As a heart patient myself, I am always amazed by all the press "after the fact". I had my first heart by-pass on 7-5-1996 at age 51, second by-pass and mitral valve replacement on 9-18-1997. Murphy's Law as continued to ride on my shoulder. It has been an incredibly long 11 years. Even if a patient does enough research and learns their own body and tries to help themselves I found it almost impossible to get the medical society to pay any attention. My doctors just thought I was a big pain in the backside and they had more important things to do. There egos get in the way and they are insulted that I might know my body better than them. I have been through 2 angioplasties, 2 blood transfusions, and 6 years of incredible pain in the feet and legs due a reaction to plavix with my coumadin, aspirin and naproxen. I am only alive today because of my own stubborness. After my last blood transfusion, I said under no circumstances would I take plavix again. That was 2 years ago and I am doing better than I had in a very long time. I am slowly improving, but it has certainly taken its toll on me. I feel the medical society failed me miserably. I would write a book regarding my journey living with familial high cholesterol if I thought it would help one person or family dealing with this problem.