good heart. bad heart.

These pictures are examples of what I saw. The first is the picture of the blockage and then the second is after the stent is placed.

I got to go into the heart cath lab today at clinicals and it was so amazing - I learned a lot about the heart that I hadn't learned before, which I kinda found surprising because I have gone through so many physiology/anatomy/nursing classes. today showed me how much I didn't know about the heart which makes me know I have a lot to learn about the body. I got to watch to separate cathetarizations. They go in through the femoral artery and up into the aorta into the coronary arteries (they supply blood to the heart itself) they inject dye in to see if there are any problems that would lead to a heart attack. The first one the heart was very healthy and no occlusions were seen. it was so amazing to see the heart pumping the blood and how it would fill and empty. for some reason i always thought there was some blood in the arteries at one time but it pretty much all the way emptied with each pulse. the next guy was not so lucky in his heart health. he had 7 bipass grafts placed, artifical mitral valve replacement and something else and probably something else. It was crazy cause when we were looking at the chest/heart you could see all the wires wrapped around his sternum that had been placed after his open heart surgery several years ago. we had to check all of his coronary arteries and all of his grafts to see where his chest pain was coming from and we finally found it and another doctor came in and placed a stent to open the little artery back up. he was an amazing doctor stopping the procedure and showing us the filter net and the stent. after the stent was placed and the catheter was out he had the nurse show us the balloon they use to place the stent. I loved today and the nurses there are all so hilarious - they have way too much fun lol