Tag: heart attack

Maximizing Doctor Visits: Essential Questions to Ask Your Doctor

Effective communication with your doctor is crucial for your health. Asking specific questions and taking notes are key. Understand medical terms, ask for clarification if needed. Learn about your health and seek reliable resources. Communication is vital for your well-being.

Do you leave a visit with your doctor knowing exactly what she said and what to do next? Or do you leave clueless or confused?

Whichever the case, connecting with your doctor is essential to communicating with your doctor. That’s why I wrote this post.

3 keys to effective communication with your doctor

This post addresses practical aspects of exchanging information with doctors- remember, exchange means giving something and receiving something in return. 

doctor talking to a woman
photo compliments American Academy of Family Physicians

Ask questions

Doctors want to give patients the information they need and most of the time believe they have done so. We are surprised when patients come back and say we didn’t explain their problem and its treatment, or they didn’t understand what we told them about it. I think this happens for 2 reasons.

  • We doctors tell patients what we think is important, but it may not be what you the patient or family consider most important.
  • After patients hear part of what we say, they get saturated and don’t hear the rest, especially when it is emotionally charged.

That’s why it is so important for patients and families to ask questions; don’t just rely on what the doctors volunteer. What is important to them may not be what is most important to you. The more specific questions you ask, the more detailed the information you receive will be.

one question you should always ask at each visit

“What is the most important problem today, and what is the next step in treating it?”

The most important problem that the doctor finds may not be what you thought. If you came with multiple problems, the most important may not be the one that seemed most urgent to you.

and the answer you need to know at each visit

For example, you may go to an emergency facility for an injury that caused a cut on your leg that needs stitches. This is an urgent problem that needs to be treated. But the doctor finds that you have high blood pressure that you didn’t know about.

High blood pressure can lead to heart failure and stroke if left untreated. So the doctor will instruct you to see your primary care doctor for follow-up of the blood pressure, as well as the gash in your leg.

For your long-term health, high blood pressure is your most important problem today.

Otherwise these unexpected problems can get lost if you and the doctor only communicate about the urgent problem and what happens next with it.

It is important to control blood pressure
High blood pressure can cause a heart attack.
questions, questions, questions

You will get more helpful information from your doctor if your questions are as specific as you can ask; always inquire about how tests and procedures will affect your treatment and recovery. Here are some examples-

  • What did the x-ray show and what does it mean for my problem?
  • What was the blood test result and will it change my treatment?
  • How will this procedure change my condition?
  • What needs to happen before we move to the next step?

Write important things down.

Questions that you want to ask. Information that the doctors need. Answers to the questions. Refer to it each time you speak with the doctors.

Questions after a hospital stay

When you or a loved one is in the hospital, your main concern is going home. When the time comes to be discharged, it is just as important to ask questions and understand the plan as during the illness.

I have had patients return to my office after a hospital stay unable to give me any information about their illness and care. Important information to know include

  • What problems were treated during this admission and how did they change?
  • What will we need to do at home to continue the recovery?
  • When do we need to see a doctor and which doctor do we see?
  • What medications will I need to be on when I go home?

Hospitals must give patients and their families written instructions for aftercare when discharged. And with electronic medical records, doctors have easier access to their patients’ hospital records.

Understanding your doctor– medical jargon may not be the problem

Doctors are being encouraged and taught to use “plain language” when talking to patients, meaning limiting the use of medical jargon. I agree that a string of highly technical terms makes communication harder.

But simply using plain words does not guarantee understanding. Whatever terms you use to exchange information must be understood by both persons. And that is not always the case.

Here’s an example.

If a doctor says that you or a relative has had a Myocardial infarction, do you know that that means a Heart attack? 

But, do you know exactly what heart attack means? Probably not.

What causes heart disease?
A heart attack means the heart muscle is injured from too little oxygen reaching it, usually due to blockage in the arteries.

So,  if the doctor says “heart attack” without adding any additional information, you should ask

  • “I understand a heart attack to mean ________. Is this correct?”
  • “I do not understand what a heart attack is. Please explain.”

Learning the language

How many new things have you learned in the past 5 years? Each had a vocabulary and instructions that you learned and now use regularly. Think of your first computer, smartphone, tablet, camera, or even a coffee maker. You make the effort to learn what is important to you . 

Learn about your and your family’s medical issues; even if you don’t understand it completely, your doctor will appreciate that you are trying.

Besides doctors, you have nurses, pharmacists, dieticians, physical therapists, social workers who can answer questions. Ask for referrals to community resources.

There are helpful resources on the Internet so anyone with a laptop, tablet, or smartphone can access medical information anywhere anytime. Just be sure you are using reliable sources.

Learn the basics of medical terminology here-access it online or download the PDF

Understanding Medical Words: A Tutorial from the National Library of Medicine

This tutorial teaches you about medical words. You’ll learn how parts of medical words are put together. You’ll also find quizzes to check what you’ve learned.

Tutorial_Understanding_Medical_WordsDownload

Find the meaning of medical words and terms here

A.D.A.M. Medical Encyclopedia

The information provided herein should not be used during any medical emergency or for the diagnosis or treatment of any medical condition. A licensed physician should be consulted for diagnosis and treatment of any and all medical conditions. Call 911 for all medical emergencies.

rhinoceros
It’s easy to remember that “rhino” refers to the nose, as in rhinosinusitis.

Also on this topic, my previous  post

Tips for Talking to Your Doctor

exploring the HEART of HEALTH communication

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Cover photo

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Exploring heart disease-when hearts “break”

understanding common heart conditions

updated April 7, 2023

If you have ever had a “broken heart” (and who hasn’t?), you know the sadness and grief cause not just emotional pain, but physical pain. And since that pain is often felt in our chest, it makes sense that we call it “heart break”.

The late Elvis Presley made the expression famous with his breakout hit Heartbreak Hotel. 

And a particularly gruesome battle during the Korean War occurred at a place named Heartbreak Ridge, dramatized in a movie  Heartbreak Ridge.

Exploring -the HEART

We often use the term HEART DISEASE when there are many diseases that involve the heart.  HEART conditions affect people from birth to death.

diagram of the human heart
Heart diseases affect any and sometimes multiple parts of the heart- the atria, ventricles, the valves, the aorta, the pulmonary artery and veins, the walls and the coronary arteries (not shown in this diagram. )

Congenital Heart disease

Heart problems that are present at birth are called congenital heart disease. Defectos cardíacos congénitos. Signs or symptoms may be not apparent for a few weeks or months.

  • A congenital heart defect is a problem with the structure of the heart. It is present at birth.
  • Congenital heart defects are the most common type of birth defect.
  • The defects can involve the walls of the heart, the valves of the heart, and the arteries and veins near the heart.
  • They can disrupt the normal flow of blood through the heart. The blood flow can slow down, go in the wrong direction or to the wrong place, or be blocked completely.

I remember how concerned I felt when my son called to tell me the doctor had found a heart murmur in my 3-week-old granddaughter- especially since they lived 2000 miles away. An  echocardiogram showed a VSD, a ventricular septal defect– a hole between the two larger chambers of her heart. We were all relieved when the pediatric cardiologist said it was small and unlikely to cause her problems or to need surgery, and his prediction has been correct.

Other congenital heart conditions

CARDIOPATÍAS CONGÉNITAS

Cardiomyopathy

In a previous post I told you about my late friend Chuck who had heart disease. Chuck had developed cardiomyopathy, disease of the heart muscle, which makes up the walls of the heart. Cardiomyopathy  has many causes including high blood pressure (if not controlled), ischemia (lack of blood flow), infections, toxins including alcohol, and sometimes unknown causes.

Cardiomyopathy can often be managed with medications and lifestyle but sometimes, as in Chuck’s case, requires heart transplantation.

Chuck’s wife Sara wrote about his heart condition as well as other medical issues in her memoir Trumped By Sovereignty.

Myocarditis

Miocarditis

Myocarditis was a potential complication of COVID-19, both from the virus itself as well as the mRNA vaccines against it. But the risk was higher with infection than from the vaccine, the American Heart Association reported.

Myocarditis is much less common than other heart diseases but tends to occur more often in men, and in young to middle aged persons.

Myocarditis results from the inflammation created by a variety of causes.

  • cancer drugs that inhibit the immune system
  • autoimmune disorders such as systemic lupus
  • vaccines-mRNA for SARS-CoV2 and smallpox vaccine
  • the most common cause-viruses including coronavirus, influenza, parvovirus B19, dengue

Like other forms of heart disease myocarditis can lead to heart failure and arrhythmias with a mortality rate of 1-7%. Most people have uncomplicated myocarditis and fully recover.

Ischemic Heart Disease

Enfermedad de las arterias coronarias

My late father developed diabetes mellitus which led to atherosclerosis of his coronary arteries, the arteries that carry oxygen to the heart itself. Atherosclerosis can affect any of the arteries and sclerosis means “hardening”, hence the term hardening of the arteries.

EKG tracing
In sudden cardiac death, the heart stops beating abruptly

In his case this caused a heart attack, which in medical terms is a myocardial (heart muscle) infarction(death or damage).

From the damage to his heart muscle he developed congestive heart failure; his heart could not effectively pump blood  to his body.

I still remember the night I received a phone call soon after going to bed. It was an EMT from the local ambulance service telling me he was at my parents’ home. My mother called 911 after my father collapsed at home and died from sudden cardiac death.

Sudden cardiac death occurs when someone with heart disease dies suddenly and unexpectedly. But sometimes, unlike my father’s case, the victim and family didn’t know a heart condition existed. This is often the case when someone dies from a sudden and persistent irregularity of the heart rhythm, called an arrhythmia.

old photo of man in a sailor uniform
My late  father served in the U.S. Navy during the Second World War

Presión arterial elevada (Hipertensión)

Hypertension

Both my husband and I have hypertension, the medical term for high blood pressure. This is probably the most common cardiovascular disease . Although not a heart condition, it can cause disease in the heart and other vital organs, as shown in this diagram .

complications of high blood pressure

Before you go..

Please follow any of the above links to read more about these and other heart conditions.

Please explore and follow this blog for more articles that explore the HEART of health.

Enjoy this book review of State of the Heart-how we learned to understand the way the heart works and heart and what to do when it doesn’t work the way it should