Always question your doctor | Arthritis Information

Don't blindly accept everything your physician tells you. I'm a perfect example of what can happen.

On Thursday I went to my internist to have a physical to clear me for knee surgery. He requested an EKG and his medical assistant prepared me for the EKG. The first thing I noticed that she didn't prepare my skin before she put on the electrodes. She had trouble getting the electrodes to stay in place during the EKG. She'd wiggle them or peel them off and replace them. She finally called in a second medical assistant and they had a little conference about my EKG and was told to get dressed. Needless to say I was a little apprehensive about the results of the EKG since she hadn't done the procedure correctly. I'm a surgical nurse so I'm very careful about how procedures are done in medical offices.

My physician reviewed the EKG with me and told me that I had bundle branch block and I would have to be referred to a cardiologist. I protested and told him about the problems with the EKG procedure and he still insisted that I had a BBB. I didn't argue and set up the appt. with the cardiologist.

My EKG and other cardiac testing done by the cardiologist's office was normal. Always question if you think a procedure is done incorrectly.

Sometimes incorrect diagnoses lead to taking meds that you don't need or that could be harmful to you. Errors also make life more stressful than need be.

That's just a shame! What a waist of your health care dollars. I can see where moving the lead around could cause some ectopy and look
like a BBB. I'm glad you don't have one. It is interesting how your doctor
didn't listen to you and just redo the EKG so as to save you a big doctor bill.
But on the other hand, you had it checked out and know for sure that your
heart is ok.I'm all for getting a 2nd opinion whenever you receive a diagnosis. But why didn't you insist on a 2nd EKG at the time of the test when you knew the leads were placed incorrectly. I can see your dr's position he had to cover his rear by sending you for further evaluation based on the test results.

I think I would ask doc 1 to pay doc 2's bill.

Pompass is as pompass does. Doc 1 deserves himself as a doc.

I might have written this too soon. I didn't have all of the cardiac testing back and I was assuming that all was ok and all isn't ok. I have a bundle branch block but for some reason it doesn't show on all EKGs. Is showing on other testing and out of curiousity cardiologist did a 3rd EKG and there it was in all it's glory. Apparently this is quite unusual and i may end having some invasive cardiac procedures done to find out why. It's a left block and can be the precursor to more serious heart disease. Even though this has turned out to be so still question your doctor. Don't hesitate. I didn't insist on a 2nd EKG because I knew that I'd have one in the cardiologist's office. I was sure it was from technique but I was wrong. I still felt that I had a right to question the diagnosis. Wanted to clarify.

Anytime the heart is involved, they are going to get more tests to error on the "other" side. Even if you had requested another EKG, he probably still would have referred you to a cardiologist.

Marian~remember, doctors are humans too. Most of them do the best they can with the information they have. You comment was a bit harsh, IMO.

Phats