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Back in 1997 after the birth of my son, I started having chest "pressure". It was so hard sometimes, I could not breathe. It scared me and I went to see a heart doctor. I am beginning to think he saw "bright lights" when he saw my insurance and did every possible test imagineable. He did an EKG, I walked the treadmill, He did a sonogram on my heart (not sure what this is called), he made me wear a holter monitor, hum.....trying to remember if this is all he did. He then sent me home with TOPOL some kind of heart medicine! I did not take it, I was only mid 20's and thought there is no way this could be something bad!! So, I called another doctor, when I went in, he listened with a stetsoscope and said "I hear a very FAINT click....it is nothing you have to take medicine for, you never have to come see me again, nothing to worry about." He also said "Insurance does not think this is any problem at all". There was another doctor in the room with him, she kept listening to my heart and told the first doctor "I do not know what you are hearing, I hear absolutely nothing!!". He kept smiling and said "yes, I hear something". I left feeling like......Well, do I have it or not?????
Now, almost 5 years later, I am fine! I really have no symptoms, I am expecting my third child, and really ticked off! I feel like my medical record has now been "tainted" with this half-hearted diagnosis of MVP! We are self employed and have to purchase our own insurance, and I leave this off, thinking the insurance company would charge outrageous charges for something they will never have a claim on!! What do I do?? Should I pay myself to go to another doctor and see if they think I have this?? It would probably relieve my concerns about it. I honestly do not think I even have this condition. What do I do??
Thanks for any help!!
In Reply to: Question about MVP diagnosis.........PLEASE READ!! posted by Madelyn on October 17, 2001 at 15:10:36:
Go here to read about Dr. Stoll's views on MVP.
This should answer your questions.
~~~8>
In Reply to: Question about MVP diagnosis.........PLEASE READ!! posted by Madelyn on October 17, 2001 at 15:10:36:
Hi, Madeline.
I hope you have learned enough not to ever go back to THAT doctor. You have had enough heart tests to last a lifetime.
Your chest symptoms never had anything to do with your heart. At least all those tests just ruled that out! For your doc to actually give you a heart medication, when all the tests were normal, is inexcusable. I'll bet that he still has HIS license!
Listen to labrat (Thanks, labrat!)
If you are still having symptoms, let's figure out why and deal with the real causes. One of the problems with the MVP FAD is that it gives the doc an excuse not to look for the more difficult things to teach the patient. After all, time is money and nowhere more than in the general practice of medicine.
Walt
In Reply to: Re: Question about MVP diagnosis.........PLEASE READ!! (Archive.) posted by Walt Stoll on October 18, 2001 at 09:05:42:
I do not really have any symptoms. Every now and then, I will get something that feels like a small pain in my heart area, nothing major like the pressure I felt after the birth of my first child. Once, I was under a lot of stress, and it seemed to hurt more.....again in the chest area and went down my left arm. Nothing debilitating (spelling?) or to the point to make me rush to the doctor. I am currently pregnant now, and nothing is going on. Every now and then I will feel like my heart is beating faster, BUT that is normal in pregnancy. It is due to increased blood volume due to the baby.
What do I do about the insurance? Do you have any opinions on that? I feel like a health insurance company would try to take this "diagnosis" and run with it. Should I go see another doctor and get this "diagnosis" cleared up?? I honestly feel like my medical record has been "tainted" with this!! I feel quilty that I do not mention it on health insurance ! I have had two insurance agents (whom I told about the diagnosis) tell me to not even worry about it and if it were them, they would not mention it. However, being a Christian, I am having mixed concerns about it. UGH! That crummy doctor. I can still see his face telling me every test was FINE but he stood there and handed me a bottle of TOPOL. GGRR! Thanks again for all your help!!
Madelyn
In Reply to: Thank you for responding Walt.....PLEASE read (more) posted by Madelyn on October 19, 2001 at 09:26:12:
Yeah, Madelyn.
Your first, ignorant doc didn't care that he was ruining your future with insurance. It will be 20 mopre years until this bogus diagnosis is no longer made. In the meantime insurance companies will rate (or deny insurance) premiums on this basis. It will not even help for you to get another doc to certify that this is not a clinically significant opservation. Once ONE doc has put an ignorant note like this on your record, it takes an act of congress to get it off.
This is why I say that everyone should have a copy of their medical record in their home at all times. I also recommend that they challenge anything that they do not understand or that they disagree with. If the patient's challenge does not change the physician's mind, then that should be also entered into the record: "The patient disagrees with the diagnosis and we have agreed to disagree."
Perhaps you could exploit the fact that he said there was nothing wrong with your heart. I will bet, to practice CYA, that he did not write that down! After all, he could not admit that if he prescribed you any "heart medicine".
Your symptoms still sound like coctochondritis and that should have been an EASY diagnosis in the first place--without any of the expensive tests and ruining your insurance future.
Walt
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