of a artery, they are talking about its placement. If your artery does not follow the correct path, it is in danger of being compressed every time the heart beats. At least that was my brothers problem. He is an airline pilot, so they would not let him fly again until he had his surgery and was cleared by the FAA. But, he is flying now for a major airline, and runs 4 miles a day among many other things. You would never have known he had open heart surgery to look at him. So, best of wishes. I hope yours turns out not to be as serious, but DEFINATLY follow up with you cardio. Please keep us updated! Kari
 
So sorry, Beha that you were left hanging over the weekend. No doctor should be allowed to leave that kind of a message on a Friday when he knows that he can't give you the complete story for a few days! Prayers and best wishes.
 
I also once had a call message on Fri and had to wait the whole weekend.
Frustrating!! Hang in there.
 
I've no idea what the problem could be, just offering my support and the words of Dag Hammarskjold, "Never measure the height of a mountain until you have reached the top. Then you will see how low it was."
Good luck, you'll be fine.
 
Thanks for the support guys. I figured if it was a congenital thing they would have found it during my first surgery or one of the million echos ive had. Of course my heart was the size of a cherry tomato during my first surgery ;). Guess i'll find out monday.
 
Origin means the beginning point. Sounds like he's saying that the artery's attachment point is such that they will want to alter it or need to go around it for the surgery. These types of issues happen in about 1% of people (lucky you!). Sometimes the answer is that they can simply do a bypass to provide a more typical blood path. Bypasses are common procedures, so any added risk is likely to be minute.

Doctors do that all the time: leave (or have their staff leave) a harrowing or incompletely explained message on Thursday or Friday and make themselves unavailable until after the weekend. Then they'll say that it wasn't that important for you to have been concerned. It's far past past rudeness to cruelty.

Same thing with test results. Take the test with the urgent, critical results on a Tuesday and you won't see the results until the following week.

It would really help if doctors and their staffs better understood the agonizing and worry they put their patients through when they unthinkingly (I hope) do this.

To top it off, then the doctor will go bananas over your blood pressure when he finally does have you in for the results. It's as if these Masters of All Blood Pressure Knowledge have never read an article about stress and stressors in their lives.

Keep busy, and try not to think about it. You've had it all your life, and he's not sending you to the emergency room, so it's hardly likley that it's become an emergency this weekend. Wish he had kept his mouth shut for the weekend, for your holiday's sake. At least he will be available Monday.

Best wishes,
 
I agree with Bob.

ORIGIN is where the (Right Coronary) Artery Begins,
i.e. where it attaches to a larger artery that 'feeds' it.

Pathway is where the rest of artery goes.
The ONLY point they have in common is the Origin.

I'm guessing that the likely 'fix' is to bypass the origin *assuming* there is a genetic 'fault' at that connection.
I'm also guessing that since you have most likely had this possible genetic 'fault' all your life, that it's not going to get worse over the weekend.

My advice: Do something else (such as Christmas shopping) to get your mind off this issue for the weekend.

'AL Capshaw'
 
Yea, I'm not worried 'm going to keel over or anything this weekend. it just seems like every time I go to the cardiologist they find something else wrong. Every time I wrap my head around one thing and what they are going to being doing in there they find something else wrong they need to fix. Oh well. I'm glad I got that CT though!
 
Beha.

Beha.

Hey there. That Doc should be slapped for leaving a message like that on your answering service.
During my surgery the surgeons said they could not find my right coronary Ostium, which I was told was the origin for the artery. I don't know if this is the same thing, but they did not do anything about it.

I hope you get the right answers early on Monday and that it is easily fixable if it needs to be.
Wishing you all the best

Lotti (UK)
 
Hi Beha,

I found out last year after I had my heart attack when the doctors did extensive testing, that I have a diminutative right coranary artery. I obviously was born that way, so it was congenital. My cardiologist said my body must have made it's own bypass as there is another artery feeding the blood. I never had an operation when I was a baby, but I did almost die at two years old. The cardiologist decided to leave well enough alone since I had been living 57 years with it the way it was. So I agree with what Al said, I don't believe if it's been that way all your life, it is going to get worse over the weekend, if your problem is the same as mine.
 
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