Urgent phone call from hospital after seven day ECG monitor

Where in the UK can you see a cardiologist for £30? Any private consultation now is at least £130 plus thousands for for the tests required. I went to see a surgeon privately when waiting for my aortic valve replacement. If I had gone ahead with surgery rather than wait for the NHS it would have cost £28K and the possibility of several thousand more if I had needed a pacemaker fitted.

The aortic valve surgery was the cause of me initially going into AF. 

It was basically the result of the 7 day monitor. I was not in AF but had irregular heartbeats with up to 3 second gaps as I have been pointing out for years without reaction from consultants. So the diagnosis is at last tachybrady syndrome. First a prior procedure assessment and some blood tests and then a dual chamber pacemaker to be fitted in the next three or four weeks. He said that with the heart rate controlled beta blockers have less side effects but he wants me back on an anticoagulant and suggets one of the variants to warfarin rather than the new ones that I fear for uncontrolled bleeding. I told him that my side effects were less since taking my meds at night and he had no objection to that but did not have a reason for the side effects being less during the day....he actually says that the 'side effects' are symptoms rather than side effects..  

My experience with A&E is that they do nothing and want you to be seen by the consultant treating you when it suits him. It has never got me quicker treatment.

Totally agree re drugs : if anyone told me to take 5 mg of Bisoprolol again I'd refuse, whatever the results: it was a case of the cure being worse than the disease.

Take it easy this weekend - do a bit of armchair racing!

Best wishes

Today did the heavy shopping, now some racing and then out to see the local summer cavalcade. Don't want a hospital appointment for Tuesday as that is my next racing day. I once many years ago had a weekend of irregular heartbeats. On the Monday I debated another day of rest, go to the doctor or go to the races.

I went to the races . The first race was a thriller with two big priced ones that I had backed going past the post together. During the long wait for the Judge separating the pixels on the photo finish one of the trainers said to the other that it had his heart racing. I suddenly realised that mine had gone back into sinus rhythm:-)

I said to my wife after this year’s Grand National finish that it should have put me back in sinus rhythm but somehow it didn't work that time.

Doctors have for years told me that they no longer can influence hospital appointment or waiting times and it is better to contact them yourself.

Results tend to come back very slowly from hospitals. My GP had to try three times to get a CT scan result I had outwith our local area. He also had a patient who had the same scan in Harley Street that he also had to chase up for a second time.

At the audiology clinic that my wife goes to at a big practice messages flash up on their big screen. One says that hospital test results take a month to come through.

As I said in my opening post it brings my normally slow (or heart rate of the past fifteen years) down too much and very quicky. A nurse recently asked if had been an athlete in my young days as my heart rate is so low usually in the 40's.

When taking Bisoprlol combined with Losartan the BP drop makes me light headed and with the feeling of a loss of power from my heart when walking. The problem for doctors is finding the drug that suits a patient quickly and with so many to choose from it is difficult. They all seem to have their favourites to use.

I once had a consultation with a Professor at a major London hospital who put me on Perindopril and wrote of it in such glowing terms that my GP said that the practice was switching all of their BP patients to it. In my case the side effects were so bad that I was put back on Losartan about the one drug that had not previosly given me bad side effects. 

Having diagnosed me as having tachybradycardia and saying that I had not been in AF during the seven days and then speaking about blood thinners he then wanted me on them because of AF. I had  assumed that tachybradycardia was different from AF but Dr Google says:

"Fast heart rhythm that occurs in bradycardia-tachycardia syndrome is often atrial fibrillation"

The WATCHMAN Left Atrial Appendage Closure Device is a proven alternative to long-term warfarin therapy for stroke risk reduction in patients with atrial fibrillation.