Patient Stories: Heart

Heart & Vascular Institute-Memorial City

Margaret
If at first you don’t succeed: Second time’s a charm in healing heart defect

Even though I had the classic heart attack symptoms of heaviness in my chest and tingling in my left arm, the emergency room physicians in Katy couldn't determine the source of my discomfort. My elevated heart enzymes, however, prompted them to send me by ambulance to Memorial Hermann Memorial City for an angiogram, a type of X-ray exam of the heart.

The angiogram showed no problems and the cardiologists sent me home with plans for a follow-up appointment. Days later, however, it happened again.
         
This time, the angiogram revealed a blocked artery. Cardiologists at Memorial Hermann Memorial City inserted three stents, tiny lattice-like structures that hold the blood vessel open, into the left anterior artery in my heart.

How did they miss it the first time? I found out that about 6 percent of heart attack patients show no evidence of clogged arteries on angiograms. The first one showed I have a myocardial bridge; the artery is embedded in my heart muscle rather than running on the outside of it. The doctors think that’s what hid the narrowed artery from view, as it does in most patients with this condition.
   

I don’t remember it, but my husband recalls the doctor mentioning the myocardial bridge after the first angiogram, saying that I would “someday” need stents. As it happens, that day came sooner rather than later!

After doing cardio rehab through the summer, I feel great. I take some medications, but my doctor said just yesterday that my heart function is back to normal.

And, I’m happy to say, life with my husband, Pete, and my kids, Daniel and Anna, is back to normal, too.