Stents, Stents & More Stents

I suspect there are very few families now that can't identify someone who has had a stent inserted to help with Coronary Heart Disease. Seems like very common place now as people have this procedure done. They have come a long ways just in the last 15 years. Back in the mid to early 1990s when I had my first bout with Coronary Heart Disease, they did what was called Angioplasty. They inserted a little balloon and pushed open the clogged part of the artery. They did two of mine back at that time and even though they said that it only worked 30% of the time, mine so far has worked fine. They first brought me out to St. Albans by ambulance, kept me overnight in Intensive Care, had a cardiologist come up from Burlington, took me by ambulance to Burlington and I was in for a couple days after they did the angioplasty.

Problem then was a lot of restrictions afterwards, plus 12 weeks of cardiac rehab. Couldn't drive for 10 days among other things.

A couple years ago, went in to the emergency room, and this time they admitted me, and put in a couple of stents. Nothing to it and I was out in a day and had no restrictions. Seems like a very common thing now and we have had quite a number of people here in town that have had this done. Amazing what they can do, as many of us are living on borrowed time.

Also, they keep finding new uses for medicine - One of them I saw the other night was the use of statins to control cholesterol. They now feel that people without a cholesterol problem can benefit by taking them to prevent strokes. Makes one wonder about what the average life expectancy will be in a few more years. Maybe, just maybe, an awful lot of people will be living well into their 90s, which is sure going to have a big influence on the cost of Health Insurance and Care For The Elderly.