Heart Disorder can be Misdiagnosed as Epi.

[Shelley]

My mom always complained of her heart. She also said her mom died of an enlarged heart. My eldest son has a heart murmer. My nephew died because of a bad heart.
While I was never diagnosed with a bad heart, I have always had asthma. When I was a kid, I was treated for petit mal. I overheard my mom tell everyone else but me.
Seems strange that when I took myself off meds, I had no (known) seizures.
It also seems strange that the epsom salt supplement seems to have worked on my asthma. (I had to reduce the dosage, because of a side effect.)
Telling the doctor seems scary, cuz of the bad experience I had as a kid with them.

[RobinN]

It might be scary Shelley, but necessary to find all the answers.
I personally am wondering about the meds too.

[brain]

Shelley:

Better be checked out due to family history;
as the old adages goes ...

"Better safe than sorry"

"Penny-wise and not a Pound foolish"

"Prevention begins by being health-wise"

While I don't remember, but I think Benjamin Franklin quoted these in his Old Farmer's Almanac. He was notorious for penning a lot of famous
quotes to even the most popular ....
"Apple a day keeps the Doctor away".

I used to have a collection of them (Original
Collectibles to Classics and Modern Replicas).

[Shelley]

I know in a previous post I had mentioned my family history of heart problems.
Question: has anyone had heartburn (or at least I think its heartburn) so bad that it felt like a cat was using your heart as a scratching post? No, ginger ale didn't work, yes it lasted all night and all day. Yes, I went to my doctor, yes I am being refered to a cardiologist.
And yes, I am still scared bout telling them about the childhood diagnosis.
I am also seeing my chiropractor as a way to deal with the pain, and chronic belching.
So how does one talk about the childhood diagnosis of epilepsy (not currently on meds) especially avoiding the inevitable pat on the head, and being told its all in my head?

[Bernard]

I have not, but if your problems are related to ulceritis/heartburn/etc., perhaps a change in diet would help. Have you looked at the GARD/GFCF diet? It's supposed to help with that sort of thing.

[RobinN]

It is certainly less invasive to try diet. Some complain that it is too expensive, though I don't think that has to be the case. It takes some creativity to start and then it becomes the norm. Of course you should follow through with the medical tests, but use good judgement and common sense and take care of the dietary changes that need to be made.

[brain]

I know in a previous post I had mentioned my family history of heart problems.
Question: has anyone had heartburn (or at least I think its heartburn) so bad that it felt like a cat was using your heart as a scratching post? No, ginger ale didn't work, yes it lasted all night and all day. Yes, I went to my doctor, yes I am being refered to a cardiologist.
And yes, I am still scared bout telling them about the childhood diagnosis.
I am also seeing my chiropractor as a way to deal with the pain, and chronic belching.
So how does one talk about the childhood diagnosis of epilepsy (not currently on meds) especially avoiding the inevitable pat on the head, and being told its all in my head?

I have a Cardiologist and have had one for
many years and he works alongside with my
Neurologist.

There's no need for you to be scared of seeing
a Cardiologist; because actually - seeing the
Cardiologist will benefit the Neurologist. They
can actually work together as a Team.

A Cardiologist can do more things and find more
things that a Neurologist is unable to do so; and
if there is anything there - then teamwork is done
to work in conjunction with each other for your
own well being.

Actually Cardiologist are easier to talk to than
a Neurologist, at least from my own personal
experience. They're funny, well most of them
are, at least to me 99.2% of them were. I have
both Cardiologist and Cardio-Surgeons - the
Cardio-Team.

I've been seeing a Cardiologist since 20 years
old (and I'm over 45 now), and like my EEG's,
nearly all my EKG's are abnormal. In fact, I
will be seeing my Cardiologist next month.

So if you have any questions - please post,
and I will answer anything you need to know;
I've been through it all from simple tests of
Holter & HR/BP Monitorings to Stress Tests.
I've been through TEE & Echocardiograms.
Been through it all - T.I.A. to Myocardial
Infarctions - 3 times in my life with the first
one being only 20 years old (I'm over 45 now).

[Shelley]

had my heart test today. Some sort of nuclear whatchacallit test.Its where they inject this die into your bloodstream, and take pix and put you on a hampster wheel.
Seems as tho' the split the heart reading into a couple of different lines. It also looked liked my peaks and valleys sometimes get bunched, then are wide apart. Wiil find out the result monday.
Not only that, but my chiropractor thinks it could be an ulcer.
Something tells me that in the end, they'll tell me head ain't screwed on right.

[Zoe]

I'm glad you had the test and hope the results give you some solid answers about your symptoms. Maybe as a kid you were having some kind of heart spells that were not recognized. Let us know when you get the results.

[Shelley]

I got a quick synopsys of the results. My heart is mostly normal. I started out with normal blood pressure at the beginning, but ended with high blood pressure at the end of the test.
They gave me some sort of 'glow in the dark' dye.
They called it a radioactive tracer so that they can get a pic of my heart. One before the treadmill test, one after. I was watching the waveforms on the ekg machine, it didn't look 'normal' to me.
My chiropractor thinks it may be an ulcer. I need to talk to my boss to get at least part of Monday off to try and talk to my gp.

[brain]

Did you have a EKG Ultrasound?

[RobinN]

Shelley - A couple of years back my husband was having some pain in his chest. He would go out for his run, and have to return. The testing that was being done said everything was okay. I kept pushing him to return, because obviously everything was not okay. He took the treadmill test and finally something showed up. He went in for surgery, and they found that his main artery was 85% blocked. Testing done during surgery showed that he had had two small heart attacks. I didn't know they leave little marks on your heart. How that did not show up on other tests...I have no idea. He had a stint put in and now he is fine. All testing since has been positive.
Use your instincts, and if something isn't right...don't let them drop it.

[Bee91]

I'm Gonna go ahead and aplaogize ahead of time...I took too much Tegretol this morning...(its a long story) but if I dont make any sense Im sorry I feel higer than a kite right now I'm really glad Im not at school though...

I have had some tests with my heart. It turns out I do have some problems with my heart. Maybe sthat ius why they have had some problems diagnosing me with epilepsy. But I have spells where I pass out and it apparently looks like I am seizing when I really am not. I can tell a difference but the school staff can not. I also have bradycardia. I never had it until after I had epilepsy though so we think all of my heart problems are related somehow...My doctor thinks I have brain damage in the part of the brain that controls my heart or something like that...I dont know...

[RobinN]

My doctor thinks...

Doesn't sound like he knows either Bee. That sounds like a cop-out to me. You are still young, your brain is still forming itself. They should be offering suggestions as to how to become as healthy as possible, not just load you up with drugs.

Explain how you took too much tegretol? Do you have a dispenser to use? That can't be very good for you.

[Bee91]

Yesterday I had a seizure so I went to bed quite early (6:3.0) I thought I was just taking a nap so I wasnt planning on taking my meds cos it was too early,well wejtn I woke up(at about 5 30) I took my morning meds (Tegretol 200mg) then I remembered that I hadnt taken meds from last night I asked my mom (my mom being an RN) if I should take them now since it was still early in the morning or if I should just skip that dose. My night dose is when I take most of my meds so I really didnt want to skip that dose. She told me to go ahead and take it...And being on meds that really mess with your head I took my Topamax, I skipped oout on my Klonopin (i didnt want to get extra sleepy) but I forgot that I had already taken a Tegretol for the Morning...And I took another Tegretol..So about 2 hours later I was way crazy...I was very dizzy, out of it, light headed, couldnt remember anything, and had drinken a litre and a half of water (I dont know what that has to do with anything...is that a side effect of Tegretol? Im not sure? But I thought that was pretty strange that I was that thirsty...) just a mess...then it hit me...I took double the amount of what I was supposed to take...I rushed up to my mom's room and told her the story. She had a drug book and told me that I was going to be fine, but I was just going to be quite out of it for the rest of the day just let her regulate my meds for a whiel...hehe...me meds have made me a little stuped I guess...

Yeah...I have a container for them...but..I dont know...I just wasnt thinking clearly...

[RobinN]

Well I guess some of life's lessons have to learned the hard way. Hope you are back to your best self real soon. Not worth being out of it on the weekend.
Do you have any fun plans?

[Bee91]

Doesn't sound like he knows either Bee. That sounds like a cop-out to me. You are still young, your brain is still forming itself. They should be offering suggestions as to how to become as healthy as possible, not just load you up with drugs.

Yeah...but he's the only doctor who is willing to do anything. Every other doctorc Ive been to just blows me off like I am nothing important.

We arent medicating right now for heart problems..I went to a cardiologist and she said there are other ways to solve this problem other than meds (hmm...my kind of doctor She told me to drink at least two litres of water a day, eat 3 meals a day, and increase your salt intake (to retain the water and raise your Blood pressure...) ...it seems to do the job...

[Bee91]

none at all...I get to see my baby cousin...thats about it for this weekend...and catch up on the homework...fun...

[RobinN]

What have we done to our medical system? So sorry you find yourself in the middle of the crisis that has been created.
When I was little the doctor use to come to my bedside when I was sick. That wasn't so-o-o-o-o long ago.
Have you read up on some of the breathing techniques that are suggested around the forum?

[Bee91]

I haven't seen any of those...