My cardiologist told me that he'd allegedly learned that calcium testing revealed nothing useful (so he wouldn't order it). Reading CONNECT as relates to my conditions, I see this is far from a universal. belief. About to go out of town to cardiologists (second trip to a top arrhythmia specialist at the Cleveland Clinic who will give me tests – I'm glad as I believe my heart needs a thorough going over .)

I originally made the appointment to look into his attaching a "Watchman" for me for an unusual reason. I have spontaneous AFIB, and want very much to get off the oral anticoagulants, Why? Because my research (also common sense) revealed that they hasten the advent of blindness caused by wet macular degeneration (sadly, currently incurable but at an uncertain rate.). I'd have thought all retinologists would give a heads up about this to patients taking this medicine (after all both affect the same age group), but not so. I had to do considerable research and consults to find an interventional cardiologist willing to proceed with this "left atrial appendage" to block off that heart pocket where most clots form. That would allow me to discontinue the oral meds. (Yes, they DO hasten the movement toward blindness – plenty of reason to find an alternative approach to. protect against clots for those with AFIB. Just one more reason to do ones own research!)

Meanwhile, looking forward to a more enlightened approach to analyzing my heart issues – among them, the calcium score.

PS to explain for anyone interested, wet macular degeneration, causes blindness by the leakage of blood and toxic fluids from tiny (fragile) abnormal capillaries forming behind the retina. This causes irreparable scarring destroying central vision. Do you wonder that I wanted to get off the oral anticoagulants? Anything preventing clotting, I figured would be dangerous for this eye disease (and I was right, though it took a lot to prove it to the two specialty areas – cardiology and retinology.)

Supposed to addressed to sjy70 @sjy70, Jun 14, 2021