RE: We were talking about chest pains the other day..

[Guest guest]

Hi Jill,

I'm new to the group and I don't know much about IGA yet. but I know about

Heart Disease. I say go back to your doctor and demand more testing. My

mother who in her 50's was feeling some chest pain and uncomfortable

feelings in her back was told by a doctor she was having some kind of

anxiety attack. The next day she was admitted to the hospital and found she

had a heart attack and needed a triple open heart by pass. Not that this is

for sure happening to you; I'm not an alarmist. However, you deserve to know

FOR SURE, if there is anything going on. The truth is that heart attacks in

women represent symptoms differently then they do in me. Please post when

you go and let me know how you are doing.

D.

Dawn McReynolds

Aurora Women's Center, Inc.

Headquarters

19946 Harper

Harper Woods, MI

48225

Located in the Salvation Army Building

24140 Mound

Warren, MI 48091

_____

From: aj72300

Sent: Friday, June 18, 2004 9:06 AM

To: iga-nephropathy

Subject: We were talking about chest pains the other day..

Okay, we were talking about chest pains a couple of days ago on the

board and I came across something a little concerning. I have been

to my GP twice for " chest pain " it feels like someone is sitting on

my chest and I get shortness of breath, he said pulled muscle and

never did any further tests. I told my Neph and he said I need to

have my GP do some tests. I went back to my GP and told him about

it, he said " well, I could do some tests, but do I think you have

heart disease, no " . So I didn't demand it, I felt stupid. Now I'm

thinking I should have. I was reading Dear Abby the other day and

this woman wrote in about how she had a heart attack and never even

knew it because her symptoms weren't what people think and that most

times in woman, their symptoms don't even include " pain " . They

included a link to the American Heart Association website, I went on

and they were listing all the complaints I have as something that

needs to be seen by a doctor. Do I think I'm having a heart

attack? No, absolutely not, but I do think " something " is going

on. I mean, how on earth do you pull a muscle in your chest? If

you were me, would you go back to the GP and ask for testing? I am

always so worried about looking like a hypochondriac (sp?) Except on

this board, ha, ha. Thanks for listening.

Jill G.

To edit your settings for the group, go to our Yahoo Group

home page:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/iga-nephropathy/

To unsubcribe via email,

iga-nephropathy-unsubscribe

Visit our companion website at www.igan.ca. The site is entirely supported

by donations. If you would like to help, go to:

http://www.igan.ca/id62.htm

Thank you

[Guest guest]

It's really hard to advise anyone about chest pain. There was already a

reply about symptoms of heart attack being different in women than in men,

and I don't dispute that.

On the other hand, there are so many things that can cause chest pain or

chest tightness that, at some point, we have to trust our doctor or doctors

when they tell us it's not heart-related. Even a cardiologist might have

trouble distinguishing between a heart attack and an esophageal spasm, for

example.

A person could easily pass with flying colours an electrocardiogram, an

echocardiogram, an exercise stress test on the treadmill with thallium

injection and blood flow pictures, and even the king of heart tests, the

angiogram, be given a clean bill of health, walk out of the hospital and

suffer a heart attack walking to the car in the parking lot.

The Heart Association website as you paraphrased it says " ...they were

listing all the complaints I have as something that needs to be seen by a

doctor " .

Well, you did do that. You saw your GP. I imagine the doctor did a brief

physical exam and decided there was no need for further testing. Many people

go through that scenario, since chest pain is such a common complaint. There

must have been something that caused your doctor to decide as he did. I

guess the only thing you can do, other than seeing another doctor, is to

discuss it with your existing doctor. Make him or her aware of the fact

that you're not convinced just yet. Maybe he will decide to order an

electrocardiogram, who knows?

Doctors make the same decision many times each and every day: Is there a

need for further testing or not? They sort of use mental checklists they are

very familiar with, do a cursory physical exam including checking BP,

listening to the heart, asking what circumstances bring on the pain, etc. Is

it possible that they can be mistaken? Absolutely.

You are the one who has to be satisfied that you don't have a heart problem,

but you probably don't want to go all the way up to having a slightly risky

and unpleasant angiogram to prove it unless it's necessary.

Pierre

We were talking about chest pains the other day..

> Okay, we were talking about chest pains a couple of days ago on the

> board and I came across something a little concerning. I have been

> to my GP twice for " chest pain " it feels like someone is sitting on

> my chest and I get shortness of breath, he said pulled muscle and

> never did any further tests. I told my Neph and he said I need to

> have my GP do some tests. I went back to my GP and told him about

> it, he said " well, I could do some tests, but do I think you have

> heart disease, no " . So I didn't demand it, I felt stupid. Now I'm

> thinking I should have. I was reading Dear Abby the other day and

> this woman wrote in about how she had a heart attack and never even

> knew it because her symptoms weren't what people think and that most

> times in woman, their symptoms don't even include " pain " . They

> included a link to the American Heart Association website, I went on

> and they were listing all the complaints I have as something that

> needs to be seen by a doctor. Do I think I'm having a heart

> attack? No, absolutely not, but I do think " something " is going

> on. I mean, how on earth do you pull a muscle in your chest? If

> you were me, would you go back to the GP and ask for testing? I am

> always so worried about looking like a hypochondriac (sp?) Except on

> this board, ha, ha. Thanks for listening.

>

>

> Jill G.

>

>

[Guest guest]

It's really hard to advise anyone about chest pain. There was already a

reply about symptoms of heart attack being different in women than in men,

and I don't dispute that.

On the other hand, there are so many things that can cause chest pain or

chest tightness that, at some point, we have to trust our doctor or doctors

when they tell us it's not heart-related. Even a cardiologist might have

trouble distinguishing between a heart attack and an esophageal spasm, for

example.

A person could easily pass with flying colours an electrocardiogram, an

echocardiogram, an exercise stress test on the treadmill with thallium

injection and blood flow pictures, and even the king of heart tests, the

angiogram, be given a clean bill of health, walk out of the hospital and

suffer a heart attack walking to the car in the parking lot.

The Heart Association website as you paraphrased it says " ...they were

listing all the complaints I have as something that needs to be seen by a

doctor " .

Well, you did do that. You saw your GP. I imagine the doctor did a brief

physical exam and decided there was no need for further testing. Many people

go through that scenario, since chest pain is such a common complaint. There

must have been something that caused your doctor to decide as he did. I

guess the only thing you can do, other than seeing another doctor, is to

discuss it with your existing doctor. Make him or her aware of the fact

that you're not convinced just yet. Maybe he will decide to order an

electrocardiogram, who knows?

Doctors make the same decision many times each and every day: Is there a

need for further testing or not? They sort of use mental checklists they are

very familiar with, do a cursory physical exam including checking BP,

listening to the heart, asking what circumstances bring on the pain, etc. Is

it possible that they can be mistaken? Absolutely.

You are the one who has to be satisfied that you don't have a heart problem,

but you probably don't want to go all the way up to having a slightly risky

and unpleasant angiogram to prove it unless it's necessary.

Pierre

We were talking about chest pains the other day..

> Okay, we were talking about chest pains a couple of days ago on the

> board and I came across something a little concerning. I have been

> to my GP twice for " chest pain " it feels like someone is sitting on

> my chest and I get shortness of breath, he said pulled muscle and

> never did any further tests. I told my Neph and he said I need to

> have my GP do some tests. I went back to my GP and told him about

> it, he said " well, I could do some tests, but do I think you have

> heart disease, no " . So I didn't demand it, I felt stupid. Now I'm

> thinking I should have. I was reading Dear Abby the other day and

> this woman wrote in about how she had a heart attack and never even

> knew it because her symptoms weren't what people think and that most

> times in woman, their symptoms don't even include " pain " . They

> included a link to the American Heart Association website, I went on

> and they were listing all the complaints I have as something that

> needs to be seen by a doctor. Do I think I'm having a heart

> attack? No, absolutely not, but I do think " something " is going

> on. I mean, how on earth do you pull a muscle in your chest? If

> you were me, would you go back to the GP and ask for testing? I am

> always so worried about looking like a hypochondriac (sp?) Except on

> this board, ha, ha. Thanks for listening.

>

>

> Jill G.

>

>

[Guest guest]

It's really hard to advise anyone about chest pain. There was already a

reply about symptoms of heart attack being different in women than in men,

and I don't dispute that.

On the other hand, there are so many things that can cause chest pain or

chest tightness that, at some point, we have to trust our doctor or doctors

when they tell us it's not heart-related. Even a cardiologist might have

trouble distinguishing between a heart attack and an esophageal spasm, for

example.

A person could easily pass with flying colours an electrocardiogram, an

echocardiogram, an exercise stress test on the treadmill with thallium

injection and blood flow pictures, and even the king of heart tests, the

angiogram, be given a clean bill of health, walk out of the hospital and

suffer a heart attack walking to the car in the parking lot.

The Heart Association website as you paraphrased it says " ...they were

listing all the complaints I have as something that needs to be seen by a

doctor " .

Well, you did do that. You saw your GP. I imagine the doctor did a brief

physical exam and decided there was no need for further testing. Many people

go through that scenario, since chest pain is such a common complaint. There

must have been something that caused your doctor to decide as he did. I

guess the only thing you can do, other than seeing another doctor, is to

discuss it with your existing doctor. Make him or her aware of the fact

that you're not convinced just yet. Maybe he will decide to order an

electrocardiogram, who knows?

Doctors make the same decision many times each and every day: Is there a

need for further testing or not? They sort of use mental checklists they are

very familiar with, do a cursory physical exam including checking BP,

listening to the heart, asking what circumstances bring on the pain, etc. Is

it possible that they can be mistaken? Absolutely.

You are the one who has to be satisfied that you don't have a heart problem,

but you probably don't want to go all the way up to having a slightly risky

and unpleasant angiogram to prove it unless it's necessary.

Pierre

We were talking about chest pains the other day..

> Okay, we were talking about chest pains a couple of days ago on the

> board and I came across something a little concerning. I have been

> to my GP twice for " chest pain " it feels like someone is sitting on

> my chest and I get shortness of breath, he said pulled muscle and

> never did any further tests. I told my Neph and he said I need to

> have my GP do some tests. I went back to my GP and told him about

> it, he said " well, I could do some tests, but do I think you have

> heart disease, no " . So I didn't demand it, I felt stupid. Now I'm

> thinking I should have. I was reading Dear Abby the other day and

> this woman wrote in about how she had a heart attack and never even

> knew it because her symptoms weren't what people think and that most

> times in woman, their symptoms don't even include " pain " . They

> included a link to the American Heart Association website, I went on

> and they were listing all the complaints I have as something that

> needs to be seen by a doctor. Do I think I'm having a heart

> attack? No, absolutely not, but I do think " something " is going

> on. I mean, how on earth do you pull a muscle in your chest? If

> you were me, would you go back to the GP and ask for testing? I am

> always so worried about looking like a hypochondriac (sp?) Except on

> this board, ha, ha. Thanks for listening.

>

>

> Jill G.

>

>