I promised myself I'd report back to this group when all tests had been completed. All tests are in and here are my results:

Both my nuclear stress test and echo cardiogram came back normal! My METS score was 10.1

After having been on Crestor/rosuvastatin for 49 days (the first 8 days at 10mg and then 20mg after that), my blood work results were quite surprising (in a good way):

Total cholesterol dropped from 221 to 137, trig. from 69 to 48, LDL from 126 to 48. Unfortunately my HDL dropped a little (83 to 78), but it's still in a good range, so not worried about that. My sodium and chloride levels (they're related) went up about 5 points (to go just over the upper recommended limits), but my primary doc said it's nothing to worry about. He also had them check CPK levels (that indicate muscle damage) and those were ok as well.

I'm very surprised my echo and stress test came back normal given my CAC score of 2534. I'm going to keep trying to eat healthy (been on a vegetarian diet since Sept. of 2022, but on rare occasion I do eat meat), and I still have 2-3 pieces of candy (mainly Dove dark chocolate & peanut butter) a day. I don't want to completely deprive myself, and considering during this time (the 49 days on Crestor) I still ate a slice of pizza on rare occasion, I think those are great results. Statins are amazing drugs! Not sure how much more it will drop before those numbers bottom out.

I really thought I'd have blockage that would require a stent(s). I'm VERY thankful I don't. I hope others have as good as luck as I had regarding a high CAC score.