Three Squirrels and the RCA

My heart, well, doesn't quite sing.

If you’ve been watching, you’ll see that I’m finally finding the time to retire the Échapper de North Vancouver name for this blog, and restore my old name Three Squirrels in a Pressure Cooker. All of this should happen entirely seamlessly, so expect problems.

I’ve got the time for this because I’m stuck in the Queens General Hospital emergency department until getting shipped off to Halifax to have a catheter insterted into me to inject dye that will better define what’s happening in my blood veins.

Here’s an actually good video about the cardiac catheterization process. In a nutshell, they run a thin tube into a vein either in my wrist or my groin. They then inject dye, and do some seriously fancy x-ray work to watch how the blood flows in and around my heart. Depending on how bad the blockage is, they may choose to insert a stent at the same time.

My blockage, as near as they can tell from the CAT scan earlier this week, is in the:

Right coronary artery (RCA): Supplies blood to the right atrium, right ventricle, bottom portion of the left ventricle and back of the septum.

If you’re like me you’re asking what the heck that means.

What I’ve just learned is that:

• Exhausted blood, which has had its oxygen used up, arrives at the heart through the veins.

• Two large veins deliver that blood into the right atrium in the upper right part of the heart.

• From there it is pumped into the right ventricle, the lower right chamber of the heart. That pumps the oxygen-poor blood to your lungs through the pulmonary artery.

• Once it’s been recharged with oxygen, the blood comes back to the left atrium, the upper left chamber of the heart.

• That sends the blood to the left ventricle, which pumps it into the aorta, and onwards to the rest of the body.

Here’s nice picture, borrowed from the Cleveland Clinic.

(Incidentally, my aorta, at the top of the picture has a small enlargment called a thoracic aortic aneurysm. Right now that’s small enough that no-one seems too worried about it.)

So what about the RCA? The right coronary artery takes blood from the aorta and supplies blood to the right atrium, right ventricle, and bottom portion of the left ventricle, so it’s plays a pretty important role in keeping my heart going. It basically powers half of my heart to allow it to pump blood. My RCA has a blockage, and the goal next week is to find out how big that blockage is and correct it if needed.

Here’s another picture:

All of this is really just to allow me to understand what’s happening, and get the essentials clear in my own mind. And to fill in blanks for all of the =friends and family that have sent messages.

Thanks everyone! I am not a doctor, nor have I played one on television. If you’re sick, seek real medical help.

Well, unless you’re in Nova Scotia…