Advice Please

[Labrador2024]

Hello everyone I'm looking for some advice as getting nowhere with the G.P. So here goes. I'm a 40 year old man who had a heart attack and has been diagnosed with ( High blood pressure 159 / 90 )

( High cholesterol 6.3 )

( Mild heart disease )

( Long segment of non-calcified atheroma from the ostium to mid lad )

( Moderate 50% Stenosis in the proximal lad and mid lad just beyond d1 ostium )

( Premature ventricular ectopic beats )

( ventricular Arrhythmia )

( mildly impaired left ventricular systolic function low )

( Hypokinesia of the anterior mid

to base )

(Dyskinesia reduced heart muscle movement

( myocardial infraction pervious heart attack )

( Heart failure )

I'm on medication and have to take 7 different tablets every day.

I'm still having shortness of breath feeling extremely tired alongside other symptoms.

But the Hospital has said there no plans to do anything. And I'm getting nowhere with the G.P.

Has anyone ever been in the same situation I'm so confused.

Any advice is greatly appreciated 🙏.

[DodgyTickerMum]

Hi, so sorry to hear you’ve been through this. My advice (if you’re able), would be to see a Cardiologist who works out of the hospital you are under - privately. Even if it’s just for an initial consultation - (usually around £250 + a current E.C.G), they could then explain all of the above results to you, tweak your medication, suggest a further treatment plan and still oversee your care if you then refer back to the N.H.S. You then have a point of contact, for any further concerns or queries that may arise in the future.

You can generally self refer as a Cardiology patient and wouldn’t necessarily need to go back to your G.P.

If going down this route isn’t an option, do you have a Cardiac Rehab Nurse? Could they possibly help guide you through this? There are also B.H.F Nurses on this site who may also be able to offer support too. I hope you get something sorted.

[roughquest in reply to DodgyTickerMum]

This. I’ve done the exact same thing with a private/nhs cardiologist.

[Lowerfield_no_more]

If you are getting nowhere with your GP you are entitled to ask for a second opinion. Whether you get one is probably down to the strength of your case, and since your cardio specialists are saying no further action is currently necessary your position is weakened. However you get nowt without asking, but if that fails you can go down the private medical route but that will cost you. A single consultations costs about £250 as Dodgytickermum has said, but anything else on top of that you have to pay for.

[JCDBARBRIDGE]

I would be tempted to ask for a full health review and start by requesting this in writing clearly stating your concerns and desired outcomes. I say this as it was advice given to me by a nurse at the practice I attend. The GP is obliged to respond and by making your request formal you have the beginnings of an audit trail. Harsh I know but it seems you have exhausted your approach and need to try something which will provoke a response. .Frankly it’s your health and you have to do what you need to do in order to be able to move forward

[UTFT9]

Hello mate I hope your doing ok... if your feeling like your not being listened to then request to see another GP and express your concerns to them and then ask to be referred to a different cardiologist and express your concerns to them also... write everything down that has been said to you and underneath each and everything that has been said to you write down your response and how you fell about it and any questions... I know this may well sound a bit too much but it took me a 3rd opinion with a 3rd cardiologist before I got someone who actually cared to listen to my concerns and someone who took the time to explain exactly what was going on with me and eventually that 3rd cardiologist referred me to a 4th cardiologist who specialised in exactly what was a miss with me.

sounds like your going through it but try and stay strong and be confident in approaching a new GP or even your current one in explaining your concerns and how they are making you feel... your entitled to question anything regarding your health and you can politely request further investigations because after all its your life and health at the end of the day so you want what's best for you!

take care mate all the best.

don't be afraid to question something you feel isn't right, don't be afraid to tell the GP or cardiologist your feelings and how it's impacting you that you feel no one is listening or helping, be confident and stay positive 👍🏻

[Displacedheart]

Hi I'm 36 year old women with low ejection fraction, 3 regurgitating heart valves, bradycardia and cardiac luxation. My doctors hid my findings, gave me no access to any treatment kept telling me it's my mental health so like you I'm confused. But what I have learnt is to advocate for myself, if you believe there is a treatment that you should have you should do research and write a complaint, like essay supported by evidence, of your conditions and treatments out there, if ur local hospital are not giving you this best carr you can research heart hospitals and asked to be referred to them for second opinion on treatment and quality of life, i think when u get seriously poorly is when u realise the change in the nhs,,.. when u realise the lack of humanity in it. None of my symptoms have ever been taken seriously and if like me u have suffered for a long time they seem to not acknowledge the severity in how poorly u feel. Ask for second opinion what hospital have you been working wiyh ? Sorry to hear of your symptoms awful arent they

[devonian186]

The fact that no surgical treatment has been suggested hopefully means they think your condition is capable of being treated by medication at this stage, so that sounds positive but for peace of mind the second opinion sounds a good opinion.

You say nothing about whether you smoke, drink, get enough exercise, have a good diet or are the correct weight. These are all big factors, any of which could contribute to your breathlessness.

Its also getting to peak pollen season and with high humidity in recent months they could cause breathlessness either through asthma or hay fever.

[Heart75]

I also had a heart attack age 49 in March of this year and my experience of the cardiac nurses was they left me more confused . I called Bart’s hospital spoke to my cardiologist secretary and got his email address and emailed him he called me and explained. Since then I too am getting short of breath and have a cough and am waiting to hear back.

[Craig53]

You could always get a second opinion if you see a different doctor some are only interested in the money has with alot of things today and if you get worse call a paramedic to check you out they often no more than doctors and ask then for advise lve had 2 heart attacks and didn't no but things got really bad .lve just had heart surgery after over 5 years suffering 2 valves replacements still get out of breath now but had to stop smoking all the best

[Jedi14]

You have been seen by doctors, and you have been prescribed medications! It sound like your condition has been seen to and it is up to you, to monitor the effects of these medications i.e. how well are they working are you in pain etc.

If you are getting chest pains, that will be the queue for further investigations immediately by your GP, who will then, immediately refer you to hospital. Breathlessness is common for us hearty people at various stages and will fade in time, worrying about it too much, at this stage, does'nt help.

[Alicant]

how did you find out about all that..all I found was Heart Failure and AF …nothing else

[Alfie33]

Hi I was 58 when I add my heart attack which included 2 cardiac arrests on the operating table while they was fitting a stent. Now they have diagnosed me with ischeamic heart disease which makes me extremely breathless and tired all the time, they also said I have mild chronic animea. The say my heart is damaged and not working at 100% and there is nothing the can be done ,I just have to live with it and will get worse which it is . I had to pester the doctors until they explained this

[pete109]

Two years ago I too was getting nowhere with my GP surgery, discharged by my hospital cardiologist, no further intervention needed, so I wrote a letter addressed to Doctors, I never know which one I’ll see, name, NHS number etc at the top and explained that I knew there was something wrong, listed symptoms and said that I’m open to further tests, many scans later urgent call on a Sunday morning from the cardiologist, booked in the next week for a couple of stents, 6 months later two more.

A letter seems more effective than a face to face, for one thing I normally forget to ask questions that I’d previously thought of and perhaps they can’t ignore a letter as it goes on file, but it worked for me, hasn’t solved my original problem of rapidly spiking BP for no reason, but avoided the inevitable big bang which I would obviously be getting sometime soon.

[Jack2019]

I can offer you this advice, it is my thoughts based on what I have learned in my personal journey with heart disease. The leading cause of heart disease in young people are smoking and type 2 diabetes. Smoking is a no brainerd, type 2 can be managed by cutting out all junk food and high calorie drinks. Eat 3 well rounded meals, that include the 3 macro nutrients, protein, fats and vegetables. Exercise only needs to be walking and some weight bearing exercise, it is not necessary to join a gym if not your thing. Medication can manage symptoms but most of them, especially statins, clearly state that they MAY reduce your risk of further events but only work along with diet and exercise. Your GP will hand out the drugs and rehab will councel you on diet and exercise. Other than that you will be left to get on with it.

[polenta]

Depending on when you were started on the medication, you will feel very tired and yes sometimes out of breath until you get use to them. If you look at some of the side effects of the medication Drs give for HF/BP, you will see that they can cause SOB. As you start to get use to them and your heart starts getting stronger, you will start feeling better and not so winded. If after a few months you dont start feeling better, talk to your GP/Cardiologist about maybe swtching up your meds. Hope that you can start feeling better soon, take care.

[JAVA12]

My husband was having shortness of breath and mentioned it at numerous GP appointments and was told various things like try box breathing, you have cardiac neurosis. Eventually we wrote an email to the cardiologist (via his secretary) and stated that it was affecting his quality of life (which it was). But I think these key words triggered a response. He got a cancellation appointment and the cardiologist took him off Ticagrelor (side effect breathlessness) and was put on Copidogrel. His breathlessness improved almost straight away although it also got massively better when another cardiologist (he was admitted a month later to a different hospital with suspected second HA - it wasn't btw) stopped his Bisoprolol as his heart rate was getting quite low. I hope you get some satisfactory response soon. It is very disheartening when you feel none of the doctors will listen to you.