Anaesthetist left voicemail

[dippypanda]

Just curious if anyone had a similar experience... I had a voicemail left for me today by the anaesthetist at the hospital for me to call her back on Friday to discuss a letter she'd received about palpitations I had tested for a while ago, had ecg and echocardiogram and discovered I had a heart murmur but the technician wasn't concerned at the time.

I'm now 33 weeks pregnant and unsure what it could be about and why it would be an anaesthetist who would call me? Anyone had something similar?

It will be so they can find out more about you / your condition and whether there would be any implications in the (unlikely) event that you need an emergency section under general anaesthetic. If you were having an ordinary operation under general anaesthetic, you'd meet the anaesthetist in advance so they could ask you various things about your medical history - it's a bit like that, just preparing for the off-chance.

I had a similar meeting around the same time, because I have a respiratory condition. In my case, they wanted to listen to my breathing and check out my airway. They concluded my condition wasn't likely to be an issue, but that they'd use a smaller-than-normal intubation tube on me. They also had a look at my spine, because if I did need a c-section for whatever reason, they'd obviously try a spinal block first. That was actually quite useful, because I want an epidural and it was a good chance to talk about it and ask some questions!

Ive been told the anaethnatist will phone me also. I've had a bad reaction to an anaesthetic before so they need to give me a special kind, so apparently they will phone for a chat just to find out more first hand rather than going off a message passed on by a normal doctor.

Ah of course, now it makes sense.
I hadn't thought about that.

Plus you've raised a good comment about the spinal tap, when I was undergoing the tests they also found I have scoliosis so I maybe should mention that as well as I'm not sure if it would affect it.

I'd say it's worth mentioning, yes. When they examined me, they discovered my spine curves 1cm to the right (I never knew that!) - not a lot, but they made a note of it nonetheless.