[hopelessnosophobe]

I have never tried anything like this before; as I explained in my bio I'm supposed to go to Hospital for Cardiac Catheterization & possible angioplasty(stent placements in arteries/veins in the heart. I can NOT go be admitted to Hospitals! I was searching on line for help/hope/suggestions...comfort! and I found you. Since then I find it's even hard to face up to just logging back in here to try and talk about this. I sincerely would rather just die of a massive heartattack and be done with it but theres no guarantee; what if it were a stroke? Will they kill you if you dont call anyone and stay home and wait long enough? GOD, even I realize how NUTS that sounds but I just don't know what to do! I'm sorry I know there are probably alot of people here with alot bigger problems but I am so afraid and I have NO ONE to talk to; please does anyone have any suggestions? Thank You.

[hanners]

Hey hopelessnosophobe,

I've had both a cardiac catheterization and an angioplasty done before. You really have nothing to worry about - they are incredibly safe procedures. Remember, hospitals exist to help you!

Hello, hopelessnosophobe. I am wondering if you could go to your general practitioner to get put under before having the procedure done?

[online user]

Hubby has had maybe 6-7 heart caths done over time--two just last week, to place two new stents. I've had one done myself. Normally, you can go in, have procedure done, and go home the same day if no stents placed. If they place a stent, they prefer to keep you overnight. Usually you feel SO much better afterwards--if they do a stent, it's because you have a significant blockage in an artery. Once the blood flow is restored to it's normal level with the stent opening things up, you will feel like a new person. The danger to not having it done is heart attack--which could necessitate you being admitted to the hospital and having coronary bypass surgery, which is open heart, bypass machine stuff, and that requires a 4-5 day hospital stay, minimum. So you are better off with the heart cath if you need it. It's quite a safe procedure and LOTS of them are done, so all the surgeons are good at this, if you go to a cardiac specialist.

Do you have a phobia about hospitals? You might benefit from talking to a therapist about that, if that's the case.

OK to send me a Private Message if you want to chat further. I've read up on all these heart issues quite recently and have spent a lot of time on the heart care floors at the hospital recently.

Good luck to you!

[hopelessnosophobe]

hanners, TheByzantine & Online User, Thank You all for your kind responce and encouragement, I sincerely appreciate it!!! You are right online user I do have a severe phobia regarding being admitted to hospitals, if this could be done in an outpatient clinic or a Drs. office I would go in a minute no problem! The Byzantine; I asked the Cardiologist if I could get a STRONG tranqulizer to get myself TO the Hospital door but they want you to be awake for the procedure so he said I could take a 0.5mlg clonazepam the morning of but nothing more. Clearly he dose NOT understand the severity of the problem. My regular Dr. perscribed those for stress/panic attacks I have sometimes due to family problems and even then I use them very rarely and only use 1/4 of one to regain my composure when needed, 90 of those pills lasted me over 13 months so you can see I don't need them often or in a large dose usually.To give you an Idea how bad this phobia is I need to take a whole one just to log on and discuss this! Everything each of you has said makes perfect sense and I have tried repeatedly to tell it to myself, I've also studied everything I can about this, I've listed every reason I can think up for why it's foolish to be acting this way, I'm even DEEPLY ashamed of my cowardlyness but nothing seems to help. A phobia; atleast my phobia seems to be a unreasonable paralizing fear and every avenue I come up with to try to overcome it is denied to me!? It's not done anywhere but in Hospitals, the tranqulizer(trust me a HORSE tranqulizer wouldn't put me to sleep!) isn't acceptable to the Dr. in any dose that might actually get me there I just don't see any way around this and I don't feel physicians take this phobia seriously enough or even make any real effort to help patients who suffer from it. I tried to explain to this Cardiologist how serious this problem is for me; at first his responce was "well you'll decied to go in or you'll probably die." When I said look I'm here because I want your help but you have to understand this is a real problem for me; I went in the Hospital once after having a miscarrage, they gave me a pill and THREE preop shots to relax me, Murphy"s law being what it is MY O.R. had a problem and had to be recleaned! They left me on the gurney in the hall outside the O.R.... YOU GUESSED IT when they came back I WAS GONE! All that "relax me" medication they pumped in me; NO HELP! I got off the gurney walked back to my room dressed went to the lobby found my husband and made him take me home! I didn't even fall asleep for over an hour after I was finally safe at home! I later finally found a Dr. who would fix things in his office because he was worried about infection/blood loss but it had to be done with no anestetic. But I wasn't IN a Hospital!!! This is the absolute truth, I made NONE of it up and even left out some of the more bizzar aspects, but I have had this phobia since I was a small child and no matter how hard I try or how determined I am to overcome it it always ends up the same way; either I become to hysterical and will even become violent if necessary to avoid GOING to a Hospital or if I absolutely FORCE myself to enter I don't make it TO the O.R. before I'm signing myself back out. I've learned of a place (a university) in N.C. that dose a special MRI that can tell if you've ever had a heartattack, have any weakening of the walls and shows any blockages in the arteries & veins in the heart. I am going to try to go there and have that done for 2 reasons; 1) at this point I don't have much faith in or feel safe that this jerks right and 2) IF he turns out to be right it might be easier to seek help if I could actually SEE there is a problem. What do you guys think? Again THANK YOU so much for responding.

[online user]

That sounds like a reasonable plan to me--should give them a better idea of things. So sorry this is so difficult for you. If you don't feel this cardiologist is responsive to you and your needs, have you thought of trying another for a second opinion? He would still need to see you in the hospital if a heart cath is necessary, but maybe would be more responsive to working with you on alternative testing. I've had a heart CT and an echo done--one was at the university radiology center, the other at the hospital, but outpatient. Is outpatient easier for you? Maybe you could do outpatient and go home with a full-time outpatient nurse to monitor you. More expensive, sure, cuz insurance wouldn't cover that, I'm fairly sure, but, to quote Loreal, "You're worth it!"