To All Forum Participants

[Philip1815]

Dear Forum Participants,

We are sorry we have had to dramatically limit the number of questions we allow on a daily basis in this forum due to  limitations of sponsorship funding. If your organization can sponsor this Forum, we and all others that visit here would be more than grateful. Please contact us.  

Unfortunately we must ask...

-Please do not post a question under someone else's question, it will not be answered.

-If you <B> really really </B> need <I>urgent</I> medical help the Web is not the place to be, please call your personal physician or your Emergency Medical Services as soon as possible.

-If you need a second opinion, we cannot recommend a better institution than The Cleveland Clinic Heart Center.

Again, sorry for the cutbacks :(


Regards,
Med Help International

[Gina, TO CCF]

Your site is wonderful. We would all hate to see it go. You have helped and reassured so many people! I can understand that this does cost the center a considerable amount of money and time of your doctors. Someone else had mentioned charging a membership fee. Which if it was not too hefty, I don't think it would pose a problem. Anyone seriously in need would not have a problem paying the fee for piece of mind.
Just a few thoughts
Thank you for your time
Gina, ***@****

[Monique]

This is really sad. The help you offer so many people is being taken away. I wish there was a way that I could help.

Monique

[jean]

My sentiments exactly, Monique.  This site and a very few others have helped me retain my sanity quite literally while awaiting my surgery at the Clinic in two weeks to the day.  Can we get organized somehow and see if we can find sponsors etc.  My Email address is ***@****.  Let's see what we can do.  Also CCF what price range are we looking at?  Help us help you and ourselves.  This site is very needed.

[Lynne]

I'm a 29 year old female.  I've been diagnosed with costochondritis (which is inflammation of the cartilages that attaches to the sternum) last March.  Also at the same time I started having what I think are PVCs.  I had 3 ECGs done in the last year and all normal.  Sometimes I can feel a big hard beat (maybe once every two weeks).  Almost every day I can feel extra heart beats and then other times it's like (it's hard to explain) something is moving in my chest and I can feel it in my throat.  So I'm not sure if those are PVCs or not.  I guess what my question is, is it normal to notice more the PVCs if I have costochondritis?

Any information you can give me would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

[D Palazzo]

Dear Sirs; My elderly mother had open heart surgery and had to have a tube put down her throat to help her breath. After having the tube removed she has now formed scar tissue in her throat. She has to go for surgery every six months to remove it because it stops her from breathing and swallowing right. My question ,is there something that can be done to stop the scar tissue other that surgery? If so could you please let us know who, what, when,and where.Thank you for your time.

[Mairead]

I am 42 years old and am currently taking medication for hypertension, I have to have a stress test done on the 20th January.  I have all the risk factors- strong family history of ischaemic heart disease, I was a heavy smoker and I have a high cholesterol level (8.7). I also have recently had a pulmonary embolism following surgery to remove my gall bladder- I have had previous embolism.  My fear is that should I need any surgery I will not be able to continue with my current job as I am a nurse.  Am I right in thinking this?

[Other resources? Forums?]

I have only recently found this site, and I see how unfortunate
it is that questions are no longer being taken. It seemed to have been and absolutely wonderful service for absolutely free and I'm sure it will be missed

Unfortunately, like others here, my specific question has not been covered at all within the archives.  Are there other question/answer forums such as this dealing with heart disease?

If not -- is there a way this forum could be redirected as some sort of 'membership' forum?  Would anyone be willing to pay a fee for the privelidge of sharing this information here

[Jim]

Why is this the only forum with the limit on questions?  The others are still taking more than 0-1 questions?

[John]

C'est le vie.

[Jacki Drewnoski]

Hi I have been having heart trouble for several years now.I have Sinus Tach,PVC( alot of them) and I also have had AFIB and Vtach.I have had many doctors run tests and try many medictions that did not help over the years.It seems to be like spells I can be good for months and then all of a sudden start up with a lot of Palpations.I am right now into a bad spell and a halter monitor was put on it was one of many that I have had over the years and what it showed was I was having an enormous amount of Pvc and small runs of v tach.I have been to cleavland university and had seen Dr.Biblow and he found a bulge on my heart and thought for sure that that was where everything was coming from so we did and Obblation only to find out of five hours of surgery that they could not get the heart to go into arrimias from the area of the bulge  so no abblation was done.I had been the first patient he had that was not able to be cured by this abblation.So basicilly he told me there was nothing we could do except treat the eppisodes as they came.Which is what i have been doing but I am know working and I can not be missing work for this.They tell me I have a healthy heart but the electrical circits that contral my heart beat are just not working.No they are planning to do another stress tes with something else so that they can make sure their is not heart disease,if there is none they will put me on a medication they might work but it is very dangerous if there is any heart disease.I have had to be hospitalized back in the 80s with a fib I was in ccu for a week and they could not get the a fib to break finnally they did.But the reason for why it happens was never found.I am at the end of my rope now.I have been everywhere and had every test you can think of to find out what is wrong with me and all I get is we just do not know enough about the electrical circut of the heart to know.I can not keep living like this I am tired all the time. I am short of breath and dizzy every time my heart is out of wack .I would like to know if you know of any one who might have an answere to this problem,or do you have any other patients that have these symptoms.I am now 42 years old and the arryhthmisa started about ten years ogo or so.I started out with just sinus tach and some pvc and know I am up to three of four different kinds of arriythmias.I am worried about blood clots everytime I have these bad spells since they last for weeks sometimes months.Any help you could give me or who you would reccomend I see would be greatly appreciated.My local Cardiolists is Dr Richard Arnott in Salem Ohio.The keep telling me that my arrithmias are not life threatning to there knowledge none has died from these but I feel my quality of life is suffering greatly and I am missing a lot of work do to this and I can not afford to loose my job. My doctor right now has me on bed rest and Xanis for 7 to 10 days to see if we can get the pvc to break.And is scedually more test.But I need to know if there have been any advancments made in this area that might possibley help me.Thank you so much and If you could get back to me as soon as possible I would really appreciate it.Thank you Jacki Drewnoski

[John McQ]

I concur with those who have expressed disapointment with the loss of an extremely valuable resource,  Just with reading those submissions even after the fact of your announcement from people requiring help, demonstrates the need of this site.

Its all very well for us to be disappointed with our loss but I feel that we should be looking for solutions to be able to continue rather than accept a defeat due to lack of funding.

I also propose that a user fee be put in place either in the form of cost per submission or a membership fee. I personally would be willing to work with an arrangement like that where everyone who uses the resource pays for it. For someone who cannot afford the fee, free access to view the forum should be allowed to review the correspondence for answeres but anyone wishing to submit information should pay the fee.

Lets work together on this.

Thank you
John McQueen

[nancy]

This forum has been very valuable especially for piece of mind.  I like the idea of a membership fee or some other way. There must be a cardiac drug company that would be able to sponsor the forum, I think that all readers should band together to keep the forun solvent.  I trained at the clinic a number of years ago and beleive in the Foundation and I hope that there is someone or organization that will keep this forum alive.  Thank you for your help in the last months and I hope that we won't loose you.
Nancy

[marie]

This forum has been so wonderful!!  When I'm expereinceing a day with really bad PVC's I just log on and instantly I'm reassured.  Please, if anyone knows of a similar sight where you can hear from others with simlar problems please let us know!!!!

I agree that a membership or user fee would be ideal!!  What can we do to put this into place??

Marie

[Bruce W.]

I also would be willing to support thru a users fee.  I think John M.'s idea of requiring a fee for posting questions, but allowing free search/review of the questions and archive is a good solution.  I'd hate to lose this site.  Unfortunately, my post is one of the ones that couldn't be taken by limits, and only got in under comments and not directly answered.

Also, I've seen some posts that refer to other forums.  Could those of you who know, please post those sites?  I've been looking for something specifically for heart disease and arrythmias (Ventricular Tachychardia) as opposed to more generic medical support areas.  Thanks!

[Med Help]

Hi Guys,

All of the forums have limits on them, some more than others, this one was set to 15 questions per day (450 questions per month) and has been forced down to 1 question per day.

Unfortunately if someone clicks on the [POST] Button and elects not to post, the counter still counts up :(

Couple of things to note....

(a) I'm not sure what volume the other sites can handle but the Heart Forum is handling several hundred thousand visitors per month.

(b) We (at Med Help) have been and are continuing to work hard in order to gain sponsorships for this and the other forums. At this writing we are <B>extremely</B> optimistic about some of our prospects in the near future... so take heart? (sorry for the pun!)

(c) We know that everyone's questions are somewhat unique, however, please take some extra time to research answers that are here already.. we have TENS OF THOUSANDS of items/articles.

(d) The idea of charging a membership fee has been kicked around in the past and has some negatives and positives associated with it. What we will do is put up a poll in the Forum and see what YOU guys think about it and whether you (the community) want to support this.

Thanks for letting me drone.

Regards,
Phil
Med Help

[Gunter]

Has anybody investigated commercial sponsorship? We'll put up with flashing Bank or E-trade commercials on the top of the screen if we can ge the valuable info CCF doctors provide.

[kd]

I, too, have found the information from the CCF docs to be particulary helpful to my situations.  I'm not sure about the membership fee because I really don't like the loss of anonymity.
I have been wondering for some time why there couldn't be a section before questions somewhat like they have over at the MGH neurology site:  A list of common areas of question.  I would suggest that maybe CCF could put in the definition of, say, MVP and list symptoms, etc. before the archived questions relating to the area.  That might save CCF from having to answer over and over again the same questions for (example: MVP, tachicardia, PVC, PAC, MVP microsurgery, etc.) very common concerns.  IF this could cut down the number of questions coming in, it might be more economical.
Just a thought.
kd

[Med Help]

Hi Guys,
I put the poll online this morning ... we'll see how the turnout is. If you vote a second time it is ignored, however, you can see the raw data in the 2nd and successive votes.

Regards,
Phil

[Anonymous Membership Possible??]

While membership is a great idea, if it takes anonymous posting away then it may prevent a some of people from posting. Once someone posts, their personal medical details are public for the world to see.  It terms of this forum that may be okay.  But unfortunately in the USA insurance companies can legally collect this information and deny individual policies (not group policies - group coverage is protected by federal law) to people with expensive medical conditions. Is it possible to have memberships _and_ to keep the posters identity anonymous??

[Med Help]

We will ALWAYS keep people anonymous! I was thinking just sometype of login... user id/password to get into the forum or maybe a login to post. After the login, it would be the same as it is now where you can put in your (anonymous) name when you post.

Phil

[anon]

I am very thankful for this forum and would be willing to pay the membership fee.  Then I think of those who haven't any insurance and maybe couldn't afford membership... I have seen posts from such.  Do you know if there are enough people, willing to pay for membership, to actually be able to support the forum?  Are you still seeking out, maybe, a corporate sponsorship of some sort?

[carole]

Hi, my husband has been having periodic episodes of atrial fibrulation since he was about 30 years old. He is currently on quinidine, which seems to be helping.  For several years now, we have been trying to conceive a child.  I heard on the news a few months ago that certain heart medications may affect fertility in a man (I heard specifically calcium-channel blockers, but there was also something else mentioned that I missed).  I haven't been able to find any information since.  Is there any further information out there concerning this?  Neither my husband's cardiologist or my obstetrician had any answers.

[jean]

It seems like some people want an ongoing "second-opinion" type relationship with you and some just want a one-time "is any body out there" service.  Although corporate sponsorship is a great idea and my first choice, if that doesn't prove possible, perhaps you could consider initial questions free and charge a nominal fee for the ongoing ones.  (Also, comments would be without charge, specifying that any questions asked of you in a comment would not be answered.  Then, if you wanted to respond to some comment for clarity, it would be your choice.  This way, the comments would not be viewed as a format to submit questions.)

I definitely think access to the forum itself should be free.  Often a person can get enough general information by reading about other people's situation to allow them to be aware of things to discuss with their own physician.  All in all, my guess is this site grew out of a marketing idea, although the educational benefits are certainly powerful.  If your referrals are up because of it, maybe it's worth maintaining in the current fashion and not charging the participants for your marketing strategy.  If not, then offering this as a public service may mean finding resources to support it, whether through corporate sponsorships, your educational budgets, or by charging.

[Alan]

I don't mind supporting this site at all, since before my surgery I did get some help with questions asked and support from others that visited the site.  What I don't understand is that I know what it costs for a site such as this and since you where only answering about 10 questions a day it does not seem like that would be a ton of work.  My thoughts on this are that I had surgery done about 4 weeks ago and my bills up to this point are in excess of $55000.00 so it seams that with this site answering questions that a certain amount of people will go to the Cleveland Hospital and therefore the profits on answering a few questions could be astronomical.  As a business man I think it would be worth it to the Clevaland Clinic to pay for this site themselves.  Well, for the help of others I hope you do continue this site.  

Thanks again