Thanks all
I don't have issues with the Canadian Health System.. sometimes it takes a while. But I love my dr's office.. and sometimes like I said wait times are long.. but it all works out.

I have to be 100% honest.. I was not perfect for a few years.. I did every drug under the sun .. yeah.. my past is far from perfect.. but that was only when I was 16-20.. I straighten my life out after that. I have been smoke free for 4 years now too.. I don't even drink that much.. I do keep thinking about my past over the last few days.. I just need to stop thinking about any of this and just wait to talk to the dr.

Yeah, you probably thought impure thoughts too. Seriously having heart disease at your age is most likely something you were born with. But regardless, once you get a diagnosis go look and see if Dr. Davis on the heartscan blog has some suggestions.

He recently posted about valve calcification issues clearing up with his patients taking large doses of D3 and K2.

Then you can be certain that your lifestyle now ensures that you will be as healthy as can be (probably well into your 90's). You have already made the necessary changes some people never get around to until they are 30 years your senior. And, STILL, even with that past, it is still very unlikely you had any control over this. Hope it all works out - we are pulling for you!

You know what you should do, just stop worrying and do something else. Try out some new recipes, go to a spa, whatever. Just relax and stop letting your mind run around in circles worrying about this. You are gonna be OK. Also, don't blame the butter...butter is never to blame.

Shoulda, coulda, and woulda are not things to think about. The past is the past for a reason. Just chill out.

Candice, I was just looking at your stats. You've done amazing!

As someone who's had a massive heart attack and CABG3 the first thing "they" want you to do is all of the above. I listened to the doctors but also did my own research. And I'm still low carbing.

I hope everything goes well for you at the doctors next week.

I hope things go well for you, and please, don't read anything into the appointment timeline. These specialists are crazy busy and when they have a cancellation, they will fill the appointment with the next person who calls. I think it is more about the timing of when your doctors office called them, nothing more. The same thing happened to me with my urologist (kidney stones!) and when I questioned it, I was told "they just happened to have a cancellation".

So take a deep breath, relax, and be thankful that you have been taking care of yourself so well. I am positive this had a positive impact on everything.

Oh Candice I am so sorry you are experiencing this. I will pray for you.

I found this post because I was looking for a place to post about a statement my MIL made last night about animal fat. Granted anyone that knows her knows she is extremely opinionated and with age she voices those opinions more.

I started lowcarbing Dec 99. I admit I don't always follow strict lowcarb as my weight will reflect. I do eat lots and lots of animal fat. I eat lots of eggs. I eat some cheese. What else is supposivly "unhealthy" for cholestrol?
I am sure that I eat it too. My mother has high cholestrol and has had tons of mini strokes. My brother and sister were both tested to have high cholestrol at a young age. I NEVER had mine tested until i was in my 40's (after having lowcarber for 2 year) and I had it tested again last year, because my very overweight husband with a family history of heart attacks was afraid of what all that "bad" eating was doing to my insides. Well guess what. I did the whole blood profile. The only thing that was high is my HDL yep the good stuff was high my over all was like 165 or something.

How long have you lowcarbed Candice? I am doubting that they way you are currently eating was the sole cause of your surrent health issues. I would imagine it is a combination of many things, but since you do eat lowcarb, everyone is going to point to that as the culprit.

I am assuming you did the research before chosing a lowcarb way of life. You are on these boards so I know you are aware of the contraversy that surrounds it. I am sooooo sorry you are going thru this.
I pray that the health care professionals will give you the best care possible and that they will have the skill and wisdom to find the real reason behind the issues.

God Bless!
Sheila

WeimieMom is probably right. There have been a couple of mentions of the Canadian health care system on this thread. I don't want to get into a debate here, but for all its faults, it is a system that is run, at the patient level, by humans, plenty of whom are extremely compassionate and caring. It's entirely possible that your doctor (who you say you love) may have asked for a consult and said something like "I have this beautiful young mother of a preschooler who's got an abnormal ECG. She's done everything right, has lost a pile of weight, and she exercises. Nothing bad is likely to happen real fast, but she is absolutely sick with worry. Think you could bump her to the top of your cancellation list?"

And while we're at it, don't forget that our Canadian health care system is fine with as many second, third, or whatever opinions you need to cope with whatever is going on. Ask for what you need.

Sending a big {{hug}} your way. You will get through this. Go play with Andrew.

^^^^^^^ This! Syrah, you said that a lot more calmly than I was tempted to - thank you for sparing me an uncalled-for rant. Candice, you have your doctor's opinion, you're about to get a second opinion from a cardiologist. And Syrah is right - if you feel the need for a third opinion or if you're not comfortable for any reason with the cardiologist, ask your doctor to arrange for another cardiologist.

And for heaven's sake, make DH deal with ICBC over the vandalism to your car!

Hi again,

I had to chime in with this one:

REMEMBER THAT HIGH CHOLESTEROL IS NOT AN ILLNESS; IT IS ONLY A "RISK FACTOR"!!!

I think there's some statistic like this: 30% of heart attack victims don't have ANY - yes, that means none - of the "risk factors" for heart attacks. I couldn't swear on the Holy Bible about those numbers but the number is quite big. This goes to show that standard medicine does not know what really causes heart attacks, because, if they did, then everyone who had these risk factors would then be at risk of being killed by a heart attack. Instead, you get plenty of people with normal cholesterol, who exercise and don't smoke etc who have heart attacks, even fatal ones, so, at the end of the day, until the so-called "experts" find out some more convincing "risk factors", we can virtually ignore most of them!!!

Cholesterol, in particular, gets a "bum rap" for not very good reasons. In fact, from my reading on cholesterol over the last few years, low cholesterol seems to be more dangerous than high cholesterol (it causes depression, violent behaviour and even suicides).

The best read on cholesterol, in my humble opinion, is by this bloke (I call him a bloke 'cause he's a fellow Brit), Dr Malcolm Kendrick, who is a cardiologist working in the UK. It is also quite amusing (well, if you like British humour, that is, I know it's not everyone's cup of tea....) and is written - I found - in a way that is not too intimidating for laypersons. If you want to put your mind at rest over cholesterol for ever more, read it!!!

http://www.amazon.com/Great-Cholest...99178720&sr=1-1

From my reading, it appears that stress is a huge factor in heart attacks. Stress, in turn, can be much better dealt with if you have good magnesium levels, which many in the modern world do not have. It seems far more likely that a very influential factor in heart problems is not cholesterol, but magnesium deficiency. I read about this in this book:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_n...actor&x=13&y=14

and this one:

http://www.amazon.com/Magnesium-Mir...99178894&sr=1-2

Your dizziness and chest pains could also be related to magnesium, although there are lots of reasons for dizziness, of course, the other one I know of being low vitamin B12. Will they test you for B12? Maybe you could suggest it?

All the best, hope this is not overload here...

amanda

I heart magnesium :-)

posted in my journal.. reposting here..

I went in for blood work today.. turns out dh could take me.. took the day off.. long story story.. we were in ER for 6.5 hours last night WAITING to see a dr.. left with out.. sucked to say the least. We were sitting watching Idol.. I was not feeling great. took my bp and it was 164/98.. really high for me! I was feeling dizzy.. chest pains.. so we decided to go to er.. big mistake. First thing they did was get my info wrong.. UMM how can that happen? I have no idea. IT IS PRINTED THERE THERE ON MY CARE CARD! The second thing was after they figured out my info was wrong.. they took an hour after calling me back to do blood to come back again, their excuse they had to print new labels.. UMM 1 hour!? They take my blood.. then have me go back to waiting room.. then call me back like 1/2 hour later.. take my blood again and do ekg.. I asked why they are taking my blood again.. she says Again? I said yes again, they just took it 1/2 hour ago.. she giggle and says Oh well I guess we took it twice.. Yeah funny right? The place was fility dirty.. I mean I kept freaking out ever time Andy touch the floor it was so dirty. And again the whole thing with the nurse telling us to keep our child quite.. yeah after 5 hours in waiting room then 1.5 hours after finally making to the bad to a bed.. andrew had had enough.. he was exhausted.. we were all tired.. he was crying a bit.. she came in and told us that we had two options.. to some how get our child to quite down.. because after all this is a hospital and people are sleeping.. or we needed to leave.... Also when we were waiting the nurse told us that we will be seen as soon as a bed come available.. and that their were 5 dr's on.. and that I was next.. an that I was priority.. yeah.. 6 1/2 hours later I end up leaving with no help.. We get back there and when the nurse asked up to keep our child quite she had mentioned there was only 1 dr and that it would take a WHILE longer.. B kinda went off.. he said what do you mean there is only one dr? The nurse in the front told us there were 5! If we would of know that we were waiting for 1 dr.. we would of left hours ago.. we were waiting because we were told there were actually dr on right now. She looks at us and simply say there is never 5 dr's on and kinda insulated(sp?) we were making it up that the nurse said it.. *sigh* I have to be honest this was the FIRST time I have been to Frasier Health Hospital and I was 1000000000000% UNHAPPY.
i am happy with MY dr though. She is so positive and helpful. Her positivity did brighten my day! She threw out that possibly the heart problems are in the past.. that maybe the pains I am now having are ones in which my heart is strengthening.. getting strong from proper eating and exercise. I love she said that, made me look at the positive now. She said that the cardiologist will get down to the bottom of it!

WTF?!

I've had experiences like that before. It's ridiculous. You wait. And wait. And wait. They keep telling you a few more minutes...and 2 hours later they're looking at you like you need a sedative because you're ready to scream!

What was the upshot with the blood work from the hospital? Or did they just never bother to tell you?

NEVER bothered to tell me anything.. I never got to talk to a nurse.. nor a dr..

Yes, Candice, unfortunately "emerge" is the absolute worst feature of the Canadian health care system. I have just spent most of my day working on a complaint with our local hospital. I am determined to be heard. I figure I'm doing my bit to improve that part of the system. And it does need improvement.
Sorry you had such a rotten time. Did you call your doc's office today and tell them? They can find out the results of the bloodwork, and advise you further.