[RUNNING SOUNDS] It took time to become life threatening to me. I did not have a tightness in my chest or things that made me go, oh my god, I'm going to die. I had test results that said, oh my god, you're going to die if you don't take care of this. When I met with my doctor, he was uncomfortable with my family history. I don't smoke, I don't drink, but I've always been overweight. And one of the things I noticed was when I golfed before the procedure, I would get tired around the 14th hole. 

I got tired physically from swinging, I got tired with my grip on the clubs, and I just assumed that was because I'm getting older and I'm fat, and that's what happens to everybody. My LAD was totally occluded, totally blocked. And the weight gain was the thing that actually made me think, wow, this is terribly serious and life threatening. That's when it really made me think, I want this thing opened up, I want it fixed. 

Anywhere from 20% 30% of patients with coronary disease will have a chronic total occlusion, what that means is that an artery is completely 100% block, and it's been that way for a long time. Chronic total exclusions represent one of the most challenging subsets of patients. In general, the perception is that they're very hard to treat and most cardiologists don't bother, and so that leaves a whole subset of patients, up to 30%, that are inadequately treated or treated not to the optimal degree in terms of their symptom controls. 

Just in my career, there's been huge advances and for the first time we're really able to offer patients who previously didn't have great options, new treatments that can really make a difference in their lives. 

As concerning as it was-- and it was very concerning, I think my interaction with the doctor and him taking time to explain it really, really helped me prepare for everything that might happen. And my confidence level in him was as high as it gets. It's like 48 minutes. 

Yeah, that's fantastic. Jim is just a tremendous success in terms of what we want to achieve with our cardiac patients. 

Well, my next visit was at the six month mark. And by then, I had lost exactly 100 pounds. 

I like to think that what we did was at least planted the seed and got him started. I almost didn't recognize him, he looked so good and he looked like a new man. 

I can't imagine where I would be if I didn't have this procedure done. It's counter-intuitive that something so serious can be treated so easily and successfully. It was completely fixed. And a day and a half later, I'm playing golf. I've started a new chapter in my life, chapter 61. It was my gift to myself, to be able to run 6.1 miles. A mile for every decade when I turned 61 years old. I really didn't think I was ever going to be able to do that again. Dr. Ragosta literally saved my life. 

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