Anyone here ever had a cardiac catheterization?

[Amy Carey]

If ya'll will remember my thread from a few weeks ago, I spent 3 nights in the hospital in February and had every test known to man. They started Coreg to regulate my heartbeat and lower my blood pressure. I took that for two weeks but still the symptoms persisted. The "flutter' I felt was pretty much controlled with the medicine, but my BP was still sky high ( and I don't have a history of hypertension) and I felt like I had an elephant sitting on my chest. So i went back for follow up yesterday and she added yet ANOTHER BP medicine and a diuretic AND gave me nitroglycerin to have on hand. Then she completely threw me for a loop and said she wants to have a cath done I am really scared and nervous about it. They talk about how easy it is and how many they do , etc. BUT I am really worried about the whole laying on my back flat for hours afterwards because I have sciatica really bad in both hips and legs dating back to when I had my babies. Couple that with the fact that every time I have any sedating medication I get HORRIBLE headaches ... I'm just a tad freaked. I feel way too young to have to be dealing with something like this and just wanted to talk to someone who has actually had it done. Ya'll are all young too, lol so maybe no one here has done it but I was just curious

[Nettio]

Adam had this done in summer 2010 (he was 27) and I can tell you it sounds a lot scarier than it actually is. He was a bit groggy coming out from the sedation and he did have to lay flat for a good part of the day, but the nurses were really attentive and I'm sure they'd do what they could to make you comfortable. In most cases, it's an outpatient procedure and you're ok to go home by that evening. In Adam's case they admitted him due to some complications with the procedure he had done (they zapped a bit of his heart tissue) but other than some soreness in his groin where they'd inserted the catheter, by the next day, he was totally fine.

Oh and this might not be a selling point for you (it wouldn't be for me, haha) but he thought it was really cool that he was able to watch what they were doing on a screen during the procedure, LOL.

[sczos911]

My BIL had this done. It is routine and he's had no issues since.