Possible Afib but i feel abandoned by my GP

[Anni_]

Hey all, back in march this year i went to A&E with heart palpitations, never experienced anything like this before, but they sent me home after doing no tests at all, a month later i went back again for the same thing, this time they did an ECG and said it looked like i had an arrhythmia, then sent me home and referred me back to my GP

fast forward to september my GP had me do a 24 hour ECG and sent the results to cardio

however, thats where it stopped, i've not heard anything since early september, and when i've asked my GP she's just told me they've not got back to her yet

does anyone know what i could do or who i should talk to at this point? i feel abandoned at this point and i'm just trying to deal with the discomfort, but it's really hurting my mental health trying to just deal with it

thank you in advance for any replies

28 year old transgirl that feels scared and alone

[PadThaiNoodles]

Ring the secretary at the cardiologist’s and ask if they got the ECG results. That might get things “unstuck”.

But you are not alone. There are a bunch of us “hearties” here who have been through similar stuff, Hang in there.

[Lowerfield_no_more]

As above, ring one of the medical secretaries at the cardio dept of where your ECG test data was sent and go from there. I would find it very unsatisfactory that your GP surgery could not chase up the results given it's three months that they sent the data. It's their job to chase results and reports not yours, especially since they have more clout than you do. But if you get nowhere with the medical secretary I would go back to the GP and get them to sort it out and keep on at them, since they are currently responsible for your care on the understanding that you have not been referred on to the hospital cardio team, at least not for the time being. Hope you get sorted.

[Anni_]

thank you so much for the replies and advice ❤️

i'll try ringing my GP tomorrow and see where they sent results, and i'm sorry if it was a silly question, i'm new to all of this and had no idea what to do or who to talk to, so far it's just felt like i just need to deal with it and hope it doesn't get worse, even A&E didn't give me any advice on how to make it more bearable or tell me what i might expect to feel, so when it happens it catches me completely off guard and i end up panicking

[Asteroids in reply to Anni_]

No such thing as a ”silly question“ on this forum. We’ve all been through something similar to you. I agree that you should chase the cardiology department if you can.

I had a mitral valve repair 6 years ago. After an Echocardiogram, I got a routine appointment scheduled for about 3 months ahead. This was suddenly brought forward, after a cardiologist looked at the results. If your problem is urgent, I would expect something similar to happen for you. However, don’t rely on that - chase the results now.

One thing to note is that cardiologists are snowed under since the pandemic, because Covid has affected hearts so much, even in mild cases.

[TaffinSussex in reply to Anni_]

You could try ringing 111 for advice. I was referred to A&E by the doctor in the hub as was getting nowhere with my GP and A&E. I actually went to a different hospital's A&E in the end and they sorted me out whereas the first didn't. In fact I had a full blown stroke whilst in the first hospital and the doctor told me I hadn't even had a TIA! 2 days later I was seen in a different hospital as I refused to return to first and within 20 mins of being in there, I was diagnosed as having had a stroke and several TIA's and admitted to the stroke ward. That had been arranged via 111...my GP has since apologised but the damage has been done and is irreversible. 😵‍💫 All I can do now is manage it by being diligent and patient with my own care and yet not being obsessed with it either. Balance is the key...when you find it that is. Good luck, keep us posted.

[Hidden]

I think the GP could at least have said she would chase it up, its more than likely a report is somewhere in the system. I had a routine 24hr ecg recently, and a couple of weeks ago I was sat on my own in the cardiologist's clinic and there on the desk in front of me was the ecg report from the technician - it was surprisingly detailed, more than just a page even though they found nothing wrong. It's causing you a lot of anxiety, your GP should be chasing this