breathlessness &swollen ankles and feet
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Just been to GP for annual health check.Suspected heart attack in February.ecg ok.Have become breathless,exhausted and swollen ankles and feet daily.She sounded me with her stethoscope and prodded my puffy ankles.Said she is sure it is cardiac related and has put me on 50mg spironolactone daily.Did not specify what exactly wrong.See her 19thMay.Only thing I can find on spironolactone is that it is used for heart failure which is a tad scary.Any advice?
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Bob37393 gillian_25383
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lyn1951 gillian_25383
Posted
Do not be afraid of asking questions of your GP.
Why are my ankles swollen, why am i sooo breathless, write down your questions before appt and present Dr with the that list of questions.
If she cannot answer to your satisfaction get a referral to that cardiologist, or explain in detail why you don't need to see cardio specialist.
I did for my husband when our GP told us there was nothing wrong, the specialist dicovered he had major heart problems, and the GP was not reading ECG correctly, never actually said so, but she did say how did he miss that, and pointed out the anomility on his ECG readout.
I have learnt from that how to read ECG for heart failure, I asked questions of the specialist, the nurses when he was admitted to the hospital, or my husbands form of heart failure.
Interesting that he doesn't get the swollen ankles, but he does get very breathless, he has dialated cardiomyopathy with Left Branch Bundle Blockage or LLLB.
His weight also can change by 3 -4 kilos over a couple of days, we keep a diary of what his weight is doing every morning as soon as he gets up.
I also have a blood pressure monitor with heartbeat reading, about 65, and if his blood pressure changes by too much, have checked with specialist what his normal should be, 130/75, remember he is on alot of medication, and he wrote in down in my diary for me, that can be any time of the day or night, a couple of weeks ago it was first thing in the morning he reported to me he didn't feel right, he was dizzy and his legs felt like rubber. his heartbeat was tooo slow, if that happens its an emergency and I take to to emergency department and tell them he is a diagnosed heart failure patient, he was admitted to hospital and they installed a pacemaker with defibulator. He has improved out of site, no longer breathless.
The telling issue will be when he has his next echocardiogram somewhere about jun or july, we do have an appt to download the readings from the pacemaker memory in June.
That gets them to sit up and take notice.
Therfore the importance of having the correct diagnoses.
gillian_25383 lyn1951
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lyn1951 gillian_25383
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I wouldn't be waiting if those symptoms had happened to my husband over the last two weeks.
Sorry to be sooo blunt, but i agree you are an idiot ignoring that bad "angina attack" that could easily have been fatal.
I know the Dr's told me some years ago now that let us decide if you are having a heart attack, a high percentage that decide for themselves it is nothing end up dying, we would be very happy to find you have bad indigestion, would be a relief for both of us, rather than find it is sommore serious. I have had a couple of episodes of unusual pain in chest, one turned out to be peri-carditis, water around heart that can become life threating, cause maybe a virus, and second time at dentist after injection, suddenly couldn't breathe, maybe anthestestic hit a small vein and or had an allergic reaction, and carried straight back to my lungs and heart, even they were not sure, and a very rare occurance, but they could see the link and cared for me very carefully with half hour observations for the next 12 hours or so in cardiac resus section of emergency department.
gillian_25383 lyn1951
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lyn1951 gillian_25383
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gillian_25383 lyn1951
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