I have been diagnosed with micro vascular angina about 3 years ago, I constantly read on peoples post about their communication with their cardiologist etc, how do you get access/referred to one? I just seem to have my repeat prescribed medication on my doctors notes with no regular reviews or any appointments outside of ones that I make. I recently had a struggle to get my GTN soray added to my repeat prescription thanks to covid restrictions visiting doctors, I was told I should be having an annual ecg to have GTN on repeat, which I have never had.
Am I being neglected?
Any advice is appreciated.
Written by
Mr_Spoon
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Very interested to read your post, I feel exactly the same! Prescribed the normal cocktail of pills, suffered lots of horrible side effects, GP doesn’t seem interested, just left to get on with it but too worried to just stop taking the medication. Is this normal just to get on with it, no checks ?
I have lived with Coronary vasospastic angina for over 8 years.
I have spasms in all my blood vessels in my coronary blood vessels.
Microvascular angina and coronary artery spasms.
I am monitored by an Interventional Cardiologist.
Have you ever seen a Cardiologist who has some expertise in caring for patients with Microvascular angina?
Have you had any testing?
It is now possible to test for Microvascular and vasospastic angina during an angiogram.
There has been alot of research into the conditions recently and your GP may not be up to date about these recent developments.
Microvascular angina is a complex condition and you do need to be seen by a Cardiologist for your condition to be monitored and a regular review of your medication.
The BHF website has some information about Microvascular angina.
That's identical to me, I also got a cocktail of meds and it was during an annual hypertension appointment that the blood test came back with 'depleted potassium levels' after I had constantly complained about low energy and regularly falling asleep early evening watching tv , got taken off two meds, water tablets was one thankfully, then left to it after third repeat blood test. Nothing rest of year until recent annual hypertension appointment.
I'm in Scotland, I think the GTN thing may depend on the trust area you live in. My GTN was at first on repeat but I used it so infrequently at the time (the first six months I was on meds to control angina and a few other things) they stopped the repeat and told me I should just ask the chemist for it if I needed another bottle.
I use the GTN spray now quite a lot more often (before exercise, when suspecting a stressful moment, on the occasional pain with exertion that doesn't resolve quickly on its own) and the chemist told me at my last pick-up of repeat meds he thinks I should have it back on the repeat.
No-one said anything about an annual ECG but I am on an annual echocardiogram regime (owing to recurrent pericarditis+a 'trivial' bit of aortic valve scarring) to go along with what my cardiologist calls 'presumed MVA' (the queue for the specialised diagnostic angiogram is now over a year long) and they usually plunk me onto a treadmill for an ECG before the echo.
It was during an angiogram by a cardiologist at that hospital, it was in the report that was forwarded to my doctor but that was only time I have spoken to a cardiologist
I suggest that you ask your GP to refer you to a Cardiologist with some knowledge or interest in caring for patients with Microvascular and vasospastic angina.
It is important to get the correct diagnosis and treatment for these conditions. To help manage your symptoms and prevent any serious long term problems.
It took me sometime to be able to access the Cardiologists I have needed to help me.
The Covid pandemic is casting a very long shadow over us all and effecting everyone's access to Cardiology care.
The BHF also has this information about Covid on those of us living with Microvascular and vasospastic angina ( see the angina section) .
There is the PRIZE trial a study into a possible treatment for Microvascular angina ( I am excluded from the trial as I mainly have vasospastic angina).
At the beginning of the link you'll see the list of centres taking part.
The authors of this article includes UK based Cardiologists who are actively taking part in the research and look after patients with Microvascular and vasospastic.
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