High Coronary Calcium Score: How do others feel emotionally?

Thanks for your kind words, nyartist. They mean alot right now.

I love your positivity!! I was just telling my wife I posted some feelings on this forum and not certain what would come of it . Thank you so so much for your words. I hope everyone with this crazy unexpected disease out of nowhere can get it fixed. Me , I’m going to go get at it I’m not sitting back waiting for a myocardial event or whatever they call it . I am not willing to wake up everyday or after every run thinking I’m going to have something happen to me , really .. it’s not for me it’s for all my fam that I’m totally in love with and connected every minute of the day with most of these kids way to young to deal with big old Dad , coach etc having some medical problem they won’t understand . I think we need to get proactive as a community of those who have been given this news and do everything we can to fix this and get to living the next 20 or 40 years like we should!

Thank you Teresa! I am only in this for a year. Last year out of no where my cardiologist gave me the news , it was the beginning of the summer , I went dark for almost two months .. then I realized that it is what it is , I don’t like that saying at all but for the first time I realized it was for me lol .. anyway now I’m just mad at the fact that all I’m ever told is basically take the meds , watch your diet , and if you don’t feel right or if you think your having an ‘Event’ get yourself into the hosp! Not for me. I deal with it this way Teresa.. I am so thankful my cardiologist said to me there’s one text I want you to get, it’ll cost you out of pocket but I think it’s worth it and that was the cac ct . If he hadn’t suggested I get that text .. who knows I could have bitten the bulletproof already. I’ll never forget him for that . But now I and all of us in this community have to not lay down and wait for a piece of plaque to chip off and we’ll you all know what’s next . So Teresa in answer to you I cope with this now as I’m mad as heck that there’s no real proactive answers or therapy that makes me wake up in the mornings and say oh yeah I’m on that regiment. But I can tell you for certain I’ve just begun figuring this out and the fight has just begun! Best to you and everyone . I’m here for anyone to reach out . Best Big Bern

Thank you so much for that post sharing is so important to me . Thank God you pulled through Jim that is a great story. You must have a new appreciation for that sun coming up every morning! God bless ya ! Bern

I am same situation and don’t know options or my future!

My situation just got more complicated. Because of my high calcium score (1014, concentrated in LAD and RCA) my cardiologist decided he wanted to reduce my LDL from 50 to 20. Instead of just trying the addition of Rapatha he first tried just doubling my statin. My bloodworm came back this week and while my LDL fell to 38 my liver enzymes which have always been normal over 30 years of statin use spiked to 148 (AST) and 232 (ALT). My doc said this was very concerning and now eliminated my statin altogether.

Now I have to wait a few weeks for more bloodwork and will likely be put on Rapatha with a new goal of LDL under 70! Bottom line is that my cardiologist may have increased my CAD problem while increasing my potential for liver damage. Needless to say I am not happy and already have an appointment with an interventional cardiologist on 9/26 for a second opinion.

@keithl56

I am sorry to hear that you find yourself with new problems as a result of the medication change. A second opinion is always a good idea.

As you feel comfortable doing so, I hope that you post again and provide an update on how you are doing.

hi @keithl56 - my score was 2316 so my cardiologist gave me lipitor 20 mg and baby aspirin. I went to a second cardiologist at NYU and he prescribed 40 mg... I said no to that. I also said no to baby aspirin. The holistic guy I'm working with has me on a regimen I like. It has some blood thinning natural compounds so I opted out of the baby aspirin. I also believe that before the end of the year I will get off Lipitor. Cardiologists will all say the same thing when they see these scores: statin and aspirin. They've done zero research on these holistic compounds and I'm putting my trust in them.

Prior to statins my total cholesterol was 375, statins got me down to 130. Besides my anecdotal evidence there are numerous studies verifying their efficacy. I would rather trust that than in something that as you state has "zero research". If these holistic compounds work then someone would produce studies that verify it and then commercialize them big time.

Without sounding to harsh, pharmaceutical company's make billions of dollars on drugs...when they realize there's money to be made. Then they'll get in on it, I have been using supplements for years, when I was on dialysis I was never in the hospital....you need to broaden your spectrum and do more research. There's p[plenty of information on these supplements, even on main stream, Harvard, mayo, and quite a few others, and most doctors, I should say some doctors will not tell you .