Support thread for those awaiting (and undergoing and recovering from) medical appointments,tests and surgery: PART TWO

[BreastmilkDoesAFabLatte]

This is a continuation of this thread, started a few months back by ohyouBadBadkitten as "a thread for you to vent in or post your 'hooray's'". Everyone is welcome, regardless of the nature or duration of their illnesses and whether or not they have a diagnosis. The last thread dealt with a real diversity of long-term and acute conditions, as well as many of the mental health challenges and fertility questions commonly associated with them.

We should probably add the standard sort of disclaimer about not necessarily being qualified or insured to offer proper medical advice, which means that if your symptoms start to sound a bit scary you'll get a few of us rather assertively shoving you in the direction of your local A&E department. As madsometimes puts it, "A&E for Mumsnetters would have Boden medical gowns, Farrow & Ball paint schemes and fruit shoot free vending machines selling organic elderflower presse. Pinot Grigio would be dispensed at wine o'clock. There would be public information posters warning about the dangers of googling Dragon Butter... the injuries resulting from Friday night threads would be quite horrific." However, we all know the reality of medical emeregncies to be signifiantly more stresfull than that, so if it's not life-threaningly urgent, we'll hold your hand and chat and support and speculate on the basis of the reasonably half-informed knowledge gained by our own life experiences.

Welcome. The kettle is on...

Still mad, I do hope you don't need to outrun a psychopathic axe murderer. I am pleased for you, though... and surprised too: I'd have expected that the pacemaker would have been doing more towards mitigating the effects of the flutter.

ISWM I'm sorry too about the wait. But if you're being told to expect a 6-8 week wait, it sounds very unlikely that it's your heart causing auch breathlesness. Having said that, though, if you do feel any worse, do go back to your GP...

Hi everyone,
Hopefully the reason this thread has gone quiet is that everyone is enjoying the lovely weather.

I'm annoyed. When I saw my cardiologist a few weeks ago, we discussed that I was a little anaemic and I said that I felt I needed a boost. She said steer clear of high dose iron because it is constipating, and maybe take a multivitamin/mineral. I queried the vit K content, and she thought the effect would be neglible. So I went to the pharmacy and thought I would double check with the pharmacist, because I was . I said I was on warfarin, and he handed me centrum saying it would be suitable. It contains 40% rda vit k, so I was skeptical, but took it.

Needless to say, my INR dropped, and the warfarin clinic have upped my dose by 11% and told me to stop the centrum. They clearly have me down as right numpty . I'm not as worried by my low INR as I would have been previously, because I'm not in flutter and it can only have been low for a few days. I'm more annoyed that I got dodgy advice, and think that my new dosing is going to make me overshoot.

mads i am glad you are feeling better, and can outrun that axe murderer that we all have on our streets . on your behalf at the bad advice. It really drives me mad that people that are trained for years and paid a lot of money can't get this right. It is not like you are talking about a little known about drug, there are lots of people on warfarin, and I am sure it is not completely uncommon in the medical world to come across people who need to take iron, you would think they would know if commercial supplements such as centurin can be taken . I remember being given inconsisten advice about vit A when I was pg with DS. I had severe HG, and could not hold anything down. I asked doc and HV if I could take build-up drinks to get some vitamins, they said yes, as I was not eating anything at all, not likely to get too much vit A. Health visitor also told me to eat whatever I could, including macdonalds milkshakes if I fancied them as they are like 2000calories a pop . the pharmacist refused to sell me the build-up drinks as they had vit A in them, and I was not 'allowed' this. She told me that what I needed to be eating was a 'well balanced healthy diet' i was furious and promptly went and ate a cheese burger and thickshake, as a non-meat eater and it stayed down probably still there. and in your case, it is actually life threatening to get it wrong.

iswm hope you dont have to wait as long as 6wks for your appt but agree it cant be too concerning if the wait is this long. but that is not helpful when you know something is wrong and you have no answers.

and sorry again for not posting for so long, I have lurked though and thought of you. Been down and in pain. will post again later, got to go get some meds advice.

Hello, everyone enjoying the nice weather?

My echo appointment came through for 4the September which I'm not happy about, but it apparently can't be done any sooner. So I have the whole of the summer holidays not able to walk for more than 5 mibs without getting breathless, have to stop halfway up stairs, and find bending down almost impossible. The DDs are really worried about me ( and DD2 has a medical condition which gets worse when she gets stressed) and DH is coping with being worried in his usual way of shutting himself off on the computer and not interacting much. So fun times here!

I'm wondering though, I have swollen painful ankles, sore calves, and achey everywhere else. When you put that into the NHS direct symptom checker along with shortness if breath and chest tightness/discomfort it flashes up red with Call An Ambulance Now. At what point do those particular symptoms become an actual problem, as the GP is not especially concerned, more puzzled that he can't diagnose me with anything.

I'm just ranting here to avoid upsetting anyone at home, I presume I'd know if I was ill enough to need flashing blue lights. I'm trying to decide whether I should go back to the GP when he said he wanted to see me, even though the echo won't have been done, and have a moan at him. I suppose I really want advice about if I should be trying to improve my fitness/ stamina by walking slightly further/faster than is comfortable, or if I should be spending the holidays on the sofa with a pile of books.

Mad- annoying about the lack of joined-up-ness in advice, glad your ok though

ISWM oh that is so crap that is such a long time to wait. I don't get why your GP is not seeing it as urgent, if your symptoms are raising flags, then that needs to be looked at urgently! i don't get how gps just seem so blase about things. I think you need to be guided by how you feel right now, and if you are even a little bit concerned, get thee to the hospital. It is much better for them to send you away reassured that it can wait til september (albeit struggling) than also be worried that something important/very serious has been missed. Does your GP know about your painful calves? i was under the impression this was a warning sign and needed to be looked at pronto, don't leave it if you think it could be something to be looked into more quickly.

i know what you mean about spending the summer not doing the things you want/need. I am hardly able to do anything at the moment, and this summer is going to be hard work. not least as DH is going to USA next week for two weeks. I have not told him how much I am dreading it, as last year it was good for him and me and the children had a great time, not only managed but had a lot of fun. This time, they won't know how hard it will be, but its going to be so difficult. Yesterday, I did a little bit of clearing up, nothing major at all, and today I am suffering for it, can hardly walk, pain meds not really touching it.

oh and definitely go back to the gp when he wants to see you, regardless of not having the echo done. either to rant, or if you need to talk about your symptoms and fears again, get it recorded, once again and his opinion, again.

ISWM - I agree with Pavlov, you should go back to your GP regardless of if your echo has been done or not. I would also call the echo department and ask to be considered for a cancellation - probably wont help, but worth a try. If you or your family are really concerned, then go back to your GP sooner - a phone call from the surgery to hurry on the echo may be effective.

It's probably worth chatting to your doctor about your exercise question too. Really, none of us can know if pushing yourself harder to regain fitness is the right thing to do. I know you said earlier that one of your children has EDS, so surely that should be sufficient to fast track you. Btw, my dh does the locking himself away thing with his computer, must be a common man coping method .

Pavlov, sorry that you are still in so much pain with your back. I lurked a bit on your other thread, and I'm sorry about your rubbish work situation, and all the best for when you are able for a phased return. Good luck for when your dh is away - it's going to be tough because looking after little children is very physically demanding. Have you got any family or very good friends nearby to help you if needed?

ISWM I agree about going back to the GP. The waiting is so hard, isn't it?

And if you really do feel so unwell... you could go to A&E. Whether or not they'd fast-track you for an echo is uncertain, but they would certainly do enough in the way of ECGs and blood tests either to be sure it's nothing life threatening or to refer you onto the most relevant place...

Pavlov I'm sorry about the pain, too.

mad How are you doing? No more computer glitches, I hope.

Bit of a challenge for me this morning... I'm going to the outpatients departments of the hospital of which I'm very most terrified (see previous thread for context) to meet a very dear friend for coffee. But friend in question finds it an immense challenge even to leave her house at the moment, and going to the hospital is for her the least unmanageable place and I know it's a sign of her trust in me that she's asked me to help her try and do it so I don't want to let my feelings make it harder for her and I still have some leftover valium but I'm very nervous, and I have to go straight to a work meeting afterwards at which I'll need to look professional and with-it.

BM good luck at the hospital, that is very brave and supportive of you, to go with your friend even though it will be hard for you.

I have a physio appt on tuesday, finally got my GP to refer me and it was quite quick. Last week I went back, after my back went again leaving me unable to walk well, went to work to be told by H&S officer that I should not be at work like this and to go get myself sorted! GP was surprised I had gone to work and promptly signed me off again. We discussed the fact that the disc tear might have got worse/another disc might have torn as the pain is worse/not going away and quality of life is being effected quite badly now. I was in a sorry state and I think he was quite at how I was feeling/looking. He said he needed to think about what to do next and asked me to come back this week which I did. He has now, finally, referred me to the proper Pain Clinic at the hospital, where he said he has suggested in his referral letter they do another MRI, and said they can help me sort out my pain management better, including more local pain relief in the form of better injections than the caudal one, and other things. However the wait is going to be around 2 months or so.

He also changed my medication to tramadol, which I have fought as I have seen so many people struggle to manage on it/are out of it, but I was not doing great on codiene/cocodemol it just made me not very nice so I did not take it consistently. And the tramadol has little affect apart from making me a bit sleepy (but not groggy), but weirdly I cant sleep well on it! I feel fine on it, but it does not kick the pain as well as codiene, probably going to have to increase the dose. He has told me not to stop the pain meds, at all, not even one day, they need to build up.

I can probably work on them, so am going back on monday on a phased return as recommended by GP, but then go on annual leave for two weeks straight after! However, 2 days ago, i tidied up a bit, not very much, and I am in a lot of pain again. So, just can't see how I can go on like this long term without it seriously affecting my work. I have some worries about whether I will lose my job long term, but will not stress about it now.

mads I do luckily have some good friends around me for when DH goes away, and we have asked them to help out if I need them to. One of my closest friends has said she will come and stay with me if my back 'goes' badly. She is the godmother of the children so wants to spend time with them so will take them for a day i would think, some others are aware I might call on them if I am stuck. Have a plan in place. Which is mostly spending time on the beach/in NT gardens with a light picnic so the kids can run and I can sit, and visit my friends with armfuls of lovely food, which they can cook for us all

Sorry for the epic post.

BM - hope it went OK at the hospital, and that you are OK for your work meeting.
Pavlov - I hear good things about Pain Clinics, so even though it's a long time away, they should be able to help. Ad at least they'll be starting from "Pavlov's in pain, what can we do about it" rather than "wonder what's wrong, let's see if we can fix it, you can't possibly hurt as much as you say".

I went back to the GP this morning (after realising yesterday that I needed to stop walking and catch my breath after 90 seconds, and what ought to have been a 20 minute slowish walk took my 45 minutes, and then I had to sit down for 3 hours). Different GP (as it's a 10 day wait to see my GP), who said I was the most interesting patient she'd seen so far . Sadly that was becasue I was obviously unwell, but none of the test results showed up anything (already had blood tests, ECG and chest Xray, all of which were normal). But she made me walk up and down the corridor with a heart monitor on, and even though I walked really slowly, my heart rate went up by 25/30 bpm.

So she's faxing through my ECH to the Cardiology department at the hospital and asking them to see me - that will either be in the next couple of days (if they think there's something wrong), or "at some point" if it doesn't look urgent. And she's advised me that if they find nothing, I need to be a "difficult patient" and get them to refer me to the chest clinic directly, crying if I feel the need to . So some progress (I think).

Everyone enjoying the sunshine? It was 36 degrees in my garden yesterday, with the forecast for hotter today.

I hope it went well yesterday BM. That was very brave of you.

ISWM - well done for going back - what a positive appt!

Pavlov - tramadol does the same to me. Irritating but I do find it easier to function on it. About time you got referred to the pain clinic. Might be worth phoning in a week or twos time to say that you are happy to take a cancellation.

My TOE appt time has been changed to 8:30am which is much more reasonable!

iswm oh well done for going back and seeing a different go, one that actually understands how unwell you are feeling, and actually doing something that shows things are not right. I hope you get seen quickly so you can start actually getting an idea of what is wrong.

oybbk what time was it before?

I'm back in bed :( Just a bug picked up from the kids that I know has been going round the whole area, but I'm pissed off that I've got it too... why couldn't it have gone to one of my neighbours who has not already spent a significant proportion of this year in bed?

But the coffee-with-friend went well, except that the coffee was vile. But then again, I'm rather glad that it's the patients who get the better coffee (I know that from being an inpatient there) whilst the visitors are offered the yucky stuff... am sure that most of the time it's the other way around.

Pavlov How's the pain now?

OYBBK/GGB Good news, I think, about the time change. IME, earlier in day usually means less waiting around.

ISWM Glad you're being taken seriously. I agree with the GP... sometimes you need to be a bit pushy.

How's everyone else?

It means less startving too BM.
Sorry to hear you've got a bug :( thats not fair.

Arrrrrrrrrrgh. I've just weighed myself and I've lost five pounds. I know it's only because of the bug. But just because it's from the bug doesn't mean that it'll be any easier to regain.

If I lose any more weight I know I'll have to stop taking the Prozac, and given that the Prozac is the only thing yet to have helped with the tiredness and pain, I really don't want to do that. But I know that I need to set a limit... I really cannot, cannot afford to lose any more. I'm getting towards the sort of BMI level at which people start to have heart problems simply as a result of being underweight. Eep.

I'm thinking of starting another thread on this, maybe in chat so it'll disappear if nobody replies...

Sorry to spam this thread again today. I'm just back from seeing the new GP. She was nice enough, but told me that the follow-up summary she should have received from my last review with cardiology ten weeks ago hasn't arrived. It never ends. Never ends.

I just want to cry.

oh thats shit BM :( did she say she will chase it up or are you going to have to?
Did you talk to her about your weight, or were you worried she would connect it with the prozac? 5lb is a lot to lose when you are underweight already.

Sorry about the lost notes BM - if I remember correctly it's not the first time that has happened to you . Very pleased that your coffee with your friend went well, and I hope that she enjoyed getting out and about, despite the poor quality of the drink!

Did your GP come up with any weight gaining tips, or was she unconcerned? If you are naturally slender it may not be such a problem as long as you are eating properly. Have you always been thin or is it only since you became unwell?

My BMI is about 18, and much as I would prefer it to be higher, there's not much I can do about it apart from eating well. It does mean that tummy bugs are not good news though.

Kitten of Britain - pleased that you're not going to be starved for too long before your TOE .

Funny how skinny we all are. My bmi is 18 as well. It's a little low for me, should be another half a stone really but it's pretty stable.

Funny too how much more socially acceptable it is to moan and commiserate about being too fat than too thin.

My BMI is usually 19 or so, which is I think a combination of quite a thin build and a bit of a prediliction for living on fruit and salad, especially when stressed, and I did struggle with eating quite badly in the past.

But when I weighed myself this morning, my BMI was 16.7

I should have discussed it with the GP, I knoooooow, but I was meeting her for the first time [feeble pathetic excuse emoticon] and was worried about her refusing me a repeat prescription for the Prozac and worried that she'd regard my weight loss in purely mental health terms... and given how stressed I've been recently, I know it would have been a reasonable assumption. But now, having met the woman, I think she's thoughtful enough for a calm discussion on the issue. I'm due back there in a month anyway.

My only concern about the GP is that, as much as her gentle softly-spokenness and relaxedness should certainly be good for my anxiety... well, how assertive will she be in chasing delayed appointments and missing records ? She assured me that she'd extract all relevant documents from the consultant within a week, and that she'd be fine to manage it all herself. I didn't want to deny her the benefit of the doubt, but I'm not excessively optimistic.

There's nothing wrong with phoning next week and reassuring yourself that she has done as she said she would.
Your bmi is too low though. Is there any way we can help here?

hi everyone. Feeling sorry for myself. I am in pain, did too much yesterday, and forgot to take my painkillers/anti-inflammatories with me (went to a NT garden for a walk and an ice cream). Struggling today, am also snappy with Dh and the kids.

Am dreading DH going to USA. God knows how I am going to cope. I have been given zero space or time to get my strength up as much as possible and DH is keen for us to have as much 'family time' as possible, and I am back to work monday so not sure how on earth I am going to get my back in any shape before he goes. And. DH is not only going to california to work for his brother, that is only for less than a week due to flights/timing, so he is going with them to Hawaii for the post festival party/wind-down (it is a festival his brother owns/runs/manages/whatever). FFS. I was not jealous before, but jeez, i actually feel tearful that I am struggling in pain, so that he can relax in the sun in Hawaii with no children, no responsibility, no cares, all the lie-ins he wants. And he got shitty with me yesterday because I woke him at 7:30am to ask him a question about our day out and ruined his lay in, and sniped at me all day about it. No perspective about what sacrifices I am making so that he can have a holiday of a lifetime. for the second year in a row. And I get to look after the kids, in pain while he goes shopping for shorts. I know it is not his decision to do Hawaii, it is what his family are doing. But still, you would think several days of utter spoiling me lie-ins, running me baths, etc would not be a difficult pay-off?

Sorry. I just feel my life is just big pile of pain and rubbish. My children are wonderful and keep me going and I feel in a mix of loving them and being with them and feeling my own life is just going down the pan.

Pavlov.

I'm sure your dh will not enjoy himself in the US, knowing that you are struggling to cope here. What a horrible situation, I think you will be calling on your friends. You are right that a few lie-ins would make you feel a little happier, even if they will not make the next two weeks any easier for you.

All the best for Monday. Are you doing a full days?

Pavlov I agree with TeamGBsometimes (having had to spend a while working out who she is!) that YANBU in expecting a few lie-ins. Really, I think your DH is being an arsehole for going at all. However, me saying that is unlikely to change his mind, so in the spirit of trying to make the best of it... might the break enable him to return rejuvenated and full of energy to dedicate to you and the children? Or am I clutching at straws?

I'm still pondering the question posed by OYBBKGB of what would help...