EECP & Me

I finally began my therapy this past Monday. Yesterday, we went for an hour and got up to the highest therapeutic setting. My therapist, Daphne, is impressed with my tolerance of this rather grueling therapy.

Velcro-secured wraps are placed securely around the legs and lower torso. They squeeze your body every time the heart is at rest. Yesterday Daphne took the pressure up to 6 psi, the maximum therapeutic level.

All of the literature says not to expect to feel any positive results until you have completed around a dozen of the 35 sessions. Well, it may be my imagination, but my tolerance for exercise seems much better and I have had to use nitroglycerin twice since Monday.

It has been a long arduous road from the time I decided to take charge of my own body in 2004. In April of that year, an Indianapolis cardiologist characterized me as a walking time bomb (see the beginning of this blog for more information) unless I had a quintuple coronary artery bypass. I got a second opinion and the rest is history.

To recap, it has been more than three years since I declined to receive the bypass. The EECP will give me another 4 to 5 surgery-free years. That means my life will maintain some semblance of untraumatic normalcy for a total of 8 to 9 years.

American doctors, especially invasive cardiologists and their cardio-thoracic surgeon allies are too quick to cut. Their decisions re based more on the personal finances of the physician and the greed of the hospital they work in.

I agree with the late Dr. Howard Wayne's label of these doctors as "Medical Terrorists." I sincerely believe they use their license to practice medicine as a license to commit assault with a deadly weapon. What else would you call unnecessary invasive surgery you are coerced into receiving?

Orientation

Well, I had my EECP orientation today from Daphne the EECP therapist at the South Texas Cardiology Consultants. She's a very personable and obviously dedicated young lady who made me feel right at home.

The first thing I did was watch a video that gave me an overview of what EECP is, how it is performed, expected results, etc. It wasn't anything i hadn't already studied about, but the presentation, produced by the manufacturer of the equipment used in doing EECP, was professionally done and accurate.

Next, we filled out some questionaires regarding symptoms and Daphne fitted me for a pair of tights which are worn when receiving EECP. I will return to the clinic on Monday 20 August for my first session. Patients usually don't feel any results the first ten or so sessions, but I will report how mine went whenever there is something interesting happening.

My EECP Begins Soon

Today my quest to receive EECP therapy has taken a giant leap toward fruition. I had an appointment this afternoon with a cardiologist from the South Texas Cardiology Consultants in San Antonio. His name is Dr. Kenneth LeClerc and he calls himself an invasive noninterventionalist. Although he does use invasive diagnostic procedures, he treats without surgery. He is not requiring me to have any invasive procedures before beginning the EECP.

I arrived in the Alamo City last Friday to continue the search for someone who will prescribe a course of EECP. I started in Indianapolis where the cardiologists who would prescribe it also required an angiogram. Anyone who has read my site knows what I think of angiograms.

The only tests Dr. LeClerc required were vital signs and an EKG. He does want copies of all the lab work my primary care physician in Indianapolis has in my records.

I should begin my EECP on Monday, 13 August. It takes 35 sessions over seven weeks to finish the therapy, but there is an at least 85% chance it will be successful and my angina symptoms will be controlled for at least five years.

It was a little more than three years ago I started on the late Dr. Howard Wayne's medical regimen. If indeed EECP gives me five more years, I will have lived eight years longer than the cardiologist who wanted to subject me to a quintuple bypass in 2004 said I would.