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Originally Posted by SplatterMaster They used some kind of twilight drug on me. Wasn?t Demerol though. Only thing I really felt was the balloon pressure when it was inflated. The twilight drug works pretty good on me, I don?t remember much at all except them telling me to hold my breath when they inject the contrast, and the balloon inflation. I?ve had 3 peripheral angioplasty surgeries and 1 by-pass in the last year and half. Probably will need more PA soon. I think my body is rejecting the stints and blood is clotting at them. I do ok for a month after surgery then my legs start getting blocked again and they have to go back in the same area to clean it out.

They did Cryoplasty for me http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23934945 I specifically asked for that, my cardiologist looked a bit puzzled by the request. That is why it cost $44k? There were 2 doctors/surgeons present and a lot of discussion on the best way to proceed for the two hours in surgery to do one leg in 2 places. Bottom line -- that was two years ago and I have improved in my walking time without IC a lot. Restenosis is common in PAD. So, I think it was the Cryoplasty as I doubt it being just my "good luck" ... I am pretty sure the Doctor said Demerol I was surprised also -- yes the wire snaking in your arteries and the compression of the balloon to the artery wall.

I said stents in error, they just did the Cryoplasty compression. The area was in the upper femoral artery where there is a lot of movement, the surgeon did not want to stent for that reason.

I don't know if my continual use of Plavix (Clopidogrel) and Aspirin 325gr may also be a factor in the lasting result. The success rate is better with the drug-eluting stent (DES) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug-eluting_stent in the case they are not using them.