Did your mother suffer from diabetes? I understand gangrene can occur with that condition. So sorry to hear your mum had to suffer with that. Terrible.
An ultra sound can spot aneurisms, and. CAC scan can spot atherosclerosis and calcified plaques so there must be a strong reason why the camera is going in.
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No, merely a nearly fully blocked leg vein that she refused point blank to have treated, and insisted on wearing her fashionable shoes as she wouldn’t wear old lady shoes. So ended up with unmanageable leg ulcers. But she made it to 96, just a shame that the last couple of years were poor quality because of this.
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French protocols are perhaps different from UK ones.
Jane, my mum never wore really fashionable shoes but we helped her to buy lace up shoes which her chiropodist thought very sensible. I don’t wear fashionable shoes either now but trainers are a good look at any age and very comfortable too.
Sometimes you can’t help people and some don’t want to listen. Sounds as if your mum had a good life prior to the ulcers. They use honey now to help them heal.
despite everything her last 50 years were pretty good, but stubborn was an understatement! And yes high tech honey dressings.
I am glad you asked … Because it might save a life . In my case nothing more than a little fatigue when climbing a hill .(not unexpected ,) but belching every 100 metres was Now the year previously I was carting plasterboard up 3 flights of stairs , and that year I needed a longer break between tasks.
. So being of a certain age 70 ..the hospital my GP sent me to rule out the more likely stomach ulcer felt that. heart stress test was warranted . At that it is seen that exertion was changing ECG timing and a cardiologist recommended an angiogram .. More to rule it out than anything else . With that he identified that 2 of 3 arteries used to feed blood back to the heart itself were close to blocked . . Stents fitted over 2 angiograms . Unfortunately one of those arteries tends to block . And when it does the symptoms is different .Jaw fatigue
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They all have limitations .. The angiogram sees the actual dispersion of blood or location of blockage with a resolution of millimetres . Ultrasound and Doppler will show how valves are working but not with that level of certainty. An Angiogram will not be normally using a camera ..it is based on multiple X rays .almost like a movie camera . They do have cameras they can put into the artery and then guide it up to the heart ,and through the valves . This was used on me after the potential heart attack ..which I didn’t have . A particular enzyme linked with damage to a heart muscle was detected in my blood stream at 60 times normal ,indicating that an attack was imminent or happening . No damage was found , nor any evidence of a heart.
All the team in theatre wear very heavypadded jackets ..which I originally believed were to keep them warm in a cold OR ..It took a few visits before I realised they were lead lined for the x-rays .
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I watched my carpal tunnel decompression. It’s like a turkey leg inside your wrist.
Crikey they must have been shocked.
I take it you are now a politician?
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What a wonderful analogy! Short of ‘not very comfortable’, I’ve NO idea how that might feel but it certainly boggles the imagination! 
I’ve watched a few procedures performed on myself. All viewed on screen but not in glorious Technicolor
Lumbar puncture after I’d contracted meningitis as a kid.
A guided biopsy round my lung to extract a sample of infection compressing the nerve system.
Following the biopsy i became paralysed (incomplete) a hospital stay of 14 months and I was given a number of Hickman lines to administer drugs to fight infection. The exciting part is when the surgeon asks you not to breathe for ten seconds as he going to make cut to the internal jugular or subclavian vein, my anal contractions were rapid. I pulled the line out accidentally a few weeks later as I wheeled myself to the city centre.
A few years ago in Dijon, A rod in my groin going up to the heart to burn off some “stuff” around the heart that was causing a type of murmur. It lasted about an hour and I watched the whole thing both physically and on screen. I used my best French asking the surgeon for more anesthetic to which he replied shut up stop being soft and if you move again I’ll end up damaging your heart.
Luckily I wasn’t born Jewish, that one I couldn’t have watched.
So you got the humour
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Interesting. I’m going to get checks done soon. Cardiologue, angiologue ?? Why? Because my father died of a thrombosis when he was 65 and I’m 60 now. And because every time I do labo tests since several years I’m high on ferritine, triglycerides, bilirubine and low cholesterol HDL. Could be indications that I’m also vulnerable I think ??
Worth following this discussion that you’ve started. Thanks everyone.
Yep, you do not currently sound ideal with those elevated levels. See if you can get an insulin resistance test.
Thanks for the reply. So I’m not been paranoid to get myself checked out? I’ll get on and do it. Would you suggest a cardiologue or angiologue?
Any idea what the insulin resistance test is called in French? Maybe it was already done…
Family history is a very good indicator . My father died at 73, Heart attack, My elder brother by 5 years survived a heart attack by acting promptly when feeling bad and needed the triple bypass. I have described my journey, My younger brother was brought to hospital with chest pain and stented .We have as yet only one brother, the youngest who has not been on the table.
The normal test for heart conditions will be the stress test … .basically they put you on a treadmill and watch ECG as the effort is increased.
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A president of America past the stress test then suffered a heart attack. I would go with that as part of the process but carotid arterial doppler scan (ultrasound) and a CAC cardiac calcium scan.
Many on here hopefully know the name, I do not. Sadly a lot of people get a fasted glucose test which is far less reliable.
Do you have wider vascular issues? As that would be angiologue. Personally start with cardiologue, and an echo, and see where you go from there.
The test would be a glycemic panel with the relevant calculations to give you the indice HOMA, so look at your past blood tests for glycémie + insulinémie
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