Changing cardiologists

[catwoman]

I'm going to a new (kinda) cardio Friday, May 12, and now I'm wondering if I face any kind of a war over my home-testing.
I'd been going to same cardio my dad sees in Dallas since June 2003. It's been a pain, having to take at least a half-day off, always on Thursdays, driving 100 miles round trip.
So, I'm going back to a cardio I've seen only once, on 4/29/2003. That cardio told me very matter-of-factly that I needed heart surgery and needed to go to the Mayo or Cleveland clinics. Because my husband dislikes travel and I knew he'd be dealing with a lot of travel decisions with me as the patient, I switched to a cardio in Dallas, where I had surgery.

I'm hoping that this "new" cardio will be receptive to my continuing to test at home. And let me adjust my dosage. My PCP oversees my warfarin now, writing my scrips but letting me home-test and adjust my dosage.

Any thoughts, comments, questions, suggestions? I'd rather be prepared than be caught off-guard.

 

[Karlynn]

If the doctor isn't receptive, I would find another doctor. You've been doing home testing and dosing for quite a while now. For a doctor to expect to change that and release your control after having done it successfully means to me that the doctor does not understand Coumadin and you would just be adding problems to your health care.

I would tell him, nicely, "I home test and do my own dosing. If this is not something you will support me on, then this is not a good fit."

Good luck Marsha! It's always a bit stressful having to see a new doctor.

 

[Blanche]

Marsha:
Many people here, including Al, have their anticoagulation monitored by their PCP, so it isn't unusual. I would just tell the new cardio that in a matter of fact way. He doesn't need to know that you do your own adjustments (that really freaks some docs out.), or even that you have a home monitor. All he needs to know is that a competent physician has responsibility for that part of your treatment.

Changing doctors for any reason is very difficult, and has always been downright scarey for me. It does seem to me that you have already had misgivings about this doctor in past. Seems like this doctor already failed the first audition. Are there other doctors near you that you might try first?

I wish you the very best and hope that this will be a good match for you.

Kind regards,
Blanche

 

[catwoman]

Guess I'll just tell the cardio that my PCP will continue to monitor me, since I am apt to see him more times throughout a year than a cardio.

BTW, I actually think this doctor is probably a good choice. When he recommended that I go to the Mayo or Cleveland clinic, I knew nothing about the Cleveland clinic but had heard about the Mayo, but not in relation to cardiac care.

In retrospect, I figure that a doctor whose first choice for a referral would be the top 2 heart hospitals in the country can't be all wrong.
I've told my husband that if -- and I stress IF -- I ever need OHS again, I would definitely consider going to the Mayo or Cleveland.

 

[Computec]

Marsha,

I agree. It wasn't as if he tried to send you to his cousins' Jim and Bob's Heart Clinic in Plainview.

You'll probably find that he's more than amenable to you continuing with your home testing and dosing. "Why argue with success?" Feel free to ask him that if he suggests otherwise.

Jerry

 

[ccrawford]

Good luck Marcia - I can't be much help. My cardio also happens to be my son-in-law who I like and respect very much. He and my daughter just had a baby girl in Feb (our fourth g-baby) and she is a real bundle of joy. Chris

 

[catwoman]

Chris:

Congratulations on your new grandbaby!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jerry:

Gee, you sound like you've been to Texas before -- Plainview maybe, at that!
I think it'd be Jim Bob's In-and-Out Heart Clinic ... Maybe in Dime Box, Texas??? Or Uncertain, Texas (and, yes, there really is an Uncertain in Texas, near Marshall in East Texas).