Cardiac Tests

[goodeys]

Is it possible to have had a chest x-ray, echo, ecg's, Chest CT and for them all to come back normal but for them to miss something seriously wrong with the heart?

[goodeys]

No epidural just gas and air for 15 hours and it was a back to back birth. Wish i had had an epidural. They have done loads of blood tests but i am not sure what has or hasn't been tested for. Am requesting a copy of my medical notes and will see what it says.
|Many thanks for your message debi, i am sure that something will change sooner or later, it cannot continue like this. Sam

[debola53]

You can have post partum cardiomyopathy, but that would definitley show up on the ECHO. I am curious-did you have an epidural at all? I wonder if you have some nerve damage of some sort. It does not sound like nothing-I am sorry about the health care coverage. Perhaps it is not strickly related to your heart. Have they checked out other things? Good luck-I am so sorry you are going through this-Debi

[goodeys]

All started after childbrith two months ago. Had some chest pain and kept on passing out. My heart rate was really low for a while and now it is tachy. Still have a lot of chest pain constantly. Pain in my back. Pressure in chest and back. Burning sensation in chest. Waking up with burning pins and needles down both arms. My circulation is now really poor, one minute i am white whilst laying down and then if i walk around my legs, hands and feet turn a purple sort of colour. My blood pressure is now 130/100 and i am usualy 110/60 - even through pregnancy it didn't go over 120/80. I now have an arrhythmia and lots of ectopic beats which I didn;t have before the birth. I just feel really ill with it too. Having a constant headache on the left side of my head and today i now have a roaring in my ears. I really feel like my body is dying.

I am only 27 and the docs do not take me seriously, they think that I am having some sort of meltdown and think that it can be treated with anti depressents, valium and beta blockers. I swear to god though that it is not me doing this, it gets worse everyday.

I would never normally disbelieve doctors and i didn't at first but things have steadily got worse.
I am in the UK so it is all on the NHS, once they have seen you and tested you they will not bother again. i am now seeing a private cardiologist but it is so expensive. he is doing another ecg, echo and a 48hr monitor. Over £1000 already though and we don;t have private health cover!!!

Can you damage yoru heart through child birth and it not be picked up?

[SillyHeart]

It sort of depends what your symptoms are.  Something like clogged arteries could be missed, or an arrhythmia that wasn't occurring when you were on the EKG.  There are obscure heart conditions that can only be diagnosed by other more specific tests but they're very rare.

The chances are great that nothing serious is wrong with you.

[artskip]

What do you think they might have missed? What are your symptoms?  What always in the back of my mind is the story of the person who goes to the Dr. get a clean bill of health, and drops dead a couple of hours later. Who knows maybe thats an urban legend.  Any test is accurate for the period of time that is was taken, thats why they will redo tests 6 months, or a year later to see if anything has changed.  If you not comfortable, get a second opinion(or even a third), thats never a bad thing to do. It's important to have a Dr that understands your issues.
It's really hard for me to accept that my heart beating this way is OK. medically.

[Jerzeegal]

Well technically anything is possible but usually when you get a complete cardiac workup and blood work then given a clean bill of health you can be pretty sure that there is nothing seriously wrong. The only thing that can be missed are some arrythmias that may not always show up on the tests. They use a holter monitor or event monitor to try and capture these.

Jerz