I had a 23 per cent blockage in my micro-arteries. At first the doctors thought I needed a heart transplant, then they said I have microvascular angina, which means I will be on medication for the rest of my life.
I'm doing great heart-wise. I get a complete stress test once a year, and those have gone well. I have stents in two arteries, and they are holding up. My other arteries haven't shown any additional clogging.
When I had the heart attack I had one stent inserted, which was great.
I come from an era when if you are told that you need a triple heart bypass it sounds pretty terminal. But I think it's quite a normal operation these days.
I thought I had a chest infection and went to the doctor - five days later I was under the knife. It came completely out of the blue. My arteries were 95% blocked.
Open-heart surgery is now part of a typical life experience for many people. Folks talk casually about 'having a stent put in,' as if they had their tires rotated.
I had three bypasses in one go, using arteries harvested from my leg and the right side of my chest.
When I was young, having a heart bypass was, 'Woooh!'
