[rhondalea]

I'm so sorry you're having to deal with this.

I've found a couple of forums that might be helpful. The first is at Angioplasty.Org:

http://www.ptca.org/forumtopics/forumtopics.html

Here's another from the Heart Health section of about.com:

http://forums.about.com/n/pfx/forum....disease&lgnF=y

I looked in Yahoo Groups but couldn't find much because I'm not well enough versed in the subject to construct good search phrases.

There is a Yahoo group for EECP (Enhanced External CounterPulsation), although it doesn't appear to be very active.

The procedure itself looks interesting:

http://www.surgery.com/procedure/cor...g/alternatives

"Enhanced external counterpulsation (EECP) may be a treatment option for patients who are not candidates for interventional procedures or coronary artery bypass graft surgery. During EECP, a set of cuffs is wrapped around the patient's calves, thighs, and buttocks. These cuffs gently but firmly compress the blood vessels in the lower limbs to increase blood flow to the heart. The inflation and deflation of the cuffs are electronically synchronized with the heartbeat and blood pressure using electrocardiography and blood pressure monitors. EECP may encourage blood vessels to open small channels to eventually bypass blocked vessels and improve blood flow to the heart. Not all patients are candidates for this procedure, and treatments, lasting one to two hours, must be repeated about five times a week for up to seven weeks."