A letter has finally arrived! Trigeminy?!

[BenThom-Wood]

Well, the ECG was on the 8/9 & the letter was dictated on the 30/9. It was then typed on the 5/10 & has arrived today.

Ventricular bigeminy but the letter says trigeminy too?!

Which appears to be an electrical issue with my heart? One consultant is more concerned with the electrical side of cardiology. Might be his bag then?

I think the valve replacement is back in the long grass as the LV regurgitation is around 50%.

[devonian186]

Has the letter and its consequences been explained to you in layman's terms? If not ask your GP for an interpretation and the route forward

[BenThom-Wood in reply to devonian186]

thanks devonian186 , the GP usually defers to the hospital. I mainly use good old Dr Google & my mother. She was going to study Medicine back in the day so she’s a good researcher.

[devonian186 in reply to BenThom-Wood]

Ok, so your mother is hired as our consultant researcher but I'm afraid we can't manage more than £150,000 a year. Hope that's sufficient

On a more serious note some of the letters emanating from consultants are not comprehensible unless you do have a very good grasp of the terms used and their context. It would be good if they were also to be required to do a plain English version alongside the medical one.

[Nadeje in reply to devonian186]

Hi, as well as a written context in plain English it would be very helpful if lot of consultants whose first language isn't English could learn a proper pronunciation! Last week I had a telephone consultation with a cardiologist to whom I've been referred to by my GP. After undergoing AVR in 2020 I was discharged from cardiology a year later...

Having a few problems lately, my GP thought it best if I see a cardiologist. I received a txt with the name and date and time.

Alas! It wasn't the person herself who phoned but someone on her team. This gentleman spoke very fast with strong Indian accent and after having to continuously ask him to repeat what he's saying I got fed up and just kept saying 'hmm, yes...' I actually felt embarrassed having to ask him to repeat.

During the 20 minute 'conversation' I understood about 10 words clearly!

Complete waste of my time! Same happened during my stay in hospital in May this year when I was spoken to by nurses and consultants who I didn't understand.

It's important that the medics convey their information to the patient in clear and understandable way surely.

I'm worried that this will only get worse as the NHS needs to bring more medical staff from abroad. I'm confident they're all experts in their field of the health profession, however, I believe they should try to be understood. I'm sure I'm not the only one having this issue.

[devonian186 in reply to Nadeje]

I sympathise. I find the phone quite difficult sometimes unless it's a good landline to landline, the speakers and receivers on many phones are inadequate. i like to be in front of someone whereby i can concentrate, query and write notes and additional questions.

i think many consultants are the equivalent of a gardener giving a lecture who only wants to talk mostly using Latin names who likes to throw in complex and unfamiliar phrases for landscape features!

It is surely reasonable to expect the very important medical information that needs to be imparted to us is done so in a coherent manner that can be understood

[Visigoth]

Trigeminy and Bigeminy are both forms of ectopic beats. I’ve had loads of both. Are you getting them constantly? Definitely the bag of the cardio who deals with the electrical side of things, so discuss the findings with him.

[BenThom-Wood in reply to Visigoth]

thanks Visigoth , I’m not too sure to be honest if the bi/trigeminy is a constant state. I guess not as I was in a ‘normal’ rhythm & the ectopic one during the ECG. I think that ECG was brought forward a couple of months as they saw something on the monitor which lives under the bed. I suppose the longer the bi/trigeminy goes on the more likely the ICD is to fire eventually? As I’ve maintained since June ‘19, I feel fine generally. I exercise & maintain a fairly healthy diet. In terms of content & volume.

I can do nothing else but keep on going as much as I can & explore my limits.

[Drummer20]

Hi Ben,I’ve been told I was in ventricular bigeminy before.They said it looks frightening to the medical team but isn’t so bad as it seems.I had it once when I had a flu type virus that made me feel very unwell.

I have aortic valve disease which is now severe.I’m waiting for a valve replacement.