Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Great appointment with my PCP

I had an excellent appointment with my Primary Care Provider (PCP) today!  Here are a few things we discussed:
  • She agrees with the neurologists that my admission to the ER was more than likely a complicated migraine.  She reminded me that migraines frequently do not involve headaches and that ALL of my symptoms correlate with that of a complicated migraine
  • She called me a "Red Herring".  She explained that this means although I was admitted to the hospital for one thing (TIA) what they found was even more important--the mass on my heart
  • She told me I don't have to continue to follow up with any more neurologists unless I experience any more migraine like symptoms.  She said I may never again have these symptoms or they might occur regularly or sporadically
  • She told me to stay on Coumadin.  She also said once I have a few weeks in a row of good INR readings I can switch to blood draws every 2 weeks, then once a month. 
  • She suggested that I seek a second opinion from a cardiologist outside of my Doctor's group.  She told me that she has a great respect for my cardiologist and feels he's doing a great job, but with something so serious it's excellent to have a second opinion from a different group of doctors.  Sounds great to me!!
  • She told me that if I am scheduled for heart surgery to seek opinions from at least 2-3 heart surgeons before scheduling
All in all, a great appointment!!  I have a new cardiologist appointment scheduled for Monday July 25th with a large group of cardiologists at a Heart Hospital here in AZ.  I have a follow up appointment with my regular cardiologist on August 8th.  In the meantime, I'm happily cancelling my follow-up neurologist appointment.

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