Satellite Question

[ChalkRocker]

In a hospital bed all day today so lots of college football I guess. 7k to watch football.

Sorry to learn this, but glad you're salty enough to gripe about [it]. Get well soon

[Shirley]

Went to the hospital last night bc the nurse lady thought I should over the phone. From everything I was reading i self diagnosed it was a pulled muscle causing tightness and problems breathing along with a viral infection. But still go. Apparently had juuuuuust over the treponin levels that the cardiologist at a nearby larger hospital wanted me to go there. Of course I couldn’t go with BUD in her car. Got be ambulance. Then cardio here suggests a catheter to inspect heart that has a 1 in 500 chance of heart failure or death. Naw dog. I’m good. Rest a while, blood pressure back to great levels, treponin at normal levels, new cardio says a couple more tests and mild levels of elevated treponin might not have to deal with a direct heart issue at all but my guess is a severe viral infection with a significant pulled chest muscle.

So a. I was very likely right and now we gotta pay this deductible because US healthcare costs are the worst in the modern world to confirm webMD searching
B. This other cardio wanted me to do a 16k procedure with a significant chance of death without waiting to see if maybe it wasn’t a heart attack? Wut?

Very sorry to hear about this Pdub. Hopefully, most likely, it will turn out not to be cardiac-related, and you can go home and get back to your regularly scheduled life, very soon. Hopefully you have your devices, (One of my greatest fears is being hospitalized without mine, and a charger.), and internet access?

I hope they rule your heart out and you can go home later today. Please let us know, if you don't mind.

_______________________________________________________________________

"Chest pain with shortness of breath", especially in a male, is your heart, until proven otherwise. An initial "slightly elevated troponin level", while not in an of itself "diagnostic", only adds to the likelihood it's cardiac. (Is this an increasing or decreasing troponin level? Nobody knows...)

I've never had a reason to think about your age, but my impression is that you're close but not yet 40, non-smoker... Good, very good, but not exclusionary, whatsoever.

The art of medicine is being able to, with some degree of accuracy, "know" the difference between cardiac and non-cardiac chest pain. Many people, especially women, don't have either. "Heartburn, nausea, jaw/shoulder/back pain, etc.

+So, Mr. ER physician, you didn't "think" it was his heart? What do the terms "chest pain, shortness of breath and an elevated troponin level" make you think of, if not someone's heart?" Your wife's attorney asks, as s/he demonstrably takes his eyes off the doctor sitting in the witness stand, slowly turns his head, and gazes out into the front row of the courtroom at the newly-widowed, single-parent young woman, and her now fatherless child sit...

"Doctor, have you ever heard the term: 'Time is heart muscle?' (Every doctor knows that.) But still, knowing that, you thought it was OK to wait for the next troponin level, 3 hours, instead of doing a test with only a 1 in 500 chance of morbidity/mortality, and risk letting the occlusion in pdub's coronary artery propagate and more and more cardiac tissue die, while you did nothing? Was saving $16,000 worth the life of the widow pdub, and her now fatherless child?

But, you didn't care enough to do anything? Anything? What kind of animal are you?

I could go on.

[pdub]

Stress test tomorrow.
Fingers crossed it all goes well and they can shrug their shoulders and say, “virus complications but nothing to worry about.”

[RainbowsandUnicorns]

Went to the hospital last night bc the nurse lady thought I should over the phone. From everything I was reading i self diagnosed it was a pulled muscle causing tightness and problems breathing along with a viral infection. But still go. Apparently had juuuuuust over the treponin levels that the cardiologist at a nearby larger hospital wanted me to go there. Of course I couldn’t go with BUD in her car. Got be ambulance. Then cardio here suggests a catheter to inspect heart that has a 1 in 500 chance of heart failure or death. Naw dog. I’m good. Rest a while, blood pressure back to great levels, treponin at normal levels, new cardio says a couple more tests and mild levels of elevated treponin might not have to deal with a direct heart issue at all but my guess is a severe viral infection with a significant pulled chest muscle.

So a. I was very likely right and now we gotta pay this deductible because US healthcare costs are the worst in the modern world to confirm webMD searching
B. This other cardio wanted me to do a 16k procedure with a significant chance of death without waiting to see if maybe it wasn’t a heart attack? Wut?

Sorry to read this but glad you seem to be ok!

Semi related note. My cousin's niece is a Cardio Nurse at Northwestern. Told us she has a guy who is 30 something years old who had been in jail for committing a murder when he was 18. Dude needs a heart transplant. He's currently in the hospital cuffed to his hospital bed.
Guess who pays for his transplant - if he gets one? Perhaps the bigger moral question is does he deserve one?
I'm asking as someone who's father died at Loyola Hospital in 1988 while awaiting a heart transplant.

[Shirley]

Stress test tomorrow.
Fingers crossed it all goes well and they can shrug their shoulders and say, “virus complications but nothing to worry about.”

That's great news, pdub! Very glad to hear it.

After your stress test comes back normal, you'll not only get to go home, but you'll have some piece of mind, too.

[Shirley]

Went to the hospital last night bc the nurse lady thought I should over the phone. From everything I was reading i self diagnosed it was a pulled muscle causing tightness and problems breathing along with a viral infection. But still go. Apparently had juuuuuust over the treponin levels that the cardiologist at a nearby larger hospital wanted me to go there. Of course I couldn’t go with BUD in her car. Got be ambulance. Then cardio here suggests a catheter to inspect heart that has a 1 in 500 chance of heart failure or death. Naw dog. I’m good. Rest a while, blood pressure back to great levels, treponin at normal levels, new cardio says a couple more tests and mild levels of elevated treponin might not have to deal with a direct heart issue at all but my guess is a severe viral infection with a significant pulled chest muscle.

So a. I was very likely right and now we gotta pay this deductible because US healthcare costs are the worst in the modern world to confirm webMD searching
B. This other cardio wanted me to do a 16k procedure with a significant chance of death without waiting to see if maybe it wasn’t a heart attack? Wut?

Sorry to read this but glad you seem to be ok!

Semi related note. My cousin's niece is a Cardio Nurse at Northwestern. Told us she has a guy who is 30 something years old who had been in jail for committing a murder when he was 18. Dude needs a heart transplant. He's currently in the hospital cuffed to his hospital bed.
Guess who pays for his transplant - if he gets one? Perhaps the bigger moral question is does he deserve one?
I'm asking as someone who's father died at Loyola Hospital in 1988 while awaiting a heart transplant.

Sorry to hear that about your father Gutter.

How aggravating is it that something in such short supply, a healthy heart for a transplant, for a murderer, is one less heart available for someone who didn't commit murder?

[ChalkRocker]

Stress test tomorrow.
Fingers crossed it all goes well and they can shrug their shoulders and say, “virus complications but nothing to worry about.”

Fingers crosssd here, too, bro. When it goes well, let yourself do a big exhale.

Bask in it.

[Back2Lawrence]

Absolutely let out the biggest sigh you ever have.

[KUTradition]

Went to the hospital last night bc the nurse lady thought I should over the phone. From everything I was reading i self diagnosed it was a pulled muscle causing tightness and problems breathing along with a viral infection. But still go. Apparently had juuuuuust over the treponin levels that the cardiologist at a nearby larger hospital wanted me to go there. Of course I couldn’t go with BUD in her car. Got be ambulance. Then cardio here suggests a catheter to inspect heart that has a 1 in 500 chance of heart failure or death. Naw dog. I’m good. Rest a while, blood pressure back to great levels, treponin at normal levels, new cardio says a couple more tests and mild levels of elevated treponin might not have to deal with a direct heart issue at all but my guess is a severe viral infection with a significant pulled chest muscle.

So a. I was very likely right and now we gotta pay this deductible because US healthcare costs are the worst in the modern world to confirm webMD searching
B. This other cardio wanted me to do a 16k procedure with a significant chance of death without waiting to see if maybe it wasn’t a heart attack? Wut?

“practicing” medicine

(no offense, Shirley)

[Shirley]

No offense taken, because it's true.

People are, and therefore medicine is, complicated.

Humbling on many days.

[pdub]

I want to do the treadmill stress test.
Rumor is they’ll just shoot me up with a drug?
Seems like cheating.

[Shirley]

I want to do the treadmill stress test.
Rumor is they’ll just shoot me up with a drug?
Seems like cheating.

Yeah, they can simulate what your heart would do by injecting a drug that will increase the rate of your heart like it would if you were exercising. When your heart beats faster due to the exercise/increased rate, the muscles need increased blood flow thru the coronary arteries that supply the blood, and if an artery is blocked or partially blocked and the blood flow can't increase in response to the "stress" your heart muscle is under, they can see it, and identify where the blockage or narrowing is.

I'm sure you'll do fine, and if not, they'll fix the blockage/narrowing, and you'll have a new lease on life.

[TDub]

ugh, I gotta stay out if this thread. It gives me anxiety.

[TDub]

Hope all is well pdub, go kill that test and give it the bird on the way out the door.

[jhawks99]

ugh, I gotta stay out if this thread. It gives me anxiety.

Me too.

Hoping for the best for you pdub.

[pdub]

Sorry to stress you all out.
I’ll start talking more about buckets of coors and rum runners on the beach.

I got to do the stress test on the treadmill so it didn’t feel like cheating.

There was nothing wrong with my heart.
Lotta money and tests to find out though.

[ChalkRocker]

There was nothing wrong with my heart.
Lotta money and tests to find out though.

Great news. Oh, and chalk the time and $$ up to "market-price, one large exhale".


Hey, I said "chalk"!

[Shirley]

Very, very glad and relieved to hear that, pdub.

You can have more confidence in your state of health now than you did before, and that's worth something.

[TDub]

buckets on pdub!

[RainbowsandUnicorns]

Sorry to stress you all out.
I’ll start talking more about buckets of coors and rum runners on the beach.

I got to do the stress test on the treadmill so it didn’t feel like cheating.

There was nothing wrong with my heart.
Lotta money and tests to find out though.

Didn't see this until just now.
Very happy to read it!

Was discussing health insurance with 2 other employees today. As an employee, the company covers (pays for) our insurance (and immediate family members) 100%.
One of the employe's sons snapped his Tibia playing football.
Had to have surgery. Hospital billed the insurance company close to $20,000 for the 24 hours AFTER the surgery. Both of the employees I was with are single mothers.
I told them majority of our 20 something year old single employees have no fucking idea just how valuable our company's health insurance policy and plan is.