Hey Lucy, not to worry too much here okay? The things that are being done now can often take care of your problem without too many problems and a little change in eating and/or lifestyle will put you back on the road. Better if you catch it now too as the longer you let it go, the worse things get.

Angina is generally brought on by a lack of blood supply to the heart muscle. It's not a lack of flow through the chambers of the heart, but rather a lack of blood in the arteries that make the muscle itself function. An angiogram is a form of CAT-scan that uses dye to see how the flow in these "feeder" arteries has been affected. No pain, nothing to it....just lay on your back as they feed you back and forth inside a cylinder/tube like gizmo. Your main contribution to this will be laying very still and following directions such as holding your breath a few times. Takes maybe 15 minutes.

If a blockage is shown, a second test is generally performed, a heart catheterization. A heart cath is a bit different in that they will invade your bod a bit, but in a fascinating way. Again, your job is to lie flat and follow some simple instructions. On a table beneath a big camera like gizmo, you are scrubbed and shaved (damn cold water!) and a small cutdown is made in your groin. This doesn't hurt much more than a bee sting and they insert a "sleeve" into the femoral artery junction. Through this sleeve they insert a fine tube into the arteries and you can watch the screens as the Doc runs this thing in and out of various arteries and measures pressures......you don't feel a thing! You possibly have a minor blockage in one of the coronary areteries and if this is not too severe, they often can change cath tubes and perform an angioplasty at the same time or possibly insert a stint. Again, none of this is painful and not really very time consuming. The worst part of a cath is afterwards when they jeep pressure on the femoral opening for about an hour and then you must lie still on your back for another3-5 hours to be sure there is np bleeding.

If they find anything beyond that, then other "fixes" mat be needed, but you'll know more after the angiogram. Good luck and don't worry......It's an amazing technology and you can actually enjoy what you see and learn. If they need to go further, well, things are changeing all the time and the operations are getting easier and less invasive. Let us know what's happening......I'll try to explain it in layman's terms becausr I have pretty much been there and done that.

Spaw