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chest pain after stent

Had a stent placed in L main coronary artery (95% blockage) 2 months ago.  Prior to the stent I had been extremely athletic.  Even after coronary ischemic attacks which began just before the angioplasty, I passed stress test with flying colors. After the blockage was discovered thanks to a persistent PCP, and the stent inserted, I had chest pain afterwards.  Was re-catheterized, all the major arteries were given a clean bill of health, but was placed on a beta blocker.  Terrible reaction to the first one, put on a second one, and finally my cardiologist took me off that one as well.  Although I see some improvement, I still have chest "aches" on exertion.  All on the left side, below the heart,, in the side, sometimes in the back of the shoulder, and above the breast.  Can not walk at a normal pace.  Walk very slowly to control the pain.  Cardiologist suggested cardio rehab which will begin in a few weeks.  But have not heard of anyone else with such symptoms.  Don't know if I should risk walkin through the pain, or if it is a symptom that should be further pursued, and or tested.  All of my blood work, tests have come back normal so far.  Should I be concerned?  
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Avatar universal
48 year old male. I had a stent put in LAD Jan 2016, 70-80% blockage.  I was running 2-3 miles a day just before.  After the stent, I had no stamina.  I would get tired very quickly.  Cardio-rehab was not going well and it scared me how easily I would get winded. I wasn't sure if it was the meds or not.  I had a few scares of high blood pressure too in the following weeks.  Then I started feeling a tightness in my upper abdomen and lower chest area.  It seemed to get worse later in the day.  My face and ears were also getting red flushed, and warm.  The abdomen tightness got progressively worse.  It wasn't all the time.  Sometimes it was mild.  Sometimes it was stronger and would affect my breathing.  I ended up back in the ER with shortness of breath about a month after the stent.  I went off BP med and the statin to rule them out as the cause.  I switched from Effient to Plavix to rule out Effient.  

After ruling out the meds as the cause of the tightness, I accepted my cardiologist's conclusion that I had anxiety.  I started treatment for anxiety with a therapist doing relaxation therapy, biofeedback with heart rate monitoring, and started on Zoloft.  The relaxation therapy and biofeedback are simple breathing techniques and I was surprised how much it helped.  Cardio-rehab started going much better too.  It's been a month now and I am feeling much better.  Almost back to running again.  

I had some difficulty accepting that it was anxiety all along.  But I am told it is pretty common after any heart problems.  I had no idea how much anxiety I had.  I was really surprised that these problems I was having post stent were all anxiety related.
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1 Comments
I had two stents placed on January 25. I am a 54 year old female and I had no symptoms one month before the surgery. And then I had all the classic symptoms and they found one artery 90% blocked and the other 80% blocked. But the surgery did not go well. I had cardiac tamponade, which means they perforated the heart a little bit when they were placing the stents, and my pericardum filled with fluid, causing my heart to stop bleeding. They rushed me back into surgery and expressed the fluid through a really painful needle right through the chest with no anasthetic. I spent the night with a drain literally wrapped around my heart, which was incredibly painful. But three weeks later I was in cardiac rehab, everything fine, and I even went on a highly energetic trip to Australia and Singapore two months after in which I was able to walk 18,000 steps a day and the only pain was to my feet. Now I'm back and I'm starting to have some pain. Right in the sternum. And also something happens at least once a day nowhere near the stents, but in the heart area--it feels like a quick pain spasm or a "pop."  Sometimes it happens when I'm stressed and sometimes it happens for no reason. I'm looking for answers...should I be concerned?
Avatar universal
48 year old male. I had a stent put in LAD Jan 2016, 70-80% blockage.  I was running 2-3 miles a day just before.  After the stent, I had no stamina.  I would get tired very quickly.  Cardio-rehab was not going well and it scared me how easily I would get winded. I wasn't sure if it was the meds or not.  I had a few scares of high blood pressure too in the following weeks.  Then I started feeling a tightness in my upper abdomen and lower chest area.  It seemed to get worse later in the day.  My face and ears were also getting red flushed, and warm.  The abdomen tightness got progressively worse.  It wasn't all the time.  Sometimes it was mild.  Sometimes it was stronger and would affect my breathing.  I ended up back in the ER with shortness of breath about a month after the stent.  I went off BP med and the statin to rule them out as the cause.  I switched from Effient to Plavix to rule out Effient.  

After ruling out the meds as the cause of the tightness, I accepted my cardiologist's conclusion that I had anxiety.  I started treatment for anxiety with a therapist doing relaxation therapy, biofeedback with heart rate monitoring, and started on Zoloft.  The relaxation therapy and biofeedback are simple breathing techniques and I was surprised how much it helped.  Cardio-rehab started going much better too.  It's been a month now and I am feeling much better.  Almost back to running again.  

I had some difficulty accepting that it was anxiety all along.  But I am told it is pretty common after any heart problems.  I had no idea how much anxiety I had.  I was really surprised that these problems I was having post stent were all anxiety related.
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
Same as the rest; I had a STEMI March 30th 2102! Received two bare metal chromium stents in the LCA and One in the LCX 95% blocked and one in the RCA. My EF in July 2013 shown 41%. I go every six months for a follow up. I still get a squeezing impinging pain in th area of the heart sporadically now.and the Cardio DR. still don't know what it is. I see there is many others who share the same pain.  
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Avatar universal
Hey, I had five stents in 2007 and am still here. Go to gym 2-3 times a week
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16979857 tn?1452784355
I have had 3 procedures----------3 stents the first time, 1 the second time and 1 the last time.  I STILL have major chest pains every few days.  Especially when I lift something heavy or when I have sex.  I don't know if it is just me or should I find another doctor???
Helpful - 0
16979857 tn?1452784355
I have had 3 procedures----------3 stents the first time, 1 the second time and 1 the last time.  I STILL have major chest pains every few days.  Especially when I lift something heavy or when I have sex.  I don't know if it is just me or should I find another doctor???
Helpful - 0
16979857 tn?1452784355
I have had 3 procedures----------3 stents the first time, 1 the second time and 1 the last time.  I STILL have major chest pains every few days.  Especially when I lift something heavy or when I have sex.  I don't know if it is just me or should I find another doctor???
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal

The Linus Pauling Institute of Science and Medicine was founded in 1973 and operated under that name until 1995 [20]. The institute was dedicated to "orthomolecular medicine." For many years, its largest corporate donor was Hoffmann-La Roche, the pharmaceutical giant that produces most of the world's vitamin C. Many of the institute's fundraising brochures contained questionable information. During the 1980s, for example, they falsely stated that no significant progress had been made in cancer treatment during the previous twenty years.

A dispute between Pauling and Arthur Robinson, Ph.D., gives additional evidence of Pauling's defense of vitamin C megadosage was less than honest. Robinson, a former student and long-time associate of Pauling, helped found the institute and became its first president. According to an investigative report by James Lowell, Ph.D., in Nutrition Forum newsletter, Robinson's own research led him to conclude in 1978 that the high doses (5-10 grams per day) of vitamin C being recommended by Pauling might actually promote some types of cancer in mice [18]. Robinson told Lowell, for example, that animals fed quantities equivalent to Pauling's recommendations contracted skin cancer almost twice as frequently as the control group and that only doses of vitamin C that were nearly lethal had any protective effect. Shortly after reporting this to Pauling, Robinson was asked to resign from the institute, his experimental animals were killed, his scientific data were impounded, and some of the previous research results were destroyed. Pauling also declared publicly that Robinson's research was "amateurish" and inadequate. Robinson responded by suing the Institute and its trustees. In 1983, the suit was settled out of court for $575,000. In an interview quoted in Nature, Pauling said that the settlement "represented no more than compensation for loss of office and the cost of Robinson's legal fees." However, the court-approved agreement stated that $425,000 of the settlement was for slander and libel. The Institute's own legal fees were close to a million dollars [21].

In 1994, Robinson and two colleagues summarized the results of four mouse studies he had carried out while working at the Pauling Institute [22]. Nearly all of the mice developed skin cancers (squamous cell carcinomas) following exposure to ultraviolet radiation. Altogether, 1,846 hairless mice received a total of 38 different diets. The researchers found that (a) the rate of onset and severity of tumors could be varied as much as 20-fold by just modifying dietary balance; (b) diets with the worst balance of nutrients had the greatest inhibitory effect on cancer growth; and (c) no cures or remissions were observed (although the researchers were not looking for this). In 1999, Robinson

The Bottom Line

Although Pauling's megavitamin claims lacked the evidence needed for acceptance by the scientific community, they have been accepted by large numbers of people who lack the scientific expertise to evaluate them.  But Pauling's irrational advice about supplements continues to lead people astray.
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Avatar universal
Hi all had a heart attack in 2001 had four more since, had twelve angioplastysnine stents but the most iimprovement was a pacemaker. Unfortunately I hve now got Cancer in both Kidneys, still theres always somebody worse off than yourself, good luck everybody, keep laughing it does help.

Martin
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Avatar universal
Hi I wondered what fitness did you do as I need to get back to my routine but they say it's too early been 10 weeks now thank you for your help kim
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976897 tn?1379167602
I've had a lot of experience. First are the nasty hot flushes when all that dye is put through particular areas. Next comes the pain if they have to put a stent in place, when the artery is temporarily blocked as inflation occurs. Then comes the full bladder always before they finish the procedure lol.
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Avatar universal
Did anybody have a lot of pain in throught whilst having angioplasty? I had one on Thursday and dread ever havingvto have another one. The way they treated me made me feel that it was in my imagination !
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976897 tn?1379167602
not at all, ask if they performed FFR during his procedure. If they did not, then they are guessing. FFR stands for fractional flow rate and they will know what you are talking about and may change their opinion. If they say they did do FFR, ask for the results in writing.
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Avatar universal
MY HUSBAND HAD STINTS PLACED ON MAY 5TH 2015. HE IS BACK IN THE HOSPITAL WITH CHEST PAIN THAT HE STATES IT FEELS LIKE IT DID BEFORE THE STINTS WERE PLACED NUMBNESS IN BOTH ARMS HEAD DOES NOT FEEL RIGHT. DR STATES THEY REALLY DONT WANT TO DO ANOTHER HEART CATH. IM VERY CONCERNED THAT THERE IS ANOTHER BLOCKEAGE. CAN SOMEONE GIVE ME SOME ADVICE ON WHAT TO DO. HE IS IN THE HOSPITAL JUST HAVING HIS REG MEDS GIVEN TO HIM. OH THE FIRST STRESS TEST BEFORE THE STINTS WAS 80% AND THE SECOND ONE WAS A BIG 81% THEY STATE THEY STILL DO NOT WANT TO DO A HEART CATH. ANY INFORMATION WOULD BE GREAT. I BEING THE WIFE AM ABOUT TO GO CRAZY.
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976897 tn?1379167602
They obviously don't take you seriously. If you buy a car that doesn't start, would you be so easy on the previous owner? Start putting things in writing because these make a stronger case against a cardiologists record and they don't like that. Send your Cardiologist a letter saying things like "I am very dissatisfied, I can't believe I feel the same now as I did before stenting, I can't believe you won't take me seriously, I assume FFR was used". The thing which gets in the way of many cardiologists is EGO and it doesn't wash. It's your body.
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Avatar universal
I had a heart attack in may this year,they had to put a sten,iv been back to the hospital 4 times since may,the pains I get are just like when I had the heart attack,pain in chest,arms,neck,face and head,the only thing that has helped me is the nitro,the pain is debilitating,im literally afraid to go anywhere,because I went to walmart to pick up meds and had chest pain on the way there,i feel like a prisoner in my body and house now
Helpful - 0
976897 tn?1379167602
Not really. The stents are there to open the artery and get a full supply of Oxygen to affected heart muscle. So why would there be chest pain? Has the Doctor not organised another angiogram to check your stents? There is so much that can be going on and Doctors just say "everything is fine". In 2007 I had a triple bypass and after 3 months I felt exactly as I did before surgery. I argued with Doctors saying "my bypass has failed but nobody will listen to me". In the end (3 months after) they did an angiogram and found all bypasses had closed up. I wish I had a camera to take a picture of their faces. Stents can collapse, stents can block very quickly, they may have stented the wrong area. In 2013 I went into ER because I felt chest pains and they did an angiogram. Nothing showed up on the screen, not one blockage. I knew something was wrong because my Troponin was high and my pain was intense. The Cardiologist said "The blockage must have dispersed" to which I didn't agree because the pain was still there. I said "do you have the equipment to do FFR" to which he said yes. In fact he said it was a great idea and he continued. FFR checks the blood flow around the catheter wire, so you can check the flow rate in any artery at any location. It turned out one of my arteries had a 50% flow drop halfway down but there was nothing on screen. He put 2 stents in and then the reading was the same all the way down. So. there are many aspects of stenting and not all is as it seems. If your pains continue, start pushing them hard for answers, it's the only way to get anywhere.
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Drs. don't know everyone's body. Stents don't really relieve chest pains, that is fact
Avatar universal
i am a 58 year old woman and had 6 stints put in over the last 4 year . My last stent was put in on July 23 rd 2015. i work up out of a sound sleep with chest and back pain. I set up for a while and went back to sleep. I called my doctor office and that put me on isosorbide 30mg. i was feeling fine until Sunday morning and had to be rush to the hospital with chest and neck pain. They thought i was having a heart attack but everything came back ok.I am wonder could the med been to strong because now they have me on 10 mg and i haven't had anymore pain. I was told there would be some pain after having stents put in is that true.
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Avatar universal
I had three stents places September 6th, 2014 and I still get chest pain.
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Avatar universal
I find that virtually everything in the literature about curing heart problems is from people selling drugs and surgery. But the studies by Dr. Dean Ornish, Dr. John McDougall, T. Colin Campbell, PhD, and Dr. Neal Barnard have proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that you can completely prevent, cure and reverse all of this heart disease with a vegan diet. Just quit eating animal products and fats, and within a short time all of these stories about stents and drugs will be over with!! The facts are in. It is not a debate any longer, but there is no money to be made by telling you this. Check these guys out and see what they say.
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Avatar universal
It was really interesting reading about your experience and ultimate healing through the Pauling therapy, it was very encouraging.  I do hope you're still healthy.
I have recently, in April, had 1 eluting stent inserted (80% LAD) and have no problems. However, I'm very keen to try the Pauling therapy.
Could you please tell me how much each of Vit C and Lysine you took? Did you take Vit K as well?
Thanks for your help :)
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976897 tn?1379167602
You take Nitro after stenting? definitely something wrong, I would go back to the cardiologist.
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Avatar universal
Hi, i am 38. i had a stent installed 5 days ago. This is my second day out of the hospital and am having same pinching pain, and numbness in arm. also dizziness that comes and goes. It sounds like it may be common after this procedure. nitro helps. definitely scary
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Avatar universal
I am 64,male,living in East europe where I had 2 stents fitted in feb '13.I was given many meds to take,which I whittled down to anti-plaque and 75mg aspirin as the only ones without major side effects.I hated taking ANY at all.Found Linus Pauling and am on 2 year's worth of his therapy.I stopped aspirin after massive nose bleeds and then stopped Anti-plaque as well.No problems ,then suddenly I am crippled with inability to breath or sleep,each affecting the other.I haven't worked out why I was struck so  suddenly after doing well without these meds and happy on Pauling's therapy alone.
I notice that my feet and ankles are swollen,first time ever,and some new fat around my lower tummy,although i am eating like a bird,almost no carbs etc.
Today I received an order of magnesium Chloride in spray,liquid refills and gel.hoping for good things here.
Managed 6 hours sleep last night,first in weeks,melatonin 4mg and completely darkened room helped.I also used a Ventolin inhaler,which I had stopped 2 years ago.
that's it,high hopes for the Mg.
Helpful - 0
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