After being in the ICU for 3 days for a nitro drip which has to be monitored all the time, seeing my PCP, and then my cardiologists, this is what I faced. THe PCP and his rotating famiy practice resident (who by the way is board certified in psychiatry but left it because he could not emotionally treat anymore wounded vets.)
I thought when he made rounds, he asked me strange questions. As is, "are you under undue stress, etc."
Then my dr. comes in a says my heart is okay that I just need anti-anxiety drugs (read Xanax) to control that.
It gets better. My cardiologist in Houston did a cath last Thurs. Clean as a whistle. He says that he thinks I'm on the verge of my heart disease consuming me.
Well, hello! I felt like I might have the "big one" after he said that. I have 6 stents and an ICD/pacemaker which was pacing the whole time I was hospitalized.
I then explained to him that I had been dealing with this for almost 9 years and that I felt he and my other drs. were treating me that exact same way. You would think with my husband being an orthopedic surgeon, they would give me a little bit of a break. He, of course, thinks I should have had a bypass years
Maybe all they say is true EXCEPT there IS something wrong with my heart. Otherwise I would not be wearing a nitro patch 24/7!
I am on my 4th cardio, and I guess he's the best of the lot. Houston is one of the heart capitals as well.
Bottom line, I just need to "move one."
I am busy; I have a life; I don't need to move on.
A cardio nurse told me they have found small vessel disease to be as deadly as other heart problems, but research is still new.
BTW--I was hospitialized because I got in an "angina storm" with my non-heart small vessel disease!
Need to vent.
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Back to square one
- By Nancy45
- Posted May 27, 2009 at 1:10 pm · 3 replies
- In Experiences with healthcare professionals
- Shared with the public
Explore topics in this discussion:
Heart disease Surgery Counseling Bypass surgery Plavix Anxiety Angina Pain Stent Xanax Stress
3 replies
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- Newest first
- By careh
- Posted May 27, 2009 at 9:08 pm
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Dear Nancy....How frustrating! I have small vessel disease and I am on 0.8mg of nitro with extra sublingual pills as needed. It's been a while since my last cath...it was in 2001 or 2002, I'm not sure when, but it also showed major arteries were clear. Abnormal stress tests in 2002 and 2004 was what lead my doctor to micro vascular disease. My angina symptoms can be awful a lot of times.
Here is a quote regarding MVD from healthywomen.org...
"Because this condition is a small vessel disease, it can't be seen on an angiogram (an x-ray with dye that identifies blockages in the blood vessels). Special imaging tests, such as PET scanning or MRI, may help with the diagnosis in the future. Today, however, microvascular disease is usually a diagnosis of exclusion—meaning you may be diagnosed with this condition after tests provide no other cause for the chest pain. Some health care professionals use the same tests used to diagnose CAD, such as an EKG, echocardiography or coronary angiography. Most women with microvascular disease have at least one risk factor for CHD, but it can occur in women who are otherwise healthy.
Medications commonly used to treat heart conditions may help to relieve pain caused by microvascular disease. Symptoms can be debilitating and new data suggests that if left untreated, women with microvascular disease do not have as favorable a prognosis as previously believed. Their risk factors should be managed as aggressively as someone who has CHD."
A lot of doctors still aren't really familiar with small vessel disease...my own cardiologist refers to it as "a nuisance condition." Yet, we seem to require a whole lot of nitro just to get though the day.
I wish you the best of luck, and please keep us up to date!
Carolyn
- By Yatchzee
- Posted May 27, 2009 at 8:28 pm
- Report post
Since you had clean arteries shown in the cath, then possibly you have the small vessel disease or perhaps spasms...that don't usually show up on the cath especially if you are on a nitro drip.
Stress? YES, when you know there is something wrong with your heart and they want to only offer the Xanax,
Joyce
- By gracie62
- Posted May 27, 2009 at 3:11 pm
- Report post
Nancy:
Vent away! You need and deserve to. One thing I have found is that location, including being in Houston, does not mean you get the best doctors. I went to the Texas Heart Institute at St. Luke's when my local doctors (Beaumont/Orange area) were blowing off my symptoms to stress. A doctor there found and stented the 80% blockage I was told locally was stress (I already had a stent and still they blew me off). But when I went back 9 months later, I got the same thing from the doctor in Houston. It had to be stress. I just wasn't coping with life.
6 months after that I ended up having triple bypass surgery at a local hospital and had to tell them I had gone off my Plavix to get the cath that led to that (I hadn't - that lie saved my life). I am on my 5th cardio now. Any doctor that starts offering Xanax or counseling will cause me to move on. I will go wherever I have to be heard when I know I am sick. The good thing about Houston is that you have so many choices. You would think these doctors would realize that women with heart disease develope a 6th sense about our bodies. When know when something is off. I can't believe they think we enjoy the endless tests and invasive procedures we undergo. They think we are mental or want attention when we are simply trying to stay alive.
My heart truly goes out to you because I have gone through what you are experiencing. You hope/pray before bed that you will live through the night and are grateful and thankful (most days) when you wake up.
Take care -
Dianna
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