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Pediatric Heart (Expert Forum)
Heart Cancer.
Answered by
Jeffrey R Boris, M.D. - Pediatric Cardiology, Ambulatory Cardiology
The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
Philadelphia - PA
Questions in this forum are answered by pediatric cardiologists, cardiothoracic surgeons and anesthesiologists from The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. This forum is for questions and support about pediatric heart problems, symptoms and topics such as heart murmurs, palpitations, fainting, chest pain, congenital heart defects (including management and intervention), fetal cardiology, adult congenital cardiology, arrhythmias and pre-participation athletic screening.
Heart Cancer.
by christen608, Sep 28, 2009 02:45AM
Hello my name is Christen.
I'm 15 years old 16 oct.
I have alot of heart problems and am on 5 diffrent medications for it but their not helping.
In may i had a heart attack and stroke.
I was put on a monitor for three months and the Dr. said maybe its a tumor.
I researched somethings like why im having headachs blurred vision numbness of legs and left arm cant breathe sever chest pain and pressure and if i walk to the kitchen witch is about 50 steps i pass out.
There is a cancer called Angiosarcoma its very rare but i seem to have all if not most of the symptoms.
I'm going to my primary doctor Tuesday and shes very worried about my health.
my bp and pulse is always around or higher then 184/108 pulse 210 all i do is lay in bed cuz im always so tired and this morning i woke up and checked it as usual and it was that high. Its not normal fora girl who is 16 that weights 125 and is 5'8''.
I sleep more then 15 hours a day because my heart pumps so fast and so hard that im exausted.
I read that with the type of heart cancer you cant see it on a ekg witch ive had.
I'm wondering what can i do or say that will get the docorts to listen to me and test me for it,
My 17 year old brother and cousin both passed of heart issues but we dont know what and the cancer is also hereditary.
Can you please help me figure out whats going on.
I'm in so much pain and very sick.
Thanks.
Christen
I'm 15 years old 16 oct.
I have alot of heart problems and am on 5 diffrent medications for it but their not helping.
In may i had a heart attack and stroke.
I was put on a monitor for three months and the Dr. said maybe its a tumor.
I researched somethings like why im having headachs blurred vision numbness of legs and left arm cant breathe sever chest pain and pressure and if i walk to the kitchen witch is about 50 steps i pass out.
There is a cancer called Angiosarcoma its very rare but i seem to have all if not most of the symptoms.
I'm going to my primary doctor Tuesday and shes very worried about my health.
my bp and pulse is always around or higher then 184/108 pulse 210 all i do is lay in bed cuz im always so tired and this morning i woke up and checked it as usual and it was that high. Its not normal fora girl who is 16 that weights 125 and is 5'8''.
I sleep more then 15 hours a day because my heart pumps so fast and so hard that im exausted.
I read that with the type of heart cancer you cant see it on a ekg witch ive had.
I'm wondering what can i do or say that will get the docorts to listen to me and test me for it,
My 17 year old brother and cousin both passed of heart issues but we dont know what and the cancer is also hereditary.
Can you please help me figure out whats going on.
I'm in so much pain and very sick.
Thanks.
Christen
Doctor's Answer
by Jeffrey R Boris, M.D., Sep 29, 2009 05:12PM
, Sep 29, 2009 05:12PMTo: christen608
Dear Christen,
It sounds like there are a lot of serious things going on with you. My first question here, though, is whether you’ve seen a cardiologist. A cardiologist should have done a complete evaluation of you, including finding out why you have hypertension, tachycardia, and, most importantly, a heart attack. A heart attack, also known as a myocardial infarction, means that part of the heart muscle has received insufficient blood through the coronary arteries for whatever reason. This causes either temporary reversible damage to the heart muscle, or permanent damage that kills part of the heart muscle. Is this really what occurred with you? An electrocardiogram (ECG) should demonstrate that there were either reversible or irreversible changes associated with a myocardial infarction.
In the meantime, as part of your evaluation, you likely should have undergone an echocardiogram to assess the anatomy and function of your heart. If you had a cardiac angiosarcoma, this should have been seen on this study. These tumors are extremely rare, and only are reported on as case reports in the medical literature. Our institution actually had a patient with one here within the last two months, and it was the first that our surgeons had seen. What I am trying to say is that I would consider much more common reasons for these symptoms. In reviewing your symptoms, much of what you describe sounds very much like dysautonomia, which does not involve a heart attack, stroke, or cardiac tumor. Dysautonomia is an extreme abnormality of the autonomic nervous system, which includes abnormal heart rate and blood pressure responses as well as weakness, dizziness, chest pain, fatigue, visual changes, and other symptoms. That said, I cannot say for sure what you have since I am not able to fully evaluate you. It would be helpful for your doctor to be able to know what the cardiac issues were that caused your brother and your cousin to die prematurely to be able to say if these were truly hereditary. Overall, if you feel that your primary care provider is not listening to you, you should certainly consider a second opinion. I find it difficult to understand why a provider is not listening to a patient who reportedly had a heart attack and a stroke, unless you didn’t really have either of these but were concerned about them. There is a lot of information missing here for me to be able to help you, so at this point I would make sure that you and your primary care provider are on the same page (i.e. that you both understand each other) and that, if you truly had a heart attack, you are being evaluated by a cardiologist.
It sounds like there are a lot of serious things going on with you. My first question here, though, is whether you’ve seen a cardiologist. A cardiologist should have done a complete evaluation of you, including finding out why you have hypertension, tachycardia, and, most importantly, a heart attack. A heart attack, also known as a myocardial infarction, means that part of the heart muscle has received insufficient blood through the coronary arteries for whatever reason. This causes either temporary reversible damage to the heart muscle, or permanent damage that kills part of the heart muscle. Is this really what occurred with you? An electrocardiogram (ECG) should demonstrate that there were either reversible or irreversible changes associated with a myocardial infarction.
In the meantime, as part of your evaluation, you likely should have undergone an echocardiogram to assess the anatomy and function of your heart. If you had a cardiac angiosarcoma, this should have been seen on this study. These tumors are extremely rare, and only are reported on as case reports in the medical literature. Our institution actually had a patient with one here within the last two months, and it was the first that our surgeons had seen. What I am trying to say is that I would consider much more common reasons for these symptoms. In reviewing your symptoms, much of what you describe sounds very much like dysautonomia, which does not involve a heart attack, stroke, or cardiac tumor. Dysautonomia is an extreme abnormality of the autonomic nervous system, which includes abnormal heart rate and blood pressure responses as well as weakness, dizziness, chest pain, fatigue, visual changes, and other symptoms. That said, I cannot say for sure what you have since I am not able to fully evaluate you. It would be helpful for your doctor to be able to know what the cardiac issues were that caused your brother and your cousin to die prematurely to be able to say if these were truly hereditary. Overall, if you feel that your primary care provider is not listening to you, you should certainly consider a second opinion. I find it difficult to understand why a provider is not listening to a patient who reportedly had a heart attack and a stroke, unless you didn’t really have either of these but were concerned about them. There is a lot of information missing here for me to be able to help you, so at this point I would make sure that you and your primary care provider are on the same page (i.e. that you both understand each other) and that, if you truly had a heart attack, you are being evaluated by a cardiologist.
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