So this happened…

 As part of living here in Spain we have established relationships with new doctors.

Dennis saw his GP last June and after going through his family history, she ordered blood tests. Due to his family history, she ordered a test for lipoprotein a, a genetic marker for people who have a predisposition for heart disease.

The test showed a very high level of lipoprotein a and a mildly elevated LDL (bad cholesterol). Based on this, she recommended that he see a cardiologist.

A consultation was scheduled and after the preliminary questions about family history and a review of the blood tests he did an ultrasound scan of the heart and neck. He didn’t find anything concerning but wanted to follow up with a stress test and a 24-hour heart rhythm and blood pressure monitoring.

Towards the end of the stress test some irregularity of the heart rhythm was noted and the cardiologist arranged for a contrast CT angiogram of the coronary arteries.

The CT scan was scheduled in Torrevieja (about 35 miles but an hour’s bus ride south of Alicante) and was completed in late January. The results indicated that there was a narrowing of some of the arteries with the worst being the left anterior descending artery with a 70-99% blockage. Other narrowings were lesser and not of as much concern.

The heart rhythm/blood pressure monitoring showed nothing unusual.

Based on this the cardiologist referred Dennis for a coronary artery catheterization with likely angioplasty and stenting (again in Torrevieja).

Now comes the fun part. As Dennis’ condition was considered hereditary (remember the lipoprotein a test?) insurance would not cover the procedure. So, we had to pay out of pocket.

Upon learning this, we decided we would charge the bulk of it on credit cards and pay the remainder out of the money we have on hand here in Spain. [In a completely separate issue (when it rains it pours) we had been blocked by our US bank from making money transfers unless we physically came into an office in the US and verified our identity (impossible!). As a result we had recently opened a new online checking account with a different bank but it was not yet fully funded]. We contacted the credit card companies to make sure there would not be any problems with the charges and were assured that they should go through. Then we would simply pay them off from the “blocked” account (only money transfers are blocked, not payments).

As the procedure was scheduled for 7:30 am on a Tuesday (which we found out on the previous Friday), we travelled down to Torrevieja on Monday and went to the hospital to pay for the procedure.

Yes, that’s right, they have you pay prior to the procedure. And they give you a fixed sum somehow without really knowing if there will be any additional expenses.

Our first partial payment was from our bank here in Spain and that went through smoothly. Then we tried the credit card.

Denied.

We tried a different credit card.

Denied.

We tried using our US bank debit card and that worked, but due to daily limits, we could pay only another small portion.

We called one of the credit card companies (Capital One), to see what was going on. They told us that there had not been any charge denied and did not see any activity from the hospital. They insisted that the problem was on the hospital’s end.

We called the other credit card company (CitiBank), and their bot told us the same; no charges denied.

Back to the cashier. They tried the cards again. Denied. Not the kind of stress that Dennis needed at this point. We finally ended up signing an agreement to pay within the next 15 days, but they seemed anxious about that and wanted us to pay as soon as possible.

After leaving the hospital for the night we checked into our hotel and contacted our financial advisor to explain the situation. She is an absolute superstar and had the necessary funds in our new US checking account the next day.

Tuesday morning, we arrived for check-in. Again, they seemed very concerned about us paying as soon as possible. We were taken to a room for Dennis to change into a hospital gown and he was then brought down to the operating room.

The procedure went very well, and the doctor was excellent (and spoke English). After inserting the catheter and injecting the dye he looked at the heart from multiple angles and determined that the blockage was 95% (!). He recommended inserting a stent and Dennis readily agreed.

The before and after images showed much better blood flow after the stent.

Off to the ICU where Dennis was hooked up to monitors and an IV. He had to fast prior to the procedure and was starving but they had to wait a while before he could get food. So, he spent a boring day and night in bed.

The next day they said they could move Dennis to a regular room where he would need to spend one more night. Another boring day, but at least he wasn’t hooked up to the monitor or the IV. And he could walk about in the room.

The next day, after receiving prescriptions for the new meds he needs to take, he was sprung. We took a taxi to the bus station and then boarded the bus back to Alicante.

Even though there was a light rain, Dennis wanted to walk from the bus station to the tram station (about 15 minutes) after being cooped up for two days. So that we did!

Being home felt so good. Hope we don’t have to endure something like that again for a long while. Dennis was simply advised to take it easy for a couple of weeks, and then go about his normal routine with no restrictions.

That said, Dennis showed no symptoms of the heart condition. While we were in Paris in November, we were quite active and climbed the stairs up to the top of the Arc de Triomphe and the bell tower of the Montmartre cathedral. Just goes to show you never know.

Salud.