Busdaddy had “an enlarged heart,” according to his doctor, but was never referred to a cardiologist. He kept having some strange symptoms, and researched them on the ‘net; the conclusion was “heart failure,” and he was sure he was dying.
Of course, he was frightened out of his skin, not to mention what it did to me. He even set about “sorting” his things in the event that he did die.
Finally, one night, he wasn’t feeling “right” and went to a QuikCare facility. They drew arterial blood, called an ambulance and he was admitted to the hospital. His “heart failure” was actually an aortic aneurism 8cm across. He was kept in the hospital for a week while the cardiologists decided how best to operate.
He was told, after surgery, that even if he had been on the operating table, with his chest open, and that aneurism had burst, they couldn’t have saved him.
Horror story, maybe. He is alive to talk about it, but only because he was sick and tired of feeling sick and tired.
To err on the side of caution is often noble, but it can be deadly. Help your friend in any way you can!
I told first and asked credentials later. The credentials don’t matter, but if N&V had said he was ER trained or something I’d have shot that little tidbit over.
Maybe the doctors will say they checked that out already. Maybe they’ll say this or that symptom rules out an aortic problem.
Maybe they’re dead wrong. My daughter came back from Ghana, Africa having been diagnosed over there with malaria. Over here they told her she had never had malaria, she had had intestinal parasites but they were gone now. But she kept having strange symptoms that nobody could explain.
A year later and tired of not getting better she went to our old country doctor in PA who poked her in the abdomen and watched her yell. He told her the parasites weren’t gone. He then started her on a treatment that got rid of them.
New York doctors aren’t all they are cracked up to be.
Intestinal parasites. You just never know where lawyers will turn up.