Cardiologist visit

[shadesong]

Summation: Insufficient data.

Opinion: I have a distinct lack of confidence here, based on the following facts:

a) docorion seemed sure of the problem after listening to a set of five recordings,
b) The people at the heart minotaur place, the ones who received the recordings, told me they were getting great stuff, and
c) the cardiologist opened the appointment with "Have you been in here before?"

Me: "Um, yes. You had me on a heart monitor. I'm here for my results."
Him: "Ah." He opened my file, flicked desultorily through the report, and shook his mental Magic 8 Ball for a response of reply hazy, try again later. "Not enough, not enough. I'll put you on a 48-hour monitor and give you a prescription for beta blockers. Do you have children?"
Me: "Yes, one."
Him: "Are you trying for more?"
Me: "No."
Him: "And you are on... Trileptal and Zonegran? Is that why you're not -"
Me: "Yep."
Him: "Okay. I'll give you the prescription."

If only getting Depakote out of my neurologist was so easy!

Me: "What are the possible side effects?"
Him: "Fatigue, exhaustion."
Me: *buries head in hands*

So. Anyway. Yes. Lack of confidence in cardiologist due to inability to read report/prepare for appointment with patient. Heart minotaur to wear sometime next week. 48 hours straight. With that allergy that causes blistery welts after three hours of contact. I'm going to be writhing around like a dog with polyps.

The bright side = no catheterization, yay me. (Yet.)

Comments

[unwilly.livejournal.com]

Why won't they give you an injection for the allergic reaction to the monitor?

Have you tried puting steriod cream on and letting it dry, and then putting on the monitor pads?

[docorion.livejournal.com]

Simple answer to the first question: because that won't work.

As for the second idea: Dunno if it will work; it's biologically plausible, though (read: worth a try).

[unwilly.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry, why won't an anti-hist or steroid injection work?

Feel free to be a bit more complicated.

:}

[docorion.livejournal.com]

Sure.

The reaction she gets to the electrodes used by the monitor is either 1) (less likely) a direct irritant reaction (won't be affected by steroids/antihistamines any more than those would make a difference if I put lye directly on the skin), or 2) (more likely) a delayed-type hypersensitivity reaction. These are mediated by IgA and IgE (if I recall correctly) which are much less suppressed by steroids, and utterly unaffected by antihistamines. (Steroids work mostly on IgG and somewhat less on leukotrienes).

Basically, while steroids locally (like a cream) might do the job, the amount of systemic steroid needed to to the same job is, well, A Really Lot. So, not as useful. Also, systemic steroids might affect the test (in either direction); Steroids Affect Everything. (For amusement, if you like, go read the list of diseases steroids are useful for; I'll get some sleep, and you'll still be reading when I get back :-)

[unwilly.livejournal.com]

Now that was what I was looking for.

Thanks doc!

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

Hm!

Hadn't thought of that.

[stripedsocks.livejournal.com]

I really hate when you go to a specialist and it's utterly obvious that they haven't even looked at your chart before you got there because they have to read it in front of you. That does not inspire confidence.

Good luck!

[mgrasso.livejournal.com]

Well, hey, Depakote! That's got to be a HUGE relief, despite the side-effects they're talking.

I wish you continued good luck. :)

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

No no no! No Depakote.

Depakote = a neurology thing.

Beta blockers = cardiology.

I got beta blockers.

[mgrasso.livejournal.com]

Oh! I thought he was able to do an end-run around your neuro. Blast! Misunderstood ya.

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

*sigh* I wish...

[zarhooie.livejournal.com]

Hmmm.... *reads uses for soybeans* Are your pad thingys kinda foamy? Sometimes they make foamy things out of soybeans and you're kind of alleric to soybeans. *is a smart cookie*

[ardaniel]

My beta-blocker experience was all cool-- steady hands, not too tired, a little less easily-rattled than I usually was-- until I lost some weight and then my blood pressure did entertaining 80-over-50 make-me-grey-out things (30mg a day of Inderal was too much). Fortunately, it's not too hard to rebound from, if I'm at all typical; they pulled me off it and I was OK after two very mild near-faints.

Just take it easy getting up and don't run after stuff, and you'll be fine. I'd've been OK if my therapist at the time hadn't had a bad habit of calling at 9am to check up on me, causing me to bounce out of bed, grab the phone, say "Hi, John," and nearly pass out. He thought I was Being Avoidant and had Transferred My Unease With The Process into Psychosomatic Illness. The BP machine at the drugstore shot that theory *right* down. ;)

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

80-over-50

That's not too far off my baseline. :)

[dindin.livejournal.com]

Jackass. WHY couldn't they have been all "insufficient data" ahead of time??

*is indignant on your behalf*

[liamstliam.livejournal.com]

I have had fun, and I have have catheritizations.

The two things are quite different.

Wish there were better answers.

[malinaldarose.livejournal.com]

I wonder if a small prescription of something like Zyrtec/Tagamet would help with the welts? That's what I was on (for um, what, six years?) for those thrice-damned hives.

[supremegoddess1.livejournal.com]

the heart minotaur, huh? did you have to go through a big maze to get there? did the heart minotaur eat you? ;)

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

Hee!

(When I was wearing it, I kept typo-ing "monitor" as "minotaur", so I just gave in.)

[conscience.livejournal.com]

heh...I just had to do a two week stint of the heart monitor thing for palpitations and am ending up with a beta blocker also.
How was docorion able to hear the recordings to diagnose? I mean, I heard intricate differences in mine also when I sent them to the heart recording place over the phone (which was actually quite fun!) but didnt know they actually 'listened' to the monitor recordings for diagnosis...I had one I accidently sent (that record button is a bear!) that sounded worse than the rest, 'cause I was driving on a very cruvy, bumpy rural road...heh.

I thought they had some super-duper sekrit machine to decipher, ala ECG or somesuch. But then again, I am just a vet tech used to monitoring animal hearts on ECG...so that could be a huge difference there.

[docorion.livejournal.com]

They don't listen to them at the monitoring center; they are helpfully coded onto paper or onto a screen. But an ear trained to the music of the heart monitor (I listen to them *all damn day* at work-*beep* *beep* *beep*) can tell quite a bit from the modulated carrier they use to send that stuff over the phone-it's not encoded in any complex way. So I could tell how fast the rate was, and when she had PVC's, that sort of thing. It wasn't a formal diagnosis, which (ahem) I told shadesong at the time, he reminds her gently.

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

I know! :P I said that in my post about it, even.

But dude, there was plenty there.

(You have e-mail, btw. *ding!* I go watch TV now.)

[conscience.livejournal.com]

WOW! I need to get my vet's hospital where I work to get some machine that will allow us to actually HEAR PVCs...currently, we hear the rate *beep beep beep*ing, but the PVCs are always simply onscreen as visuals, which we hear the RATE fine, which may sound as normal, but then the visual screen will show some huge abnormalities PCV-wise....it'd be SO much easier during surgery to hear rather than having to watch the screen plus monitor anesthesia/MM/resp/pulse/pupil dilation/etc....

What program do you guys use? Animal and human diagnostic machinery are usually pretty much the same, I am wondering if my Doctor would go for a new model, perhaps?

[antsswarm.livejournal.com]

Baby. What did I tell you? I'm sure we've spoken of this before. What would Napoleon Dynamite do? Honey, take nun-chuks, and if they obviously aren't taking you seriously, then you have to pull out the nun-chuks, say calmly (but with confidence)

"Okay, lean forward."

and when they do, you bash them on the goddamn head and tell to try the fuck again.

When people are inadequate, it is your sworn human duty to use the nun-chuks of discipline. Really.

If you need to wear moon boots, then you need to wear moon boots.

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

I have not seen that movie. :(

And I am so, so tired.

[jenphalian.livejournal.com]

Magic 8 ball doc! Maybe he will be destroyed by a tiger bomb (http://venture.mancubus.net/eps/107.php), and then his attractive, well-spoken coworker with excellent patient care skillz will take over your case!