I guess for this post I'm just coming here to talk a little bit about my health problems and maybe do a little ego preservation by shifting some blame off of me and my poor decisions.
Anyway, I'm 24 and for the past 6 months or so I've been visiting a few different doctors trying to figure out these cardiovascular issues that I've been having.
I remember last November being suddenly woke up by a sudden intense squeezing my chest, like someone was gripping my heart and manually beating it. It scared the hell out of me and I went to the ER at 3am. I get there, I'm fine, I tell them that I stopped feeling that sensation but I was so scared by it I wanted a doctor to tell me I wasn't dying. I wasn't... Good. They give me some meds to calm down my heart if it does it again, and then some beta blockers to help me sleep.
Fast forward a few months and I've gotten a test from the cardiologist and it looks like I'm all good. My heart is fine I just need to sleep more and worry less. The issue is that my symptoms haven't really improved all that much and in terms of affects on my extremeties I'm seeing greater and greater amounts of vascular visibility, discoloration of my finger nails and I'm still having infrequent chest discomfort.
I mention this multiple times to them. Yet still they tell me that I'm young and the test didn't reveal anything so I'm just worrying too much. I visit again a few weeks later and it's the same shit.
Anyway, I'm not a doctor although maybe I should have tried to visit a different specialist sooner. It wasn't until about two weeks ago when I see a massive varicose vein pop out of my calf and I realize oh I should probably talk to a vein specialist.
I go, my leg veins are dilated, it's still early stages so it's not that bad. I've lost a lot of weight over the past year or so (about 20kg), quit cigarettes, and overall my lifestyle trends towards much healthier. More of the same and managing the condition should be relatively doable.
Yet now I'm here lying in bed frustrated. Not only at the doctors but the messaging we have around health as though it's a foregone conclusion that you'll have it when you're young and then managing it is something of concern for your later years.
I know this foolishness and error of my thinking, and I know the immense privilege of mine to have come to take on that viewpoint, but man does it piss me off everytime I think back about any health issues, covid, or other things when people just shrug about the potential impacts because oh your young and your body is strong.
It makes me so regretful and spiteful because now I have a health condition which I shouldn't have developed had I made better health decisions in the past. I wish people would encourage better stewardship to your own body before it becomes a problem.
Anyway, if you have any encouragement to offer me I'd really appreciate it. I'm having trouble sleeping and this post was a way for me to vent some of those emotions. I'm far from home which I'm grateful for because at least I'm not paying for this in the US, but that also means I'm far from a lot of my support.
Thanks and I know this account is new but I've really appreciated this forum over the years.
"I was trying to share a quite similar story by way of empathy, but for some reason you take it as hostile"
Assuming you are earnest here, this is why your story came off that way to me. Your framing in your comment appears as though your usage of the pronoun "I" is one where you take on the mantle of the one you're speaking to, in this case me. Look to your prelude to the story; It is not framed in a way that suggests this is your experience. "You have seen what sounds like several different medical providers involved and nobody can find anything alarming" followed by your aside. This suggests that the following aside is a rhetorical "taking on the mantle of" the other speaker. Perhaps, I shouldn't assume that, but I think given what I listed here you should take note with your framing as I work to improve on my seeming error.
Furthermore, given our earlier interaction I don't think you understand the influence from the previous discussion well. I'm sharing a personal story and interaction about my subjective experience and you asked for evidence to prove that I'm justified in that feeling. Did you do this? Did you do that? appeared to me as bad faith sea-lioning given the framing. It wasn't presented in a way which affirmed my experience and provided helpful tips like you're now saying was your intention. The essence of my post was that "man, I wish I took better care of myself and that people don't use age as a framing metric for why something isn't an issue." Being told that "your organ is healthy and reveals no issues stemming from it" is sufficient and more effective messaging as it doesn't appeal to something that may be irrelevant.
"Honestly most people can (italicized) figure out that if a specialist..." I listened to their instructions took the medicine topically as instructed, and saw no reduction in symptoms. This isn't me returning for some reason, it's explicitly because the doctor I was referred to suggested this adjustments which didn't appear to have the impact desired. I don't find it unreasonable to go back to talk to the doctor that prescribed you the medicine and lifestyle changes to discuss the insufficiency. This is condescending language by the way, but I imagine that since our discussion went sour I won't hold it against you. That's silly and fruitless given my own hostile language. If the cardiologist believes I should go back the GP at this point, then he should suggest that by providing that in the suggestions for further investigation.
Given the above two paragraphs, I think it should be clear what my expectation is for optimal care.
"What is a general test..." My reference to general tests is an error on my part in terms of expressing myself it seems. I meant general health screening tests performed by a GP in relation to my symptoms.
"very wrong for a cardiologist..." Yes, I agree. Which is why I would say it would be prudent for them to suggest another appointment with the GP. Which I did go do eventually, but it took me a while due to being told that I was "worrying too much" and potentially causing said issues.
"If someone is explaining..." I think my first paragraph responds to this one. Wish you started with "I think if you ask at the beginning of visits..." because it's the essence of what you're trying to say without the issues that our previous interaction encountered. Also, no not everyone who tried to help me, just you who I seemed to erroneously think was being one.