Please can someone help me with this??

[rossgirl]

Hi
A brief synopsis of my story...
I've had the dreaded ectopic beats on and off for years, but recently I've had a great spell where they've not been apparent. However, for the last six weeks, I've had them permanently, that's 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. I've visited my GP several times and been to our local hospital for ECGs etc, and I've been told every time that they're nothing to worry about. However, on Saturday, I felt so ill I was taken to the hospital where I was hooked up to the ECG machine where, thankfully, the ectopic beats showed up. The nurse was also a paramedic and was fantastically thorough, he explained it all brilliantly, I have PACs which have become a bigeminy rhythm. I also saw the on call doctor who was also great and explained it all and suggested blood tests and a 24 hour monitor so to see my own GP to arrange.
My GP is on holiday this week and so I saw a locum this morning. She was obviously off on the day they taught bedside manner at med school....what a b*tch she was. She totally dismissed me, I gave her the EcG printouts and she said "oh, they are awful aren't they, you have lots of irregular beats." I asked her for the referral which she wasn't keen on doing, she begrudgingly did it, but refused the blood tests as she said I'd had them done four months ago and they wouldn't have changed! She said she couldn't reassure me I wouldn't have a heart attack in the meantime as they did look "quite bad"!!! What on earth??!! I came home and sobbed and sobbed and feel absolutely awful now. What can I do?? I feel as if I might drop dead today, I'm so angry, upset and my heart is beating so off rhythm, it's making me feel so terrible.
Please can someone help me? My partner is so unsympathetic and thinks I'm fussing about nothing, but I genuinely feel as if death is preferable to this living hell im enduring right now...:.

[Gary A]

Hi
A brief synopsis of my story...
I've had the dreaded ectopic beats on and off for years, but recently I've had a great spell where they've not been apparent. However, for the last six weeks, I've had them permanently, that's 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. I've visited my GP several times and been to our local hospital for ECGs etc, and I've been told every time that they're nothing to worry about. However, on Saturday, I felt so ill I was taken to the hospital where I was hooked up to the ECG machine where, thankfully, the ectopic beats showed up. The nurse was also a paramedic and was fantastically thorough, he explained it all brilliantly, I have PACs which have become a bigeminy rhythm. I also saw the on call doctor who was also great and explained it all and suggested blood tests and a 24 hour monitor so to see my own GP to arrange.
My GP is on holiday this week and so I saw a locum this morning. She was obviously off on the day they taught bedside manner at med school....what a b*tch she was. She totally dismissed me, I gave her the EcG printouts and she said "oh, they are awful aren't they, you have lots of irregular beats." I asked her for the referral which she wasn't keen on doing, she begrudgingly did it, but refused the blood tests as she said I'd had them done four months ago and they wouldn't have changed! She said she couldn't reassure me I wouldn't have a heart attack in the meantime as they did look "quite bad"!!! What on earth??!! I came home and sobbed and sobbed and feel absolutely awful now. What can I do?? I feel as if I might drop dead today, I'm so angry, upset and my heart is beating so off rhythm, it's making me feel so terrible.
Please can someone help me? My partner is so unsympathetic and thinks I'm fussing about nothing, but I genuinely feel as if death is preferable to this living hell im enduring right now...:.

I would complain to your surgery about the locum that you saw, what an awful attitude.

As for your condition, these types of arrhythmia in absense of any underlying heart disease or historical heart attacks are actually very harmless. It's probably worth getting some proper testing done, which you have been referred for, but in fairness you have had some previous testing that threw up nothing of note.

As your ectopics seem to be quite sporadic, that again suggests a very benign cause. Sudden cardiac deaths in relation to these types of arrhythmia are very rare, and almost always accompanied by severe underlying heart conditions. Your tests show nothing of the sort, so try not to worry so much.

Go for your tests and allow the cardiology team to rule out anything nasty, but as things stand you have a very common arrhythmia that, for the vast majority of people, is perfectly harmless, and actually rarely even requires any treatment.

[skymaid]

complain about that gp. thats a disgrace.

go see another one and have them actually reassure you about the results.

poor you :(

[rossgirl]

Thank you Gary and Skymaid....you have helped me to see this more rationally. I am still fuming about the login GPs response, I may well complain to the practice manager about her. Bedside manner is definitely not her strong point. It's such a small rural surgery, there are only two GPs there, one is a female who is impossible to get an appointment with, and the other, my usual, is the one on holiday. I may have to wait a while before I can get to see them....:-(