hello everyone

[cocoaxx]

what a great place this is. to have people to talk to and ask questions is great. I recently had my 5th angiogram as I still feel so unwell to be told that everything looks good.... my family think all I have to do is stay positive and get fit lol. its so difficult to explain to them that I feel so unwell because they cant see anything. I also have rheumatoid arthritis which puts me at a high risk of heart disease and or coronary problems from what I have read due to my poor immune system and the inflammatory part of the arthritis can cause thickness of the arteries. my cardiologist never seems to comment on this. I mentioned microvascular angina but I was told nothing about it really. I read a story on the BHF about a lady that had had a heart bypass, stents etc and still felt unwell until they diagnosed micro vascular angina which can't be seen by an angiogram as its the teeny weeny arteries leading to the heart. she now has medications that have given her her life back to a degree. that's all I want, I have 5 grandchildren ranging from 8weeks to 10yrs old and I cant even run around after them without feeling like im going to collapse with the exertion or the pain in my throat and tightness in my chest. it all sounds so doom and gloom but honestly I am a really positive person, I never give up. I still work and push myself to the absolute limit but I don't know where to turn now.. how do I get family or doctors to believe im not just unfit but unwell. any suggestions ??? any advice would be great.

[PhilGM]

Hi cocoaxx, I haven’t really got any advice for you except to keep on pestering, perhaps get a second opinion from a cardiologist who understands micro vascular angina even if you have to pay or even travel. I know exactly what you mean, I had chest pains and much reduced mobility but passed every test until an angiogram showed I had 3 heavily blocked arteries. 2 were bypassed but 1 was inoperable. I still felt that there was something wrong even though a further angiogram showed I had “good blood flow” and the unbypassed artery was of lesser importance and alternative vessels would be utilised by my body.

Like you I am told just to keep exercising and have a more positive attitude by family, friends and doctors but they simply don’t really know what it feels like do they? I wouldn’t really wish it on anyone but sometimes think that if they could feel what feel even fleetingly what we do, the attitude would change! Hope you ( and I) have a resolution soon.

[dunestar]

I do sympathise with you. I was in a position of being overweight and unfit. I wanted to get fitter but felt I couldn't do it because I got so breathless very quickly. What alerted people to a heart condition was an ECG which showed a slight abnormality. I was then on a track which eventually led to a diagnosis of microvascular angina. I was lucky in that all my diagnostic tests were done at Harefield hospital which is just up the road from where I live.

There's no simple test for microvascular angina and it's often diagnosed on the basis that "it's not x so it's probably y". To get there you need a sympathetic GP and a knowledgeable cardiac consultant who is open to the possibility.

There's a lot of information on the main BHF site about MVA which will come up if you type microvascular angina into the search box. I would go back to my GP armed with this information and ask to be referred to another consultant. You might have to do some research to see if you can find one in your area who has knowledge about the condition. Maybe you could ask others with the condition on this forum. The other option is to go private for a consultation with a specialist MVA expert. They are few and far between though, so you may have to travel, depending on where you live.