Feeling Let Down and Left In Limbo

[dfkl]

Eventually went for a CT Scan on 8 February after spending a day in CDU on 3 February with severe chest pain. Now received a letter from a consultant that I have never even spoken to that he is happy with the scan and I am being sent back to my GP. I was referred in November and have never actually spoken to or seen a consultant. I was seen by an Advanced Nurse Practitioner on my first consultation and that was it, since then if I needed any follow up I had to call the hospital to get an update, and today after trying for days to speak to someone I eventually spoke to the same Nurse and was basically told to take paracetamol for the constant pain in my chest and that is all they can suggest. I am to stay on all the other medication but they have no idea what is causing the pain in my chest..really feels like I have just been left in limbo and I am none the wiser. I still get tired when walking or even doing the lightest bit of work. I get the feeling that the consultants cannot be bothered to actually see a person or investigate what is going on. I know the NHS is under lots of pressure with Covid-19 but if you are going to take the time to write a non-committal letter not explaining anything at least have the decency to do a proper consultation and explain what is going on. The only thing I can take away from this is that consultants think they are better than me and with the degrees they have they do not need to talk to me or explain their findings to me. I am losing complete faith in the NHS. My GP’s have not been much better and now this letter ending with “if he continues to experience any chest pain or cardiac symptoms please feel free to refer him back to our cardiology clinic” I feel like this is a game to them just shoving me around

[SecondOHS]

If you're unhappy with the treatment, then personally, I would be going back to the GP and explaining that you're still getting pain in the chest which needs resolution.

Apologies, but I think you're drawing a long bow with the "better than me" interpretation. As you said, you don't know him, and he doesn't know you. He doesn't know that you're not more educated than him (say, in a different field). Unless you listed your qualifications during admittance, I don't believe that this is relevant.

So, a CT scan, as I'm sure you know, is just a tool to do a job. It allows the cardiologist to see your heart, and check for causes of pain. I'm sure in your professional life, you use tools to achieve certain things. Now, I read from the letter "I used the tool that would give me an indication of the source of pain. Using this tool, I didn't see anything to indicate a cause. But, if the pain is still there, we might need to use other tools in the cardiologist toolbox to investigate further". A lot of these letters have standard'ish wording.

I hope your symptoms subside or you're able to find the root cause of your pain

[QuadroVEINia]

Sorry to hear of your situation. If you are still experiencing ‘severe’ chest pain you need to go direct to A&E and tell them as much. They will have to act and investigate, your previous CT scan results will be on their system. Clinical staff are not infallible, they can and do get it wrong and CT scans in my experience can also prove inconclusive, the only difference in my case was a cardiologist who wanted to investigate further and I recently ended up having major open heart surgery as a result. I know how stressful this can be and NHS care can be a bit inconsistent but if you are not happy you have to persist. Good luck.

[helixhelix]

In some ways isn’t this is good news that the CT scan didn’t show up major problems with your heart? Bad that they have not answered or explained things, but still a step forward.

I looked at your previous posts and you were expecting to get a stent, so did this not happen at all? So the CT has shown that your arteries aren’t blocked...

Sounds like you need to have a firm conversation with your GP to tell them that you need help to find out the cause of this pain and the best way of managing it as it is affecting you badly. Keep pushing...

[fit4walks]

Hi,

I hear your frustration and I completely understand. I am not a doctor, but I find it strange that they haven't referred you for an angiogram. In my experience non of the tests they did on me showed any abnormalities apart from the angiogram.

I have to say that I had to press for this with my GP, because of my abnormally high risk for heart disease due to family history. The angiogram showed 5 blockages and I had an urgent quadruple bypass 4 weeks later.

In this neck of the woods, I was referred to a chest clinic first and luckily the cardiologist agreed to an angiogram. But I do recall that another cardiologist, just days before my operation, insisted that my pains were related to gastroenteritis.

(Women experience heart failure more in the stomach area....I guess this cardiologist hadn't read up on female heart problems).

Keep pressing, it's your body and you know it isn't right.

Good luck!

[dfkl]

Thank you for all your comments and yes I was having a go at the consultant – in my professional life if I send a letter/report to a client I follow it up with a telephone call/site visit to ensure my client understands what is going on and why we have drawn certain conclusions. I don’t leave it to them to try and interpret things for themselves and then get things wrong – in my case letter received no explanations given. I was supposed to have an Angiogram on 22 December, this was cancelled by telephone 4 days before and there was no follow up from the hospital until I was admitted with chest pain.

I will follow it up with my GP in the coming week, but again that is going to be another battle to fight, won’t get an appointment with them for 2 weeks at least and I will keep hassling the consultant – fighting this on 2 fronts. With my family history this is still terrifying, having lost 2 brothers and a number of cousins to heart problems..but again this is not even taken into account or completely disregarded. In none of the correspondence is this even mentioned. I will push on and if I have to make a nuisance of myself I will

[Milkfairy Heart Star in reply to dfkl]

Hi dfkl

I have lived with a less common often overlooked type of angina for nearly 9 years. I end up being admitted to hospital about once a year with unstable angina.

It can take time to get a diagnosis and you do need at times have to be persistent. I found it very helpful to know why I was having my symptoms.

My angina is managed with medication which can be as effective as stents or surgery in some cases.

Here's some information.

medscape.com/viewarticle/92...

Along with the usual heart healthy advice one of the most important things I need to do is manage my stress and the cold.

In the meantime perhaps keep a diary of your symptoms, see if you can spot any trends or triggers.

Ring 111 if you have chest pain that is not eased with several sprays of GTN five minutes apart.

Advanced Nurse Practitioners are usually knowledgeable professionals who work with their medical colleagues. Nurses often teach and guide more junior members of the medical staff.

Their knowledge or care is not second rate in anyway.

Good luck.

I hope you feel more at ease soon

[Babpak11111 in reply to dfkl]

Somehow you will find the oomph to keeping battling.. When it's our health at stake it does make that very difficult to keep doing. I had a heart attack exactly a year ago today. I see doctors very regularly as have on going infusions for on going illness. I did mention my swelling legs out of breath and tiredness for a long time. Think I had a chest xray at some stage but that was okay. Left with some heart damage as didn't phone an ambulance and was 4 days till l saw a doctor. Loathe to bother the doctors at the time. But I did actually think I'd had a heart attack. That's how you get in the end with battling it gets to the point when you just can't face it. Moral of my story is. There's only you who can. Reading a previous post about who went to a see a private consultant would that be an option? As situation with hospitals dealing with the pandemic might just make things clearer and move things along for you. Good luck and never give up.

[Hidden]

I do think there is an amount of us patients getting the 'brush off' . From experience I have little faith in GP's, but I sympathise with them as overworked. I feel my GP has no idea who I am, despite me having had more telephone appointments with her and her supporting practice nurses in the last month than over my whole life!So I think dfkl you do have to manage your own health and symptoms by insisting you get investigated.

My son in law went to see his GP with a cough and chest pain, got the brush off, insisted he had an x-ray, ended up with major surgery then chemotherapy. Fortunately a happy ending.

[Hidden]

You have to fight your corner with the NHS. They firstly have targets to meet that can limit what they do - for example the target to turn people around in 4 hours if they turn up at A&E. My wife just had a totally unsatisfactory experience and was caught up in the GP versus Hospital politics that is also unfortunately far too common.

As stated, go back to your GP. Make no apology for your persistence - it is your health at stake. Covid or no Covid - makes no difference to what they should do and how you as a patient should be treated!

[Boxroad]

It sounds like you have been though it, did the scan come back os normal? I had blood taken first to see if I had had a heart attack, then a chest ex ray followed up by a ct scan of my heart then a scan of my thorax, I am booked into the Essex cardiac centre in three weeks but I still have not seen a doctor since I was seen in Colchester A&E with suspected heart attack, I was given antibiotics for a chest infection, when it still hurt I called my GP who put the cardiac team at Colchester on to me, we had a phone chat about my symptoms and they sent me for a ct scan, the scan showed blocked arteries 70%+ I will be seeing my first doctor when I go into the ECC at Basildon. I am sorry you feel let down, if your chest still hurt go to A&E tell them you need help