My father is experiencing issues.

[clarejaymes]

My father experienced his first heart attack in Feb. of 2006, which required a triple bypass.  He was also diagnosed with High Blood pressure and Thyroid problems.   He has many medications that he is taking.  In July of this year he experienced another heart attack only this time they couldn't operate on him.  They found that one of the bypass was clogged and only working partially, but they found that one of the small veins on his heart was almost completely clogged.  Also that a fissure had formed to push blood into the artery from his bypass that was only partially working.  

We also discovered that his kidney function went from a 38 to a 30 in six months.  So, they sent him home, told him to change his diet and expect to have certain episodes with no explanation as to what the episodes might be.  This brings me to my current situation and my question:

Over the last four months since he left the hospital, he has decreased his portions, changed his food drastically, however we are presenting with new problems.

He can not walk the two miles he did everyday for the last 10 years since coming home and had been experience trouble doing so before his first heart attack and his last.  He finds when he exerts himself that he is winded quickly.  Also, now he is experiencing episodes at least once a week where he has pain in his chest that radiates to his back, he sweats and difficulty breathing from the pain.  Sometimes the are a pain level of 2-4 and sometimes they are heavier.  Sometimes they last twenty minutes and sometimes they last an hour or so.  He is completely drained when they end and he attributes it to eating to much or his stomach.  But, has them when he doesn't eat that much.  

When he has them he takes Zantac which has no effect on the episode and I have expressed that this is more than his stomach and perhaps it is coincidence that it happens sometimes when he eats a slightly bigger meal.  He is stubborn and fights going to the doctor or contacting her because he attributes it to his stomach.  

Is this something that has to do with his heart condition and do you have any recommendations on where I might find information to present to him to make him see that it is?

[ed34]

Well, I think you should vary your search and not rely on one hospital and group of Doctors. I spent two years going from hospital to hospital seeking professional opinions. My triple bypass completely closed up after three months. One surgeon told me "If I was in your shoes, I would wait 10 years because there are great things in research". However, I had a strong feeling I wouldn't last 10 years, I was getting worse every week. I was told I could go on a transplant list, or have another attempt at a bypass which would not probably work for very long. I asked my family Doctor to write to some research/training hospitals and one response came back from London, Imperial college research. A Cardiologist there who was the first Doctor to fit a Stent in the UK over 30 years ago was intrigued by my case and loves a challenge. Over 12 cardiologists had said it was not possible to remove the blockage in my left artery because it was far too big, on a curve, and much too hard due to calcification. I met with this Doctor, who was very confident and said he had a few tricks up his sleeve. He said he could open the blockage and stent it. This was a dream come true. All the negative cardiologists heard of this and tried to change his mind, and being stubborn and more experienced, he told them to stick to what they know. They all came to witness the procedure, I think in the hope I wouldn't survive, proving them right. Anyway, here I am, with an open left artery and writing this post to you. He did a fantastic job and it opened one of the bypass vessels by removing the blockage, giving me a bypass built in for the future.
Cardiologists are taught, just like anyone else. The best Doctors, including professors and in the training/research facilities where they can commit the most. If I was in your shoes, I would seek those centres, and write to them. Get a Doctor to help you if necessary. Cardiologists will ONLY recommend something if they have confidence and experience in it. Confidence and experience is very varied among Doctors, especially in places where the latest technology is being developed compared to a general hospital.
Like I said, it took me two years, but NEVER GIVE UP.

[clarejaymes]

I am so sorry you had to endure such pain and I imagine that it must have been horrifying.  Sadly, in our situation the last visit to the ER and three day hospital stay for my father resulted in us being informed that they could not operate on either the failing artery that was from his bypass in 2006 and the vein that is clogged could not be repaired or have a stent put in because it is too small.  It had a fifty one percent chance of tearing if they tried.  They were also worried about his kidneys because they were borderline.

I am at a loss as to how to help him relieve these pains.  I had a feeling that it was the heart and not his stomach.  :(

[ed34]

I had the same thing three years ago. Everytime i ate something, I had severe (what I thought were stomach) pains. The more I ate, the longer it lasted. Strangely, drinking fluids made no pains appear. I had this for three days and finally went to ER. It turned out my heart was in trouble because it couldn't cope with the extra demand called by the stomach to digest food. I required an emergency stent.