Hi frank,
Sounds awfully simiilar to my cardiologists here, I was the same, I was getting chest pain for no apparent reason, had a cholsterol test done, was off the charts, dangerously off the charts, was put onto a statin it helped with the total cholesterol but triglycerides were still high and I had all the severe side effects of any statins available even the old fashioned questron powder so statins are a no - no for me, because my cholestrol was high the cardiologist wanted to see what my arteries were like, you guessed it....." Pristine condition " chest pains continued over the next 2 years, cardiologist at the time diagnosed me as the small blood vessels in the heart going into spasms, also had another angiogram in that 2 year time frame, once again arteries were in prisitne condition. the next 2 years chest pains were getting worse and more frequent, arrived at our local emergency department , nothing showed up on the ECG, waited on the troponin test, I was in the waiting room awaiting the result, A doctor came out with a nurse with a wheel chair and approached me and said I think you better come with us, once in a cubicle in emergency I was informed that I had a NSTEMI, me not knowing what that was at the time asked "what's that " the doctor said that I had or was having a mild heart attack so was admitted , very next morning I was carted off to the cath lab, one of those " pristine arteries " was now 60 % occluded, it was the right coronary artery, the cardiologist told me the same thing, the drugs would treat and with luck reverse the occlussion, I had another NSTEMI 8-12 months later, due to chest pain getting even worse I had another angiogram beggining of this year, the 60 % occlusion in the RCA was still the same but this time round they found a 50% stenosis in the LAD and that only took 3 years to get to that 50 % , the other pristine artery.
The cardiologist wanted me to have a dorsal fin stimulator to treat the chest pain, I don't know if that's the same as the EEP you are talking about ? it sounds like it's pretty close, stimulting, etc etc and the cost of it to be surgically implanted I was informed was around 30 K from memory, as you can see not cheap, it may of been a tad less but was definately a lot more than 10 K, this was going back 2 years ago, I saw another specialist in regards to this treatment and they informed me that this isn't an appropriate treatment for angina, in my case prinzmetal angina, I didn't bother researching it because I was, as I said was told it was not an appropriate treatment for angina, they told me it was more for back injuries and nerve pain / problems.
I can see why they stented you then, it must be protocol where you are as well wait until it's nearly a"full occluded " ......90 - 95 %, but I do suspect that it maybe your current stent acting up or maybe even your arteries even spasming.
To fully understand what this cardiologist had to say about stents you would have to have been here to listen to him or read his teaching notes and unfortunately he doesn't put them up on the " net " as he learns from other cardiologists. there's no doubt stents are life saving at the time .