Who is that? I live in the Denver area as well. My Cardiologist seems less concerned than yours. Repatha got my LDL down to 14. Steady regression in plaque is excellent news. I don’t think the Ca goes away though.
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@Volucris….here you go ..
John Messenger MD | Interventional Cardiology | UCHealth John Messenger MD | Interventional Cardiology | UCHealth
I’m not everso sure how easy it would be to get an appointment. He’s a colleague of my husband and his intervention cardiologist too, so it wasn’t a regular referral from my PCP.
FWIW, he might also appear unconcerned about you too with an LDL-C that low…..he’s mentioned that he does have some patients that low but is comfortable enough with mine that he’s not going the “lower is even better” route.
Another FWIW, you really don’t want the calcium to go away (I don’t think it does, either) since the calcified plaque is the stabilized plaque. It’s the new, soft plaque that’s the problem….both from risk of sudden rupture and leading to even more occlusion, I imagine.
And yet another FWIW, I’m disappointed to learn that there isn’t really an objective way of measuring if all of this is working. The Gold Standard, apparently, is not having any major cardiovascular events moving forward, when otherwise it could’ve been expected. CAC isn’t going to tell you anything and CT angiography comes with a heftier dose of radiation plus the potential for reaction to the contrast medium to skew the risk: benefit of repeat exposure.
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Not a med.
I went to a doctor. The doctor recommended a stress test. I passed the stress test with no problems.
I took it upon myself to get the CAC test. I have a 165. The cardiologists, because I have visited two of them over the past seven years, sees zero problems. Just calcium. The doctors both played the archival footage in the test. They see no blockages. They were ho hum on taking a stress test, but at age 61, my age then, the cardiologists expect repeated stress testing for everyone.
I am on Metformin and Rosuvastatin minor doses because I am type II diabetic. My sugar is around prediabetic levels. Actually slightly below 100.
Thanks for that - I see my Cardio on 12/1. We will see what he says.
I think I can safely say that I have had more serious illnesses and more surgeries than anyone else on METAR. (Losing a leg sucks but it’s not quite the same as having cancer or having your guts pulled out or your heart chopped up.)
1970 - splenectomy due to ITP (an autoimmune illness destroying blood platelets)
2009 - hysterectomy/ oophorectomy due to benign condition which mimicked ovarian cancer
2015 - bilateral mastectomy due to double breast cancer, diagnosed at Stage 1 by MRI which I paid for out of pocket. Extensive family history of breast cancer though no known cancer-promoting gene detected despite thorough testing.
2024 - open-heart surgery to replace a calcified, stenotic aortic valve and aneurysm of the ascending aorta. No ASCVD - a 40% blockage of the LAD but otherwise clean.
These were all hours-long surgeries which had long recoveries and left huge scars.
This isn’t counting sleep apnea, GERD, asthma and Parkinson’s Disease which are under medical treatment though not surgical. A couple of years ago I decided to take care of all the things that were making me feel bad.
I have exercised consistently and eaten a healthy, home-cooked diet since age 15. No smoking, drugs or significant alcohol.
As an organic chemist I was exposed to many nasty chemicals including inhaled PTFE fumes at work that burned out my lungs. (I’m still on workers comp for the med.)
There is no question that my health care has been aided by a combination of knowledge and money starting with my engineer father’s insistence that I get the most advanced available care for my ITP.
I have the bad luck to have physical problems but the good luck to be able to understand them and be able to pay for care.
Genes trump lifestyle when medicine does not have cures. But medicine is constantly improving.
But lifestyle trumps genes because a bad lifestyle can make an otherwise healthy person very sick indeed. This really p!$$e$ me off because I hate to see someone with a good genetic heritage throwing it away.
But there is definitely a gray area of people who could be healthier – if only they knew what to do and could afford to do it.
Wendy
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Yes. My 50th High School reunion was terrifying — if only “they knew what to do” and had acted on it. Half the varsity football team was dead, but track and field was as bad. Most of us egg heads were still dancing.
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Healthy living? 
I think it’s meant to be regular checkups to catch disease soonest.
The Captain
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