I guess for this post I’m just coming here to talk a little bit about my health problems and maybe do a little ego preservation by shifting some blame off of me and my poor decisions.
Anyway, I’m 24 and for the past 6 months or so I’ve been visiting a few different doctors trying to figure out these cardiovascular issues that I’ve been having.
I remember last November being suddenly woke up by a sudden intense squeezing my chest, like someone was gripping my heart and manually beating it. It scared the hell out of me and I went to the ER at 3am. I get there, I’m fine, I tell them that I stopped feeling that sensation but I was so scared by it I wanted a doctor to tell me I wasn’t dying. I wasn’t… Good. They give me some meds to calm down my heart if it does it again, and then some beta blockers to help me sleep.
Fast forward a few months and I’ve gotten a test from the cardiologist and it looks like I’m all good. My heart is fine I just need to sleep more and worry less. The issue is that my symptoms haven’t really improved all that much and in terms of affects on my extremeties I’m seeing greater and greater amounts of vascular visibility, discoloration of my finger nails and I’m still having infrequent chest discomfort.
I mention this multiple times to them. Yet still they tell me that I’m young and the test didn’t reveal anything so I’m just worrying too much. I visit again a few weeks later and it’s the same shit.
Anyway, I’m not a doctor although maybe I should have tried to visit a different specialist sooner. It wasn’t until about two weeks ago when I see a massive varicose vein pop out of my calf and I realize oh I should probably talk to a vein specialist.
I go, my leg veins are dilated, it’s still early stages so it’s not that bad. I’ve lost a lot of weight over the past year or so (about 20kg), quit cigarettes, and overall my lifestyle trends towards much healthier. More of the same and managing the condition should be relatively doable.
Yet now I’m here lying in bed frustrated. Not only at the doctors but the messaging we have around health as though it’s a foregone conclusion that you’ll have it when you’re young and then managing it is something of concern for your later years.
I know this foolishness and error of my thinking, and I know the immense privilege of mine to have come to take on that viewpoint, but man does it piss me off everytime I think back about any health issues, covid, or other things when people just shrug about the potential impacts because oh your young and your body is strong.
It makes me so regretful and spiteful because now I have a health condition which I shouldn’t have developed had I made better health decisions in the past. I wish people would encourage better stewardship to your own body before it becomes a problem.
Anyway, if you have any encouragement to offer me I’d really appreciate it. I’m having trouble sleeping and this post was a way for me to vent some of those emotions. I’m far from home which I’m grateful for because at least I’m not paying for this in the US, but that also means I’m far from a lot of my support.
Thanks and I know this account is new but I’ve really appreciated this forum over the years.
The thing with the transient heart issues is that there might not be any way to find out why it happened unless you are hooked up to a monitor at the moment when it happens.
So if you know what triggers it then you can try to induce it while hooked up. Or if it happens often enough you could ask them to put you on portable monitor that you wear for a day or a few days. And maybe you will catch it.
You said that you got a medication for attacks of chest tightness. Have you used it and did it help?
Is dialated veins a diagnosis you were given? Am I correct in guessing you had some basic text like blood work, bp, and an ECG done? And maybe something else to look at the vein on your leg?
There might just not be a reason to worry or much to be done. What would make you feel better taken care of?
Yeah I’ve been getting tests done over the past few months. I found it frustrating because the cardiologist didn’t offer any tips about who to talk to if in having these other symptoms (vascular issues) if it wasn’t related to the heart.
They just assumed I’m in my own head.
“There might just not be a reason to worry or much to be done.”
No offense but this is the same thing I was pushing back against. Rapid deterioration of blood flow in the extremities is an issue because it’s falls into the criteria of serious or actively getting worse. I understand it’s not their speciality but I mean, they are a heart doctor and should be able to point me to someone who can help.
Anyway, yeah my heart situation has improved dramatically. I’m off the meds; they were just a thing to take as needed. I think it’s all downhill from here so I’m feeling positive.
Well the cardiologist didn’t give you any tips about who to talk to, because they didn’t do a full assessment of your other problem. A given symptom could have any number of causes and before sending to a specialist, it is required to go through a certain amount of due diligence. You don’t just get sent to a specialist because your problem happens to involve a certain body system.
For example “my skin is turning yellow!” might sound like a problem for dermatologist, but jaundice (yellow skin) is usually caused by a liver problem. There are all sorts of liver problems, some of which have special specialists. And a liver problem could be secondary to another problem somewhere else. For example a number of disorders of red blood cells can screw up your liver. So maybe you need a hematologist. And of course there are various Hepatitises that might need help from Infectious Disease. Or it could be a side effect of a medication, drug or other chemical exposure… You see? It isn’t responsible for someone to just make willy-nilly suggestions which will send you up the garden path, waste your time that could be spent on something useful, and itself erode trust in the system because you were sent running around on a wild goose chase to doctors who took one look at you and said “why the hell are you here? I can’t help you.”
You primary/family/main doctor/NP is the person to bring those concerns to, and they are the one who should do the initial assessment and if they can’t deal with it themselves, send you to someone who can.
And actually, without going into detail, I have seen a few problems caused when doctors stepped “out of their lane” and tried to give some advice where they should have not. There can be substantial confusion; that’s the most polite way I can put it. You don’t want to be the victim of one of those.
Did the cardiologist say that to you?
Do you have a specific diagnosis in mind you think is being missed? Or an idea of what kind of health problem you have? Because it sounds to me like you had a few episodes of chest pain without an established cause, and then later you found a varicose vein. These are both perfectly common normal things even for younger people. You have seen what sounds like several different medical providers involved and nobody can find anything alarming.
(Once I went to Emergency services because I thought I was having a heart attack but I was just having heart burn. Boy, they don’t call it that for nothing! It really hurt. I felt I was rudely treated in that situation because the doctor thought I was “wasting” his precious time on my bullshit not-a-problem. They didn’t have to act in that way to me. But at the end of the day, it’s better that I was not having a heart attack.)
What do you think should be done about your varicose veins? These are very common, many people get them. For most people, their biggest complaint is cosmetic. There is not any good surgical/pharmacological treatments as far as I am aware. Try not to stand up or sit in a chair for long stretches of time. You can elevate your feet to above the level of the heart sometimes. Compression stockings if you like. Moisturize your skin. Keep not smoking and getting more exercise.
Here are a couple of pages about varicose veins. Shorter Varicose veins - NHS ; Longer Varicose veins and spider veins
So again the question is: What would make you feel better taken care of?
You got a real talent for making someone worried about their health feel good. Expert talent. I hope you get payed for being a jackass.
Yeah they did say that actually. So your sarcastic remark about that is precisely what they said. Also can you read the text? Have you had heartburn? Does it feel like your heart not beating correctly? It doesn’t. Don’t presume idiocy on my part to same extent that you assume I might not know what I’m talking about. The specialist should suggest going to a GP if that’s the obvious go to wisdom.
Goddamn, doctors and you (if you are one or just carry water for this bullshit It doesn’t matter) act like the bureaucracy of a hospital is easy to navigate or understand. Please go ahead! Diagnose me! Ask me to diagnose myself again! I said in the post I’ve erred in my approach but lemme say it again “I’m not a goddamn doctor”. I didn’t ask to see a specialist, that’s who I was referred to after discussing the symptoms with the GP at that particular hospital. Did he do a test? No. Should he have? Probably I don’t know.
If someone shows up and the tests you ran show things are fine, maybe you as an experienced medical professional should tell that to your patient. “Go get some general tests it doesn’t look like it’s related to heart” All I did was say something was still messed up and told it’s in my head.
Take a goddamn step off your pedestal and try to understand how people act when they’re unsure and don’t know what to do. All I did in this post was malign the way people assume things about young people not having issues. Don’t presume I’m an asshole just because you like to be one.