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How hard is it to get a doctor to test for pulmonary hypertension!!!
I started out with idiopathic dialated cardiomyopathy 5 years ago; that went away. But, I have had this problem where if I exert myself to a certain point, it's like someone threw a switch and all of the oxygen in the room turned into helium and I cant get a breath.... litteraly! I can breath just fine but it doesn't change. It can last for up to 3- 5 minutes depending on how hard the exertion is. My ejection fraction is in the 40's and my pulmomary function test was good, but it keeps happening. Now I'm completely out of energy and get short of breath just walking a block or so. I'm a big man and was in great shape. I still look good but feel like a 80 year old man. I have told my doctors how I feel and what I think it might be; and ive been to the emergency room over and over again but they keep checking my heart because of the past problems, and send me home. It's as if they don't believe me when I tell them what's happening. I am on disabillity and only have medicaid for coverage so I am at the mercy of the Denver health system and they are clueless. Has anyone else had these problems or can give me any advice. HELP!
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Did you have stress test? If problems show on your stress test, you may request angioplasty or sonogram of the coronary artery. See if you need holt monitor wearing it for 24 hours to see how your heart works under different circumstances. Feel well.
Yes, I had a stress test but they had to stop it because my heart rate went up too fast. My O2 sats drop to 84 after only 50 feet. I have a biventricular pacer that records every beat but it can't show much more than that. After my 9th trip to the ER, I finally threw a fit and called the docs incompitent, filed a complaint with the hospital, and called the state medicaid department about the problems and the cost to them for not doing their jobs. I think they are going to deal with me now considering the fact that they can be fined by the state for the number of times that I have been seen and discharged without them even looking for the cause. They act as if I'm drug seeking but I never once asked for drugs of any kind or complained of pain. I have been so frustrated by this that I have felt like just giving up all together and just crawling into a hole somewhere and dying. They set me up with an appointment with a pulmonologist and another pulmonary function test as well as another echo. Seems like a waste of effort since I have already had both of those tests in the past year. Part of the problem is that I don't look like I'm sick, I'm still in good shape as far as appearences with good muscular tone, color etc. And, at rest, the problems don't show up with an echo. THey need to do a cath on my right heart to determine what the problem is, and as yet thats the only test they haven't done. I have had all of the symptoms of pulmonary hyper tension since long before the heart failure, and heart failure is what results from the disease. THey called my cardiomyopathy idiopathic, I think I know the cause of it now. You would think that it might have occurred to them 5 years ago, but thats just my luck. THanks for writing back, it's good to have someone that I can talk to about this if I haven't typed your eyes out yet. THanks. Gary.
did you get an mri done or a echo. They may find it is still there. I would have these test done to make sure.