I actually went in to see my dr.. they fit me in her schedule today.. She ordered a few more tests.. and said if she needed to call me with results it would be by end of day. I signed a consent for them to get all records from hospital.. but she said that takes day.. yeah you can figure that much eh!

You've got patience! I woulda been out of there after 2 hours. It's awesome that you've got a primary care physician because I have heard of people who didn't and the waiting list is crazy-long to get one. So the people without a PC physician end up in the emergency room and have to go through that kind of ordeal each time. What I said might be inaccurate but that's what I remember hearing.

I hope you will hear good news about your heart. I hope you feel better soon.

That's pretty much the situation right now. Our tax dollars subsidize the training of our doctors, then they get ready to practice and they succumb to the lure of higher pay and less hours in the US. I think they should have to pay back the subsidies, but ...

Anyhow, the logical alternative for people without a family doc is to go to one of the zillion walk-in clinics, but too many seem to believe they would get sub-standard care at a clinic so they opt to overcrowd the ERs with kids with sniffles. Luckily, most ERs have an effective triage system so anyone presenting with life-threatening situations is taken quickly and the kid with the scraped knee has to wait. From what I've heard, and my own experiences here in Victoria, Candice's experience is the horrendous exception rather than the rule.

Wow, Glenda, that's news to me. As an American, I agree they should reimburse the taxpayers...

What a horrendous experience. Anyway, I'm glad you have a reassuring primary care doc, Candice.

..Long night. I had not been feeling well from like 4pm.. when dh got home around 5 I was having sharper pains in my chest, lightheaded/dizzy blood pressure/pulse was low when this episode first started I don't remember exact blood pressure but pulse was 50(dr said that it sounded like when a heart tries to slow down to protest it's self..) then after a little bit my blood pressure was sky rocket high again, the pressure in my head was BAD.. we got to my dr and they went over my blood work and new ekg.. .at this time my blood pressure was like 169/102said there were 'heart irregularities' as well as HIGH cholesterol. He was not comfortable we me there in the office and called an ambulance for me to go to ER. I get to ER.. wait.. and wait.. and wait.. then finally do new Ekg, blood work, chest xray.. then wait some more.. got to er around 5:45.. got home at like 3am.. it was a long time.. Dr just sent me home saying He did not know what the problem is.. he just does not know BUT he can tell me it's not life threatening..I'm not having a heart attack..and I'm not dieing.. He said that all the blood work they did was fine.. urine fine.. chest xray fine.. he thinks my ekgs are NORMAL, says there are 'irregularities' but he sees irregular heart beats in healthy people. I really don't know what to say that to because I don't feel well.. we left with no answers only tired and more confused

And now DH is back to to the whole yelling at me over DIET.. Atkins.. saying this diet is killing me.. I really don't know what to do.. :'(

I forgot to tell them that my mom has irregular heart beats/issues/chest pains.. BUT she does not go to dr as she has no insurance.. so last I talked to her I know she did not really see a dr over it.. I have not talked to my mom in over a year.. I'm torn.. our relationship is not good.. I don't want to call.. but at the same time.. I'm thinking we have the same problem.. I will just wait to see what cardiologist says and go from there.. I WILL remember to tell them about my moms issues!

Candice,

I'm sorry your going through all this.

Hugs to you.

Have you seen the documentary Fathead? I just watched it this am but it is very eye opening about how good fat is NOT the culprit in a high cholesterol/heart attack health issue!

I hope you get a firm diagnosis soon

A few years ago I suddenly got major chest pains, so bad I couldn't really move. Felt like someone was jumping up and down on my chest. I just wanted to lay still until it passed. and it would pass. I never got clamy so my husband ruled out heart attack, but the pain was that severe. Next day (saturday) went to see Dr at his house. he saw me in his kitchen. (that was funnny) It was so bad that my chest pains were terrible. Local Dr ruled out heart for a few reasons but I did a stress test just the same and all was good. Put me on Prevacid. wow that took care of my pains.
I am one that hates to be on meds but I took them daily. All was good, if I would forget them my pains would remind me.

and to go a bit further. due to mood swings I got off my birthcontrol pill and guess what? I was able to get off the prevacid.
I know this may not be anything like you are dealing with but I just had to share on the off chance it is.

Hope dr's get to the bottom of your problem soon. You are in my prayers.

just a copy paste from my journal..

No see that is the thing, I really am not stressed.. freak or not.. even ask Ashley, she was over here today... I mean it is a lot going on in my life.. but it's always something, just seems like a little extra something right now
Oh and on the racing pulse, I never had a racing pulse..
beginning of episode, it would be really low blood pressure like 90-105/59-69 pulse 50-52 when the pains are strong blood pressure was like 158-170/99-105 pulse 69-75 ..

I posted this on a ladies health group on fb I go to.. thought I'd post here.. I feel after hardly any sleep I did not word what I wrote completely right not telling the whole story..
they were asking like exactly what the dr said because it seemed like by what I wrote that he said nothing was wrong..


his words pretty much exactly was something like..

Well good news you are not dying.. you are NOT having a heart attack atm.. you don't have a collapsed lung.. all your blood work looks fine as well as urine. I'm in the business here in the ER we are here find out if you are in danger of dieing or have life threatening illness... I do not see that looking at your work up. So feel You need to go see the cardiologist on the 9th to do a more extensive work up to check for others things.. This can be anything from a nerve to possibly something to do with your ephosoghis(don't know how to spell).. Really it can be anything..I just don't know though.. I just don't know what is causing This. Like I said you are not in danger of dieing so feel you are better to keep following up with a specialist and your gp.

dh then asked.. well what about previous ekg.. our dr said it was irregular.. that there was possible heart attack.

He answered, well it is an irregular heart beat/rhythm.. but we see that all the time in a healthy heart so again you are not dieing or in danger of doing so the ER is not the place for you. you need to just see the cardiologist on the 9th and do more tests. On that note I'm discharging you.



And like I posted before .. I know my mom had issues.. I totally forgot to let dr know.. I actually did not think of it till our car ride home last night. I have not talked to my mom in a really long time .. she did not have insurance for many years so never saw a dr about it.. But the more I think about.. as she got insurance towards the end of me keeping in touch with her I remember maybe something about her finally getting tests..but I just can't for the life of me remember if anything was ever told to me about if she had any test results.
I'm just going to wait to see dr on the 9th and go for there..



Oh and I tried to call MY dr today to get my actual cholesterol numbers but they closed at 2pm on the weekend so they were not in when I called.. will try again tomorrow

Hi Candice,

I am so sorry to hear that you are still having these frightening episodes.

Some thoughts:

The low blood pressure, dizziness, irregular heart beats could be magnesium deficiency/adrenal fatigue. It is possible to test for low adrenal function, but difficult to test magnesium levels accurately. Potassium is also needed for heart beat regulation.

Do you have any other typical symptoms which could be related to magnesium deficiency, such as getting calf cramps in the night?

Low blood pressure and chest pains could be related to low B12. Have they tested that? Chest pains can be caused by anaemia, which would be either low B12 or low iron.

I had chest pains with exertion (and sometimes without) for a while, felt out of breath after very little exercise or walking uphill or upstairs, generally fatigued and so on. This sounded to me like I had anaemia and, sure enough, my B12 was low (although not by the standards normally used). After I got this blood work, I started taking sublingual methylcobalamin (a well-absorbed form of B12) and, lo and behold, my symptoms (which were varied) started to go. I no longer have the chest pains, either.

I have been taking magnesium glycinate and B12 for some time now and the difference in my symptoms is unbelievable!!! If you find out, or think, that low magnesium and/or low B12 could be causing your problems, then let me know and I'll post some links to information I found and products I have used.

When you get your blood work results back, can you post them here? With the lab reference ranges, too? There are a few people here who could help analyse the numbers for you - I am familiar with a few (B12, for example), but not all.

And, last but not least, low B12 and low magnesium (as well as low everything else) could be related to some kind of absorption problem, such as gluten intolerance (although I guess as an LCer you don't eat much in the way of grains), low stomach acid or bacterial overgrowth, to name but a few.

Just a few thoughts, hope this is not information overload, but it is so distressing to hear of all the things you have been going through, I was just wanting to offer a few pointers to give you a couple of directions you could look in for causes of these problems.

All the best,

amanda

amanda, I will call my dr today to see if I can get some numbers.

I was just going to ask if you were taking magnesium supplements. I take 330 mg./day.

Also, how about your potassium? We use Morton's Lite Salt because it's half potassium.

It could be worth a try.

total 6.26
triglycerides 0.55
ldl 3.72
hdl 2.29
range 2-5.19
2.73 hdl risk
(she said under 5 is good)


5.1 fasting glucose..(which is good too)