You have to love family genetics and those lovely things you inherit from your family.

I told my cardiologist about my grandfathers history of the PAD and that I felt like my leg pain was related to this.

This had been going on for about 10 months but we were concentrating on my heart valve replacement then COVID hit and we just had to wait.

I went from 12,000 steps a day down to 3000 on a good day the pain was severe just walking 30 foot.

Severe leg pain, charlie horses at night, numbing pain and then the leg would get hot which I thought was a nerve pain it was like in a line. The worst of it was the stabbing pain in the middle of the thigh and the top in the crease of your leg. The skin on that leg was scaly looking and shiny. My leg was not discolored or cold.

In early August I was given the venous and arterial doppler it showed up on this but not the severity of it. The Dr said well you were right! I love it when I get credit for my own diagnosis especially from the Dr.!

He suggested we do an angiogram to see how bad it really was. I had that done on Wednesday of this week.

The first step was the injection of the dye this artery is like an upside down Y so it was the top right side of the upside down Y.

What he found next even shocked him. Total occlusion of the aortoiliac artery. He said you will find 30% even 60% but it very rate to see total occlusion and I was the first time he had seen it. I love the fact I got to watch this all on large screens and the dr continued to talk to me about what he was doing.

He said this was 100% hereditary there was nothing I could have done different to change this.

They ran balloons several times through my arteries clearing the path and enlarging the opening for blood flow. I could feel the balloon being inflated in my arteries it was a weird pressure type feeling that eventually went to a cramping pain. Once the mesh looking stent was in place the arteries lit up like a Christmas Tree on the screen and once again there was blood flow to the leg.

The stents last about 10 years then have to be replaced.

I think the hardest part of the whole thing was laying in a hospital bed for 5 hours and keeping my legs straight so I did not bleed out.

I have to add plavix to my list of meds a blood thinner that prevents clots and heart attacks and I will be dropping the other one for now.

My advice is if you are 50 yrs old or older and have good insurance get a venous and arterial doppler to look at the veins and arteries. If you do not have good insurance check on the cash pay option which should be around 300.00 per test. If this is in your family history you may get checked sooner.

I have my follow up in a few weeks and will have my list of questions ready.. Aortoiliac occlusive Disease ( AIOD) is a manifestation of Periphereal Arterial Disease also known as (PAD). The dr drew a diagram of before and after to show my husband exactly where the issue was at. Ironically one of my pain sites in the upper thigh was where the blockage was.

When you have Dr.’s who pay attention to what your saying it can save your life.

When you are having a procedure like this it is great to have a few loved ones watching over you. Thank you Dad and Mom!

LIFE IS GOOD!