Feeling fobbed off

[Mi]

Just spent about 4 hours in a&e feeling extremely dizzy with an elevated pulse. Nurse did an ecg which was fine. She then did my bp and heart rate laid down and stood up. My bp actually rose although I felt faint and my heart rate went up from the 70s to over 100! She said this was not normal and questioned it. The doctor came to see me and told me it was anxiety. I wasn't anxious about standing up! Now I know I'm never going to be taken seriously by medical professionals ever again, even with signs such as this. They see how many times I've been in hospital and dismiss me

[Catherine S]

I doubt the doctor was talking about you being anxious just for standing up, he obviously meant the whole situation of being in A&E. Also, if you've been there a few times and been told the same thing, then he probably read your notes and could see for himself that you are a health anxiety sufferer. By the way, strange that the nurse thought it meant something, as BP can rise quite a bit when going from lying down to standing up, that's quite common.

ISB x

[Gary A]

You weren't dismissed though. You were checked over and received a diagnosis.

When the nurse tested your BP laying down and then standing up, she was checking for a condition known as orthostatic hypotension. This is a sudden fall in BP as you stand up. It can cause dizziness etc.

I don't understand why some people seem almost disappointed to receive a diagnosis that isn't something awful. :shrug:

[Mi]

My bp wasn't concerning. The nurse was concerned that my heart rate rose so much when standing up. It usually rises about 10bpm apparently and mine was about 30bpm. She said it needed looking into as it obviously wasn't right and something was wrong but when the doctor took the notes off her he didn't even read them until I pointed out my rise in heart rate, he simply said its fine you can go. When I asked him why my heart rate would rise so much from simply standing up he said it was caused by anxiety

[Catherine S]

For what its worth I think the doctor was correct. Your overall diagnosis was anxiety and the BP reading reflected this..ontop of the spike that standing would bring, which made it higher than just the standing up would make it without the extra anxiety...if that makes any sense. :wacko:

ISB x

[Hopefulmi]

Sometimes things like that happen to me and it's never anything sinister. I think the Dr was probably correct but it doesn't help HA much! Feel better soon x

[Mi]

Yes that does make sense - thank you. I think the problem is 111 wanted me to go in because after answering their questions about chest pain etc it's seen as a medical emergency even though I said I'm sure that and the breathing problems are down to anxiety as I've had them before. I'm on Propanolol and really wanted advice as to whether I should carry on taking it or not with getting so dizzy that I feel I'm going to pass out (bp is fine some times and low other times), I didn't actually want to go to a&e about it but I suppose when asking the questions they have to er on the side of caution x

---------- Post added at 21:53 ---------- Previous post was at 21:42 ----------

Thanks helpfulmi. It was probably just his manner that wasn't great and made me feel this way and the nurse made me a bit scared too saying it wasn't normal and something was obviously going on x

[Hopefulmi]

Yes throw away comments like that send me through the roof too!

[Mi]

I had them after my son as well. The sonographer said I had retained products and then I got told I didn't so that confused me - apparently a senior sonographer looked at the images after and decided it was just the normal clots but no one told me this at the time. I was also told my second d dimer was positive but my GP said it was negative. All of this has made me doubt everything I'm told unfortunately x

[countrygirl]

Do you feel dizzy while you are taking the beta blocker? I am asking as these drugs can lower your heartbeat temporarily so much that they make you feel faint/dizzy. This then causes severe anxiety and your heartrate shoots up.
Both heartrate and bp should rise when you go from laying down to standing. An severe increase together with fainting can be caused by a certain disease and I think this is wrongly what the nurse was worrying about but its extremely rare and you would not have it one day and not another its there all the time.
Also don't suddenly stop a beta blocker, you need to come off them gradually with your Drs knowledge.

Remember that nhs111 plus any medical person will when chest pain is mentioned always tell you to go to hospital, they have to regardless of age because they are covering their backs in the rare event the pain is from a heart attack.

Can you go back to your GP and discuss the beta blocker and explain your worries?

[Mi]

I'm currently taking 20mg of the beta blocker, just to wean myself off it as like you said you shouldn't just stop taking them although a couple of GPs have said I could I've been too worried about the side effects of just stopping. My heart rate is pretty good. It dropped to 50 when I was on 80mg but is now a steady 70-80. My dizziness is there constantly. I didn't think this was a serious medical condition, I was/am more concerned with my heart rate.
Yes you're right about them always sending you to hospital when chest pain is mentioned. The amount of times I've had to refuse an ambulance is silly.
I'll book an appointment to see my GP about the meds tomorrow x

[.Poppy.]

Ugh. There is a nurse at my doctors office and every. single. time. I go in and he takes my bp and heart rate he tells me that it "seems high for me". Usually it's anxiety or I'm actually sick so movement is an effort, hence the raised heart rate after walking back into the room.

It almost always freaks me out. Then my level headed doctor comes in, looks at it, and assures me that it's perfectly normal.

But I absolutely HATE that nurse. Also went in for a talk about my anxiety last week and had him again, he made a comment about my bp (stress related I'm sure) and when he asked me what I was there for rolled his eyes when I said anxiety. Yep, hate him.

Anyway, some people just have terrible bedside manner.

I'm sorry you had a stressful time but I hope you get to feeling better soon!

[Mi]

Thanks Poppy.
It really makes you think there is something seriously wrong when they voice an opinion like that.
Bugs me how people treat you when you suffer for anxiety, it's not like you are doing it on purpose and you are at the doctors admitting you have the problem and trying to solve it. That's a good thing! Xx

[2Anxious]

The egos on some (most) nurses is absolute insane. They think they're doctors when they most definitely are not. I've had anxiety related to my heart for a while now and I've read far too much about it. An increase in heart rate from 70s to low 100s is completely normal. Especially if you were in a stressful situation like A&E. I actually would've expected it to be higher.

I honestly have no idea why the nurse would act like this is out of the ordinary. Some people's heart rate increase far more. There are so many factors that causes the heart rate to change. Not enough sleep, if you've just eaten, what you've eaten, hydration levels and obviously stress/anxiety etc.

I usually take the 'better safe than sorry' approach when giving anyone advice but I really think you have nothing to worry about.

[MyNameIsTerry]

Remember that nhs111 plus any medical person will when chest pain is mentioned always tell you to go to hospital, they have to regardless of age because they are covering their backs in the rare event the pain is from a heart attack.

I would disagree on this because chest pain can be lots of things, some completely minor e.g. muscle strain. They should still work through the symptoms and determine if it is a possible emergency situation otherwise they need to be referring you to your GP. The NHS are trying to stop people going to A&E unless it's an emergency so 111 shouldn't be ignoring that.

I've always referred people to 111 but now I'm less sure about them. My mum was diagnosed with a chest infection by her GP and her symptoms worsened so that she could hardly breathe and had pain in her ribs. She is an asthma sufferer and in her mid seventies with blood pressure issues too so she has some health problems. My brother spent 20 minutes on the phone to 111 for them to eventually turn around and tell him it was a suspected heart attack, which we all dismissed. 20 minutes! The ambulance quickly arrives and have a different set of notes about a problem I can't remember but it wasn't a suspected heart attack. They checked her over and contacted base to get the local nursing service to take over. They spoke to us and sent the out of hours GP (it was in surgery hours though). The GP turns up, check her over as diagnoses suspected pneumonia. When we told him about 111 he advised us in a case like this never to ring 111! :shrug:

I couldn't understand why he said that since ringing 999 will mean they will be very cautious and probably send an ambulance? Or maybe they will do their jobs properly and do what the paramedics/nursing service did rather than tie up the paramedics?

---------- Post added at 04:51 ---------- Previous post was at 04:48 ----------


Ugh. There is a nurse at my doctors office and every. single. time. I go in and he takes my bp and heart rate he tells me that it "seems high for me". Usually it's anxiety or I'm actually sick so movement is an effort, hence the raised heart rate after walking back into the room.

It almost always freaks me out. Then my level headed doctor comes in, looks at it, and assures me that it's perfectly normal.

But I absolutely HATE that nurse. Also went in for a talk about my anxiety last week and had him again, he made a comment about my bp (stress related I'm sure) and when he asked me what I was there for rolled his eyes when I said anxiety. Yep, hate him.

Anyway, some people just have terrible bedside manner.

I'm sorry you had a stressful time but I hope you get to feeling better soon!

The guy is an ignorant fool, Poppy. He clearly doesn't believe in mental health having equality and so his opinion is really worthless.

My mum always has BP increases when she goes for her checks but she doesn't have any mental health issues. It can be natural worry at the doctors. She asked the practice sister and she replied that it is extremely common and they take it into account when doing such things. So, it doesn't surprise me at all that your GP takes a sensible view to this, he's understanding of how people get nervous.

Presumably this nurse wouldn't understand why so many people are nervous at a dentists either? :doh:

[Mi]

I agree Terry. 111 is meant to be the non emergency number, however, they treat every call as an emergency but the difference between them and 999 is that they ask you 101 questions - most of the answers are no but for some reason they still want to send an ambulance. The reason they were concerned in this case as when they asked if I had got chest pain the answer was yes but as I said to them it may be anxiety related. They then asked if I'd had leg pain which I had done for a couple of days. Because of these answers they wanted me to go to the hospital asap. I told the doctor there why they had wanted me to go and he instantly dismissed it saying that I don't "look like I have a clot" and that's the only reason I was told to go in. Before he ran the tests he said what tests he was going to do and then send me home. I was confused as my dr could have done the same tests so instead of keeping me there so long why not tell me to get an emergency appointment with my gp?! X