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@yellowdoggirl You deserve to be treated better. Perhaps another opinion with a different electrophysiologist would benefit you? You may want to print out all the symptoms that you wrote about here and take that with you to your appointment in September, and discuss with your doctor how you feel dismissed by the specialist. You already have a fracture from a fall.
Have you considered using a cane or walker for stability? I have both of those after fracturing my ankle badly and it really does help. That was 2 years ago, and that was a long difficult recovery. My ankle is still weak, but I do OK.
You always have to advocate for yourself. Remember, you are the customer and your doctors work for you. You deserve complete explanations and discussions about your health so you understand your conditions. You can hire someone else if you feel like your doctor isn't doing a good job. Talk to your PT about all this too. PT's know lots of doctors because they get referrals from them. They can be a great source of information if you are doctor shopping. PT's can also tell you if they suspect you have a serious issue that needs to be seen. They can't diagnose the problem, but they see enough to know what is going on with many patients and which doctors the patients are seeing for specific problems. It's great that you have no blockages. If you talk about fear of falling because you feel a bit tired and dizzy, that will probably get your doctor's attention. If it does not, that would be a huge red flag to me. This is always a big concern for aging patients. If they don't listen, they are not doing their job.
We have a Heart Rhythm Group with a lot of discussions that may interest you that you can find here: https://connect.mayoclinic.org/group/heart-rhythm-conditions/
I do see that you have posted there, so hopefully you will get responses.
Here is a discussion where members are talking about low heart rates.
"Bradycardia What's a Too Low Heart Rate"
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/bradycardia-whats-a-too-low-heart-rate/
Could you share your list of questions that you want to ask your doctor?
Replies to "@yellowdoggirl You deserve to be treated better. Perhaps another opinion with a different electrophysiologist would benefit..."
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@jenniferhunter, sure I will share my list when it's compiled. Yes, I had encouragement from one person in the group. Thank you for your time in writing all these things!
I have a great PT who has helped me a lot over the years including by directing me to the best shoulder surgeon around for a problem which PT could not solve. I probably trust him more than any of my other medical people.
I have another electrophysiologist picked out to whom I might go. A woman! In general, I think they listen better than the often-dismissive men. Checking my appointments I see that my next appointment with the electrophysiology department is actually with the APRN, not with the MD who hasn't returned one email from me in 2 years. It seems like a really strange culture!
I get really confused about him. I don't know what to make of him except he doesn't seem very helpful.
Maybe he is a good mechanic and that got him where he is. That is important, too, I know.
My mom had a pacemaker at age 85 after a big open surgery on her heart. That was almost an After thought. She was in the cardiac ICU for 3 weeks which was unheard of. That's too long of a story. This is long, too, because I've been telling them for at least 2 years that my heart rate was in the '40s while they said "Oh no it is always in the seventies" even though they had no way of knowing.
There are so many contradictions in this whole saga that I just don't know what to think sometimes. That's the real problem. I can't even begin to relate all that stuff.
Swimming and walking make me happy so I just keep at it.
My friend broke her ankle in Italy years ago and it took a very long time to heal. She was working there and flew back with a cast on her foot concerned all the while about getting a blood clot. The treatment for it in Italy cost her nothing. Quite a difference from here!
Thank you again for your help!