Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection

I’m really Weird!

August 14, 2017

Just home from an aerobics class I felt a little chest pain. I walked upstairs and my left arm hurt a little. I Googled that and it said to get to the hospital. It didn’t hurt much so I had dinner first :). Then my wife took me to the ER. I had slightly elevated enzyme, I spent overnight in hospital with all the monitors and nurse visits. The doctors wanted an angiogram. When done I was told I now had three stents put in and that I had SCAD. That, I am told, is really weird because first, I am a guy, second, I’m 74 and third they put in stents. That was seven months ago. I have been trying to ignore it altogether except now I don’t lift as much heavy stuff.

Medically I was prescribed Metoprolol and Brilinta. I hate them both. The first was causing leg pain, so I got a new cardiologist (a brilliant young woman doctor who let me quit it). The Brilinta has made me vulnerable to bruises which are sometime painful. But I guess with stents its necessary. Does anyone with stents take a blood thinner that seems to cause other artery dissections elsewhere?

Anyway, I’m really sorry there are so many younger women with this condition. But after all it seems they are learning a lot now that it is being diagnosed more often. Good luck SCAD patients!