I saw on the news today, and have seen posts on the blogs, that Bil Clinton has some chest pains a day or two ago, went to a hospital in New York and had two stents put in. Since I've been through this procedure, I thought I'd comment.
About 3 years ago, after repeated visits to doctors to try to find out why I was having chest pains (they couldn't find the problem even after a nuclear stress test), I went into the hospital for an exploratory angiogram. The doctors slide a very fine wire with a camera on it up through a major artery, entering either through an artery in the wrist or the groin, and look for blockages in the arteries around the heart. If they find one, it is quite uncomfortable as the wire and camera further block the arteries. They then pull the wire out.
They found two blocked arteries in my chest and reinserted the wire with stents attached. I had 4 of these wire-mesh stents placed in my arteries. The procedure is simple - and unless there are complications, you go home the next day. Two days later you're up and around (no heavy lifting for 4 or 5 days).
The problem is, they don't always work to perfection. My chest pains went away, but within two years the doctors found some irregularities in a follow-up stress test with me. I went in to the hospital for another angiogram and they found that the 4 stents placed originally were blocked.
At that point, it got serious - I had a double by-pass. Thanks goodness that I never had a heart-attack through any of this. The by-pass seems to have worked out well for me - knock on wood - no more chest pains and I'm able to walk, play golf, work-out, etc. without getting out of breath.
Just sayin'.
This blog will focus on political images I have found all around the Internet, though I will intersperse some commentary and quotes that I find interesting.
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