You are in charge of your health!

[MushCreek]

I've been on a 'medical adventure' these last few months. The long and short of it is that I had a heart stent put in, and seem to be recovering well. The real message is that I had to push the doctors to do the necessary testing!

For a couple months, I wasn't feeling quite right. Very mild and vague symptoms, and that was the problem. The nurse at work thought maybe I had afib, and urged me to see my doctor ASAP. My doctor wasn't impressed. I overheard him say to the nurse, "Give him an EKG to CYA." The EKG was normal, and he diagnosed anxiety and prescribed 'happy' pills. I said no, I've been living in this body for 64 years, and something's changed. He finally set me up with a cardiologist. He also wasn't impressed. I wore a monitor, which turned up nothing. He finally agreed to a stress test, just to be sure. I did well on the test, but the video did show a slight abnormality. The cardiologist seemed to be on the fence, but when pushed, he said a heart cath might not be a bad idea. During the test, they found the LAD (the widowmaker) to be 70% blocked, and they put in a stent. Everyone was surprised but me!

I'm in rehab now, and of course, eating all sorts of healthy stuff. I went from 0 pills a day to 5, although I'm already back down to 3. The thing is, I'm in pretty good shape, already eat a fairly healthy diet, my BP is excellent, and my cholesterol is good enough to not need medication until now. There is family history though, which is how I pushed them to keep looking.

If you don't feel right, get it checked out. Persist if the medicos don't. I really, REALLY wanted to ignore this, and the doctors almost succeeded in getting me to do just that. From watching my mother deal with all sorts of issues over the years, I learned that you have to be your own best advocate.

[MountainDon]

Hey Jay, it is good to hear you pushed the doctors for a real diagnosis and a solution to the problem rather than simply taking a pill that would "treat" the doctor's misdiagnosis. Too many "happy" pills are prescribed, IMO. I call them don't give a $hit pills". Good to hear the BP is fine; I do struggle with that, mainly by adjusting my diet, and counting steps/activity level. Cheers!

[Rys]

Glad you insisted! I don't know why doctors don't give a persons intuition more credit.
Wishing you a speedy recovery.