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Should I switch cardiologists?
Greetings everyone I’m new to this website. I’m a 17 year old girl with suspected heart issues.
At the start of January of 2025 I would wake up out of my sleep with a rapid heart rate and high blood pressure for no reason at all. I started visiting a cardiologist, he did multiple tests and even a holter monitor. My monitor showed many events and very high heart rates for absolutely no reason. He discussed the results with me. He told me he was not sure yet so he ordered an echo. He did not discuss my echo results with me. Instead he told me he suspected it was an artery connecting from my heart to my lung I believe. He had another echo done and he told us nothing.
When I finally went back he looked at me and told me that nothing was wrong. I was in tears because I thought I was crazy. He decided to prescribe me metoprolol tartrate 2x a day to see if that would help.
Well fast forward a year later it worked great until my symptoms slowly started to show back up. We went back to the same cardiologist. He ordered another monitoring test. The same day I was at the office I had asked for my echo results and a woman gave them to me. I read that I have mild mitral valve regurgitation, and moderate tricuspid valve regurgitation at 308 m/s, and pulmonary hypertension.I have no idea what that means and hope it’s no big deal.
When I went back to get my monitor results read my cardiologist told me my heart rate dipped down to 44 at 6:10 am. He asked me if I was an athlete which I am not because usually athletes have a lower resting heart rate usually. Well my father asked him questions and he seemed to dodge the questions. Anything my dad would ask he would seem like he didn’t know.
When he left the room, I looked at my patient notebook that he never leave in the room. There were many things on the page that confused me. He had circled pulmonary hypertension , diastolic dysfunction, bradycardia, and tricuspid valve regurgitation. Which was very strange to me. I always would ask for a diagnosis but he never gave me one, he would just tell me he didn’t know. Which worries me that I’m taking medication for an unknown issue. Should I switch cardiologist or should I stay at the same office?
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I would find someone else if they are available
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3 ReactionsMost certainly, he’s mistreating you and not looking at you appropriately, I’ve had similar issues with cardiologist due to lack discussion as well. I think it arrogance, feeling you can’t handle technical details!
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3 ReactionsWhat is it that concerns you about your current cardiologist?
If you aren’t comfortable with what this person is telling you and prescribing for you, you need to find someone else.
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6 Reactions@itasarah
He basically just dodges questions that my parents have. He always says he doesn’t know but yet my charts have diagnosis' on them. He also doesn’t remember prescribing me medication. Which is very odd to me.
@altilla
Thank you so much for your input. I think I really will be transferring.
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4 ReactionsWe have your side of things as you relate them, and we don't know what he knows or suspects. It would be unethical for him to keep something about you that he knows needs attention to himself. At the very least he should inform your parent(s) so that they can support you. I don't see that here. So, time to look elsewhere in my non-lofty opinion.
I believe you have what must be, not positively, but what I suspect, are structural issues with your heart. The quoted ejection fraction is low. Why? There is an answer, and it 'should' have been evident from any number of tests. For example, an angiogram, a radio-dye stress test (stress test with contrast, usually done on a treadmill and with CT imaging), but the echo done properly by a capable operator/technician and then expertly interpreted by a radiologist should have shown clearly if anything was wrong.
There IS such a thing as pulmonary hypertension, and it can affect the heart's rhythm. Even pulmonary vein hypertension is a thing, rarely caused during a catheter ablation using radio frequency energy to cause scarring to stop spurious beat signals from causing ectopy or fibrillation/flutter.
Even if this person had told you that you have some serious issues and that you need a valve replacement or open-heart surgery, you and you devoted parents would have looked at each other and said, 'I think we need a second look.' So....it's a no-brainer to me.
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2 Reactions@gloaming
Yeah my parents are getting me referred to another cardiologist. With the pulmonary hypertension circled, I don’t think it’s that bad, my rvsp was 48 so I don’t think it’s that major. The cardiologist I have also has a history of misdiagnosing patients too… which we didn’t find out until recently.
Also thank you so much for your kind suggestion. It means a lot during my tricky time.
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4 ReactionsHi, @jaki101 and welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect. I am glad to see you created this discussion to get input from other members. You have gotten great feedback so far! Kudos to your parents for initiating a change for you to see a different cardiologist who will work with you to figure out what is happening.
You mention starting Metoprolol Tartrate, a beta blocker I believe a year ago used primarily to treat high blood pressure and chest pain, and works by slowing the heart rate and relaxing blood vessels to improve blood flow. Now your symptoms have come back but you did not mention any changes have been made to your medication. How are your symptoms, and your sleep currently? Are you able to find rest and relaxation through this process?
@jlharsh
Currently I’m still taking, metoprolol tartrate 25 mg in the Morning and at night. My symptoms are arrhythmias and trouble breathing when I lay down at night. I’m still having episodes where I wake up out of my sleep with a rapid heart rate and chest tightness. Relaxing is a rare thing for me, somethings always going on 😭
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