Hi everyone
Dreading this test tomorrow. I went to see a cardiologist a couple of months ago, he listened intently to my heart for a good ten minutes and then told me that there is nothing wrong with it. I pointed to my swollen ankles, and calves (which my GP believes is just a side effect of the beta blockers and reversible when I come off them) and said 'even with these symptoms?' And he said 'even with those symptoms.'
He was very experienced and very kind and I felt so much better, but he said the way to put all this to bed is for me to have a dibuatimine stress echo. This is obviously a test that speeds up the heart to check for angina/blockages and at the same time gives an echo (checking heart structure).
I have PTSD, I witnessed something horrible and I really am not up to this, but know that it would be the only way to be really safe.
The cardiologist said he believes the tests will confirm what he thinks.
But I'm worried. If I attempt to lower the dose of my beta blocker even slightly, I get sensations in my arms. I also get palpitations and arm sensations when i've not eaten well for a day or two and eat on an empty stomach. One day it was quite strong and I called my GP. He said it's probably panic. It didn't feel like panic, it felt like my heart was stressed by the food.
I don't get problems when walking fast or walking uphill or anything, but I do sometimes get breathless when standing from sitting, the doctor said that's probably the beta blockers.
The thing is, I'm not ready to hear any results about my heart. At the same time I know that logically it's the best thing to have the test.
The other problem is I have a sickness phobia, plus terrible fear of any drug being put into me, especially if it's going to speed up the heart (to do the test). The test also makes some people nauseous, they said mild, but that means nothing to me.
I want to ask if I can do the basic exercise treadmill test instead, but because I'm on beta blockers my heart rate might not be able to go up enough on that for the test to be accurate.
Just not ready to hear about coronary heart disease. I went along initially for help with the ectopics, and thought the worst I'd have is an echo. From what I've read about coronary disease, blockages don't usually cause heart attacks, unless they become unstable and burst and lead to a blood clot in an artery. Since this is an unpredictable situation, even someone with extensive blockages might have stable ones and therefore not have this happen. If all that is the case, do I really want to hear about any blockages at this stage, since they are not necessarily the thing that's dangerous, it's unstable plaque that is....and I don't think these tests can distinguish between the two...I'm wondering if I can find out about this sort of stuff a bit later, rather than right now when I'm in such a mess.
Any thoughts are appreciated.
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