I am posting this actually to give you my experience of getting my heart sorted out.
It happened in UK they kept me in hospital for 5 days and gave me medication to take, communication wasn't forth coming, because it was an emergency and the emergency department had done their part in stabilising the situation.
It made me think that it was alright, but i felt like I had been kicked to death and was just recovering.
I thought how the hell should it feel so bad afterwards, and yet they just discharge me with meds, and tell me to rest. No testing or any other indication of tests for 6 weeks, however I wouldn't be around having to leave for Singapore.
On my return it was only then that i discovered a narrowing of the artery around 70%, the CT scan i had was so poor in Singapore it was worthless and my trip to Taiwan was wasted in the sense they couldn't give a CT scan so soon. But indicated the narrowing could be worse than 70% and I needed to get it done as soon as possible.
It's almost 5 months now and i'm still ticking and have been researching the angiogram, stents, and procedures, to keep myself alive in 3 Countries in Asia and the UK.
It appears the NHS in UK are just adopting procedures for stenting on the NHS, but medical eluding stents most not cost more than 300 pounds more than the titanium stents.
You may be all interested that the titanium stent is the cheapest but leaves a bigger risk of scarring and blockage... and the medical eluding stents have a higher risk of blood clotting, however if they work the scarring is minimal, the cost however is much higher.
A medical eluding stent in Singapore is 5000$ in Taiwan its 90.000TW$ and in Thailand it is 150,000 BHT. Quite a significant price difference.
I guess many are thinking why wait its your life you are playing with, but my reply would be, that the risk of waiting is not that great and the chances of another heart attack remain the same, however the heart does adapt to the situation in most cases, and the blood thinner meds are the most important factor keeping me alive.
Angioplas will eventually take over from bypass surgery most will put up to 10 stents in before doing a bypass.
But I thought it beneficial for everyone to know, that procedures are still risky especially if the guy doing the angioplas has a dodgy record of failure, it is critical to ensure he has backup, not all do....that is why i cancelled my Taiwan op at the last minute, based on insider information, that the person doing it was good, but there wasn't any guarantee he could handle an emergency and the main heart surgeons were in Japan.
Not only because of that I pulled out, but because of family illness on my wife's side, and she needed my support in such a bad period.
What i conclusion i have come to though remains the same, and that is that medication is the most important to keep you a live and not the stents by a long way.
The stents especially medical eluding stents are relatively good with the same success rate has a bypass, so there is no doubt i will be getting one sometime...although one needs to check the expense and ensure you are getting value for money, because there are no guarantees, an heart attack can happen any time, and the stent may not even save you, because it can happen any place within the pipeline and pump.
Taiwan certainly looks the cheapest in terms of having stents put in, so if anyone needs help let me know, I now know the system and the safe way of doing things, thanks to the support of a friend in the heart business, I was told not to take a risk of surgery without the right emergency experience being in the vicinity, especially if the person doing angiograms/plas doesn't have emergency experience. Welcome to the real world!
