The Importance of Communication with your Parents

[Barth]

My father is 93 and has a PhD.
He prides himself on being knowledgeable about medical / health information.
Has and regularly sees more specialists than he is willing to admit to.
Gets all the tests and preventive procedures that most recommend.

But recently he had to go to the hospital not feeling well.
Upon diagnosis he had immediate emergency heart surgery installing two coronary stents!
Thank goodness all went well and he is fine.

But the kicker was that he admitted having symptoms prior and didn't tell family members or doctors.
Even had recently seen his cardiologist who performed and EKG and found no issues.
And didn't mention the symptoms to the doctor either!

Our parents can be proud, stubborn and unwilling to accept they are having health issues until it's too late.

[jeepster09]

Sometimes the symptoms can be deceiving....20 years ago riding my motorcycle on a short trip [35 miles], I had to pull over due to fatigue. The next day I went
to my doctor and explained my fatigue to him and he just blew me off. His diagnosis was ahhh your getting older. He said for the heartburn I can subscribe some strong heartburn pills; watch what you eat. Next day when I was going up small flight of stairs to 2nd floor at work I was just exhausted. I decided to head to local hospital to get another opinion. The doctor there after doing some minor checking determined I was having a heart attack. I was then taken by ambulance to another hospital that did heart stuff. That doctor said 2 arteries were 90% blocked and put in some stints. Moral of my story....everyone is affected differently and you can't always rely on your doctor [needless to say I never went back to my regular doctor]. I hope your dad is doing well now.

[Bawanna]

I just had a very good buddy die last week. Doctors been poking and prodding him for a couple years. He had like neurological issues. Balance, fatigue, couldn't even walk very far. They diagnosed COPD and lots of scans. A month ago, on another visit they said he had stage 4 lung cancer! Said he had 4-6 weeks to live. Admitted that they dropped the ball and missed it. He went to his place in Arizona, didn't really want to see anybody. Made it about 2 1/2 weeks and crossed the river.
There are several doctors that should be taken to the train station.

[AJBert]

My wife went years being diagnosed with pneumonia, around 10-12 years in a row, at least once a year. We always went to whatever base I was stationed at for treatment. One day, about 14 years ago, I come home and she told me I need to bring her to the ER, but not on base. Went to a civilian hospital and they diagnosed she had a heart attack earlier in the day, and that she had congestive heart failure to boot.

I am certain that if we had gone to the base ER, which she already been to 3 or 4 times, she would have been diagnosed with pneumonia again. She had a heart attack again while in the hospital and moved her to the ICU. They moved her to another hospital in an ambulance with a full crew driving about 30 mph to get some type of angio-test, which turned up negative for whatever they we looking for.

After she got out of the hospital, she went to see her doctor (on base) and she really let the doc have it. No apologies for the misdiagnosis over the years, but they finally took it seriously. She ended up getting the Cadillac of pacemaker/defibrillator/and some other thing at the hospital on base, and has had a cardiologist ever since. She was talking about suing for a couple of years but found out it is damn near impossible to even bring a lawsuit against military healthcare, or lack there of, when I was still active duty.

Now that I am retired, our primary doctors work on one of the local bases in our area, but all the other doctors are off base in the civilian world.

Dang, I've been rambling on in this post and done forgot the point I was trying to make. Just happy her heart has been given a clean bill of health now. She was told she doesn't even need the pace maker any more, but was told there in no reason to pull it out. I guess they don't want to pull the wires hooked up to her heart as it is more dangerous to do that than leave them alone.

And, yes, she is one of those types who ignore any symptoms. Maybe that was my point?

[jeepster09]

I think symptoms are different for everyone. I never had any chest pains. Fatigue can easily be missed as heart problem I think.