I'm going to add my whinge about doctors here as well.
I suffer from a very high pulse rate at times and an
irregular heart beat. My GP referred me to a
cardiologist a few years back - I've gone through
every test imaginable - my medication has been changed
to stronger tablets which leave me very tired and
lethargic. And the irregular heart beat sessions are now
happening more often. They leave me drained and take a
couple of days to get over. I'm due to see my cardiologist
in March and he mentioned putting me on wafarin - which
my brother's not too keen on my doing.

There you have it. I'm not a happy female. And surely
there must be something better that can be done - to
let me lead a normal life. We're due to take a road trip
in mid February (Sydney, Hunter Valley, Terrigal, Canberra)
and I'm scared - "what if this hits me in the middle of
nowhere?"

Doctors, like everyone else, come in all shapes and degrees of competence.

My daughter, (now 29), developed Type 1 diabetes just before she turned ten. This is not related to lifestyle and is an auto-immune condition where the body turns on and destroys the insulin producing cells in the pancreas. Our GP initially was tardy in picking up the problem, and by the time we got her to the hospital she was very dehydrated and probably not that far off a coma....the upshot is that her care was excellent after that (it's amazing what a shot of insulin does to perk you up :)

I owe the life of my son to an alert and competent nurse and doctor who twigged that I was probably going to need an emergency caesarian when my unborn baby began to experience difficulties during his birth. They got him out just in time - if it had been five minutes later, I don't like to think what would have happened. It was only the sheer professionalism and alertness of the medical staff attending me at the time that got us through by the skin of our teeth.

Lexi,

This may not be connected, but I used to suffer periods of palpitations...then I ditched "instant" coffee. I still have a coffee mid-morning but it's percolated. I haven't had any "episodes" of palpitations since.

Dear Lexi,

We may have discussed this before but from the sounds of it you have AF with some episodes of flutter. The recommendation for Warfrin is to reduce the risk of developing a clot if an episode continues for over 24 hours. Worse part of it is the innumerable blood tests to get the levels right and managing the diet.

Has an ablation been discussed?

Have you tried magnesium supplements? Cardio X is a good one.

Now here is what the doctors won't have told you. You heart is reacting to your medication by producing more receptor cells thus you will be requiring stronger and stronger medications. In other words it is becoming more sensitive to triggers that result in episodes.

It is a nasty loop for you but makes the drug companies a hell of a lot of money.

The eventual outcome may well be permanent irregularity especially if your atrium enlarges too far as is the risk for AF sufferers. Different if you have VF.

I took the family around oz for six months and copped half a dozen episodes, one on the Oonadatta track. Thanks to a bush nurse and a hell of a lot of Mylanta I was back on my way. Think of it as part of the adventure.

Flippancy aside I do know how scary it can be. There can be large differences in the knowledge, empathy and communication expertise among cardiologists and quite often information doesn't come without you being aware of the right questions. Let me know if I can help in that regard.

Dear Poirot,

Thanks for that. However I only drink coffee once
a day (lunch time). But perhaps I should give it up
altogether. I used to drink diet coke until I ended
up in emergency at the Austin Hospital one Saturday/Sunday.
They told me to quit drinking diet coke - which I did.

Dear csteele,

Thank You for the information. I've made a copy of it
and will ask my GP on Monday (I've got an afternoon appointment).
I'll ask him about the meidcation that I'm currently on
and see if he can recommend something that doesn't make me so tired.
I deeply appreciate your offer to help. I will take you on it
when my appointment with the cardiologist comes around in March.
You've been very helpful. It's calmed me down considerably.
Again - Thank You.

Lexi,

csteele is probably offering advice closer to your problem...nevertheless if you have problems in that area, my advice would be to ditch caffeine altogether.

Lexi perhaps we should get together, I have an extremely slow heart rate, & very low blood pressure, although that has not stopped me having 3 heart attacks.

Don't worry about your trip my sweet, you will be a very long way from the "middle of nowhere", in fact you will have to get somewhat north of Rockhampton to even approach loss of mobile signal, let alone the middle of nowhere.

One of the things that banks do to try to convince us they are "nice" is to fund rescue helicopters, which can whisk you to a hospital, from anywhere on that route, quicker than we can get a road ambulance here, just out of Brisbane.

I was a bit obtuse with this thread. My bitch with doctors in general is their attitude of all knowing. In particular the call by some twit professor to make smacking a child illegal. In the words of the song, "what the hell would he know". If he's a professor, not bl00dy much most likely.

I've been dealing with them for about 14 years, with out much luck. I have wandering quite severe pains, [can appear instantly anywhere, & go just as fast], which some think is an immune system attack.

They know steroids will control it, the Pakistani doctor at our little country hospital found that. They have tried killing me with all sorts of other stuff, the worst of which was sulphur. They stroke their beards, [god I hate natty little beards], & make kind of mmmmmmming noises, but none have had any more success than our Pakistani. Everyone knows the steroids are killing me.

Hence my message to doctors, forget trying to bring in laws to suit your own prejudices, get back to the day job, & try to do that somewhat better than you do at present.