ECG abnormality, low blood pressure - have I had a heart attack without knowing?

[AbsentmindedWoman]

I'm worried. Can't get a doctors appointment, have to try to get one when they're posted online at 6pm.

Had a cardiology appointment two weeks ago where the Doctor said there was a bit of irregularity (can't remember exactly) but essentially he was laid back and just referred me for an echocardiogram/ heart ultrasound, and a tilt table test.

My blood pressure was 96/ 55 and pulse was 106, I'd had an episode that morning feeling really bad but was feeling ok again by the time of appointment, just very tired.

I had to wear a 48 hour ecg machine before Christmas - mistakenly, I thought my GP office would have sent results to the cardiologist ahead of the appointment for him to assess, but I called the GP today and nobody has looked at that test.

The cardiology outpatients did their own ecg there and then, and now in the letter that has arrived it mentions 'Q wave inferiority' and 'poor R wave progression' but said maybe it's because of my body composition.

Googling this was a stupid idea but has informed me that the reasons for these abnormalities is a previous heart attack? Can people have them without realising? I'm type 1 diabetic and now feel like I have a timebomb in my chest.

The cardiologist didn't seem worried about anything urgent but I'm now wondering if I have a massively fucked up heart with blocked arteries? I feel scared to run or get out of breath now in case it tips the balance.

Has anyone had experience of similar?

Inferior Q waves means looking from the inferior view, ie looking at the bottom of your heart. It's not saying that they are inferior as in low quality. So you have completely misinterpreted the sentence about "q wave inferiority"!

Please stop Googling. You're not going to get decent results because you don't know the right things to search for, as shown by the previous comment.

LosingLola I totally agree and am not googling but it's really hard when I cant get a doctor's appointment, and there is a disjoin between the info my GP has and the cardiologist.

I just want to have clear knowledge of what it means and it's very frustrating. Like I say, I have type 1 diabetes since childhood, so I know well that I'm at risk of heart problems.

Plus - it does actually say Q wave inferiority which may be a diaphragamtic attentuation - so I don't think it's just the inferior view. It was highlighting it as a point of concern/ irregularity whatever.

What's the bit before and after? It makes much more sense to be a typo (probably for inferiorly) as the diaphragm affects the inferior view. You just would not use the other meaning of inferior when the meaning of "below" is massively understood in this context. It would just be confusing.

Oh - a typo makes things more confusing again

The sentence is "she had a Q wave inferiority which may be diaphragmatic attenuation".

Thanks Lola for replying. I know this is very specialist clinical knowledge and I know I can't figure it out, nor do I expect anyone else here to fully explain, it's just I wish there was a way for me the patient to get a clear picture of what it means.

I thought some other Mumsnetters may have had similar letters, where it just turns out to be a quirk and not a heart attack or anything threatening.