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...

Wish I had that twirl bar now. I've been given a sandwich and a yoghurt, but I want more

Midnight, I'm so sorry that you are in a panic about your chest. Obviously I haven't a clue what it could be, but if it is your heart, then it should be fixable. The main thing is that you are getting the investigations done. Even if you do get a diagnosis, expect lots of waiting. The flutter that I had treated today was picked up in January. Many others have been waiting far longer than me.

I think it's the waiting is the worst bit, that and not knowing - I don't do not knowing very well .

Yay Mad - that was quick. Hope the bed rest is not too dull and boring. Is your DH with you yet? Can you send him off for chocolate? Can you watch TV or are you completely flat. When I was in I had to lie flat and there was no way of getting the tv to a position I could see it which rather defeats the object of patient tv!

Midnight - welcome. I know it's hard but try not to panic. Don't forget drs do lots of tests in order to rule things out as well as find things. It makes sense to consider the options when trying to get to the bottom of symptoms which could be part of various different things. Leave Dr Google alone! Your GP will be able to talk you through the results so far and decide on a plan from there. I know what you mean by not having time to be ill! It's hard when you are a busy parent. Stick around and we will hold your hand whatever they say.

No chocolate fairy until 5 pm
Bored too, but bored is good, better than complications .

:) you know Mad, you are a very reassuring person to have on this thread. I am so very glad it went well for you. I hope that it has had the desired effect.

mad it's great to hear from you!!

Hope you're on your way back to that twirl bar right now at 6. And I hope the traffic is kind to you...

and and [the rest of the chocolate orange I should have saved you before] to you for having survived this one

Home now, and the traffic was very unkind to us, but I don't care. Dh is extremely tired, because it was one and a half hours each way, double the normal length of time.

I'm really pleased with how it went. The doctor did say that he felt I would be fairly simple, and once again he was right. I can see why my surgeon rates him so highly. Hopefully this is the end of needing hospital treatment for the foreseeable future.

As far as treats go, dh came laden. My treat of choice was a Danish pastry. No wine for me tonight, but as my mood is very that's fine.

That's great Mad. Now you can rest and hopefully be looked after a bit. You definitely deserve some time off from attending hospitals! You sound really positive. Maybe some wine tomorrow night.

I'm glad it went ok for you mad, and that's the end of treatment for now, that's good news.

A TOE is the camera down throat to look at heart isn't it? I had one when I had MRSA septacaemia as they were worried it would attack the heart muscle. I don't remember it though as I was very unwell think it was done early hours of a Sunday morning as an inpatient, I'm glad I can't remember it. Because I really don't like an endoscopy to look in stomach and small bowel, especially when sedation doesn't work.

Wishing everyone a quiet and gentle night...

Auntie Flo arrived this morning with impeccable timing, it was a close one! I'm going to book in a mirena fitting for later this week, so hopefully this will be my last horrid warfarin period.

Reading through my discharge notes this morning, on the bottom of the last page it says Comorbidity - atrial fibrillation. I wish I had noticed this yesterday, as I would have asked for clarification. I was told months ago that I didn't have atrial fibrillation, but I'm aware that flutter can develop into AF, or exist alongside it. I know that AF is less easily treated than flutter, and is a stubborn rhythm.

I see the doctor in three months, so I don't know whether to wait until then to ask, call the ward on Monday or call the arrhythmia nurse that did my pre-assessment. I'm inclining towards the latter one, because I think I'm too impatient to wait, but maybe call the ward sister because she wrote the notes. I know I'm safe, covered by warfarin, etc, but I thought I was "cured" and now I'm not feeling quite so confident.

What is it with one day post hospital blues?

I'm feeling great anyway. I can't exercise for a week, but am a lot less breathless climbing stairs etc.

Morning Mad - glad you are still feeling physically good. You are safe because of the warfarin but it's unsettling to read that having been told you didn't have it. I think I would ring on Monday to clarify. Can't remember if your GP is a good supportive listener or not but you could always discuss with them if so. AF should be present on an ECG so they could always do one in the surgery to clarify especially as you have now had the flutter treated so that won't be there anymore so should be obvious?

I think post hospital blues is under recognised condition to be honest. I feel that I have a particularly bad reaction emotionally to any sedation and I'm sure that's why I was so down on Thursday. Really was quite impressive. DH now been instructed to remind me if I ever need any sedation that it's that that's affecting my mood. Not that I am planning on needing anything else as have had enough of hospitals at the moment!

I am a bit better today, still off food though. Had a great chat to GP though who seems to think that as this pain has only happened since the op it must be related although obviously good that nothing major is wrong. She did wonder if it would settle over time as my heart tissue grows over the device completely. The only other vague possibility is a reaction to nickel as the device has quite a lot of it. There are some reports of this I believe but am not sure what the solution is.

Hope you are all having a nice and not too wet weekend.

My GP is lovely, but she will not have any information from the hospital yet. I will certainly try her if I get nowhere with the hospital, and I think she will be able to help, but it will probably take her making a few phone calls. I don't think that there's an ECG machine at our surgery, but she could send me to the local hospital, I guess. I was sent for one locally back in December. Do most surgeries have ECG machines now?

I had an ECG yesterday before I was discharged. I asked the ward sister if it was ok, and she said that I was in normal sinus rhythm, so really wondering why AF was on the discharge notes that she wrote

Gingerwine, very pleased that you're feeling a little better today. I can't say that my TOE put me off food, I must be a greedy pig . I also really hope that with time your pain subsides.

BM, great news about your career heading in the right direction.

Mad - I think if your ECG yesterday said normal sinus rhythm you can relax. If you were in AF it would pick it up and these days ECG machines diagnose abnormal rhythms themselves. If you were in AF your pulse would be very irregular as it is a chaotic rhythm as oppose to flutter which is more regular.

My GP surgery has a fantastic ECG machine. They wire you up as normal and then go and sit at the computer and it wirelessly appears on the screen so they can show it to the duty Dr via computer rather than wandering around the surgery with a piece of paper. It's quite a big practice so perhaps they have more money to spend!

why would they put nickel in it ginger I get allergic rashes to nickel - must get that on my hospital notes!!! Do you react to jewellery/the back of watches at all?

mad, our surgery has an ecg. I dont think they would have sent you home if you were in AF, theyd be wanting to fix that

For some reason most ASD and PFO closure devices are made of nickel based metal and have a covering of goretex like fabric. My cardiologist had hoped to use a new small device which has less metal and is very soft and flexible, but when they looked at my anatomy during the op they realised that the one that fitted best was one called an amplatzer which is very commonly used but has a much higher metal content. I did ask about nickel allergy before as I do have some problems with some earrings and the skin on my finger under my wedding ring is sometimes a bit funny. She reassured me that it was not an issue so I would be a bit annoyed if that were the problem! Also I'm not sure how they could determine whether it was the cause. I can't take any antiinflammatories as I am on clopidogrel for another 6 weeks at least. I am thinking that if I still have pain once I have stopped the clopidogrel I could try taking some regular decent doses of ibuprofen for a while to eliminate any musculoskeletal cause. If it doesn't go then I will be back wanting some more answers I suppose! It is all very annoying. I know I am lucky in many ways but pain really does distract you from concentrating on anything and so gets you down. Currently sat with a hot water bottle behind me to see if that helps. At 6 though it will be o'clock! Cheers ladies.

6 o'clock is warfarin o'clock around here

Yikes mad I can see why you worried [unhelpful-reponse-for-Saturday-night emoticon]... but also, I really cannot imagine them having sent you home still in AFib. I think totally fair to ring the ward on Monday and ask to speak to the nurse who wrote the notes.

I hope that in the meantime the is helping. I'm being an old gimmer here and have been in bed for several hours already. DH is at a colleague's party, and has thoughtfully taken the delightful-yet-sleep-averse DS, and I'm praying they party hard and tiringly for a good few hours yet.

The arrythmia nurse called back when I was out, and spoke to dh. He told him that the form was wrong, and I do not have AF . It may have been a computer glitch, where only one option was available from a pull down menu. I may try to catch him tomorrow, so I can speak to him directly, rather than hearing it second hand, but I'm much relieved.

I've just had my mirena fitted. It went very smoothly, taking only a few minutes. Hopefully I won't turn into a hormonal monster, but I'm not counting on it!

That's great Mad. Good news about mirena too. I know several people who have had them. No real hormonal side effects that they mentioned and I'm sure that it might help lessen your warfarin periods!

What a huge relief... but what a masively worrying 'glitch'! I hope the computer apologised for having given you such a scary few days.

There was an awful such 'glitch' locally a few years back at a practice which had two patients with the same name, one of whom was in her nineties and the other a little girl... the elderly woman died but the system sent letters notifying the nursery and health visitor and SALT of the little girl...

marking as I lost you all. I need to catch up and stop being so crap at supporting as you have done me. I will post probably tomorrow as I am off to take shit ton of painkillers and go to bed.

Have not posted for a while but have been thinking of you all and hoping you are all ok x

well, I don't have heart or lung failure [relief], but I may have a problem with a heart valve, as there was a small abnormality on the ECG. So the GP has referred me for an echocardiogram and wants to see me again in 4 weeks. But the clinic clerk reckons the echo won't be for 6-8 weeks, so they'll have to sort that one out between them .

So good news in a lot of ways, but annoyingly I'm still breathless after 5 minutes of walking, still coughing going up and down stairs and bending down to tie shoe laces etc, and still waiting to find out what might be wrong .

ISWM - Brilliant news that you are basically ok. Time to work on your patience now, as you wait for your echo.

It's funny (actually brilliant) how much better I feel now, when I hadn't realised that there was a problem previously. Today I was walking my dog, with people my own age, and was able to keep up with them. Previously, I have avoided walking with people in their 30's or 40's because I was embarrassed about how breathless I got. I preferred to either be on my own or with retired people, because it was easier. My dog then wandered into the cafe, and so I legged it up the hill to retrieve him. Not only could I get up the hill, but I could do it at speed .

I wrote previously that although I felt fine, if a psychopathic axe murder was chasing me up a hill, then I would have to rely on my skills of negotiation. Now I feel that I would have a fighting chance to outrun him . I did manage to speak to the arrythmia nurse today in person. After discussing computer glitches, I asked him to pass on my thanks to the team that treated me.

I hope everyone else is fine. OYBBK, I know that we started this journey at a similar time. I really do hope that when you see your cardiologist this summer, that he decides to schedule you in for treatment, in whatever form is appropriate for you. I'm truly astonished how a procedure that took less than an hour can have such immediate and marvellous results.

Annoying that you have to wait ISWM but at least it's not what you feared. Has your gp referred you to a consultant?

Mad it is so fabulous that you are doing so well - brilliant :)

Pavlov, hope you've had a better day today.