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Nurse: Ben, would you mind if we talked about your medications, even though I know you have said you feel well without taking them.
Ben: I feel so stupid for not taking them but I thought I was ok after the procedure and that everything had been fixed.
Nurse: Please dont feel stupid there are plenty of patients who feel the same as you. Maybe we should review your condition and explain again what happened and why you still need medications.
Ben: Ok Im quite happy for you to do that.
Nurse: Your heart is a muscular pump and you have 3 main heart arteries that go around the heart. This gives the heart the blood supply it needs to do its job and pump the blood around the body. One or more of your arteries became narrowed due to a build up of fat in the wall of the artery and this caused the symptoms that you originally reported.
Ben: Yes they sent me for that dye test.
Nurse: Thats correct its called an angiogram and the xray pictures showed where there was narrowing to your coronary arteries. This time, the doctor inflated a balloon in your artery to widen it up and then inserted a stent to keep the artery open.
Ben: I do understand what they did but all my symptoms went away so I thought I was better.
Nurse: The PCI helped the narrowed arteries at this time but the medication is for secondary prevention and this protective effect is required for the rest of your life. . In other words, the medications are working to stop the progression of disease even if you dont feel any different in yourself.
Ben: So I really should be taking the medications to stop my condition getting worse as its a life long disease. I suppose I was worried about the medications and their side effects.
Nurse: I can understand that Ben, lets have a look at your medications again in more detail…
Pulse point
You may wish to review the Module 3 introduction again to consider some of the different effects artheroscelosis has on different arteries around the body.
Page last reviewed: 04 Jun 2020
