Long Q Interval Any swimmer's out there who have this?

interesting. At this point I am 1 week and 1 day out from my appointment. I have heard nothing from anyone. I still haven't recieved the result of my echo-cardiogram although I have recieved the bill. Perhaps no news is good news. I am still waiting to hear if my insurance company will pay for genetic testing. I presume the office is doing this. i hate this waiting. I see over 750 students per week at my school. If I take over a week to grade an assignment I'd get fired. Oh, and the governer of Indiana thinks teachers are over-paid. Call the office and ask for the results -- you have waited too long. Never feel bad about agitating to get your results; they can't submit a bill to your insurance company without the report so its safe to say its been done. Good luck -- waiting is horrible.

Well, that's a pressure we all feel. As a pediatric subspecialist, I currently give new patients an hour -- and usually fill that time. My adminstration is trying to push that to 40 minutes. We are resisting but I don't know how successful we will be. Will patients feel short-changed with shorter appointments? Maybe - of maybe I am over estimating the value of the education I do. Certainly to talk about a serious diagnosis, like the one in question here or (in my case) chronic lung disease, I would need a fair amount of time to do the job reasonably well. Subspecialists can give an hour for a new patient, lol. Primary care physicians? Not so much.

interesting. At this point I am 1 week and 1 day out from my appointment. I have heard nothing from anyone. Bobinator, I'm sure the recommendation to give up competing and swimming is right for some people, and it may be right for you. But if you need more information or counseling to understand that recommendation so that you can accept or reject it, then go ahead and ask. This thread has generated a lot of interesting information about what might or might not be wrong and about how to distinguish potential danger from a false alarm. Ask about the additional testing, such as the stress test gobears had. Keep asking until you get answers that address your questions, whether or not they are the ones you want in your heart to hear. In my experience, a lot of doctors are more used to patients who would see advice not to exercise as a relief than to patients who would see it as a dismal curse. So they may not understand how difficult this uncertainty is for you.

Bobinator - I discovered this article today that made me think of you and this thread: www.nytimes.com/.../28fitness.html

Call the office and ask for the results -- you have waited too long. Never feel bad about agitating to get your results; they can't submit a bill to your insurance company without the report so its safe to say its been done. Good luck -- waiting is horrible. Thanks Pendaluft. I don't want to be naggish but my anxiety is starting to depress me. I have a short break tomorrow afternoon and I'll call them. Am I over-the-top if I ask them to e-mail my ekg to me. The SADS organization offered to have a Q-interval expert take a look if I could send it to them. I just don't want to piss them off.

Bobinator, I'm sure the recommendation to give up competing and swimming is right for some people, and it may be right for you. But if you need more information or counseling to understand that recommendation so that you can accept or reject it, then go ahead and ask. This thread has generated a lot of interesting information about what might or might not be wrong and about how to distinguish potential danger from a false alarm. Ask about the additional testing, such as the stress test gobears had. Keep asking until you get answers that address your questions, whether or not they are the ones you want in your heart to hear. In my experience, a lot of doctors are more used to patients who would see advice not to exercise as a relief than to patients who would see it as a dismal curse. So they may not understand how difficult this uncertainty is for you. Thanks ourswimmer. I guess I'll call them tomorrow and try to do a follow-up appointment. The Dr. asked me if I had any questions. It's strange how the questions really don't pop into your head till the next day or so. I suppose it's some form of being shell-shocked.

Bobinator - I discovered this article today that made me think of you and this thread: www.nytimes.com/.../28fitness.html That's a spooky article Geek. I've pretty much decided I'll never swim another open water race again. The people at SADS told me the correlation with water is very strange. They have documented cases of a child walking in the water on a beach and dying of sudden cardiac arrest, kids in bathtubs, and divers too. It almost seems the water plays a bigger role than the exertion level. Sometimes I wish I could unplug my brain.

I think this may be part of the problem. Doctors are there to be knowledgeable, skilled, impartial observers and advisors who can give reasoned opinions that are not colored by the unfairness of the facts. That being said, I do wonder sometimes if a doctor would be more inclined to discuss options with Michael Phelps than he would with me. I would guess that the same opinion would be given, but there would be a more elaborate explanation of the risk so that Michael could weigh the risk/reward factors – given the fact that his livelihood is tied to his swimming. I think most of our exposure to “cut-and-dried easy answers” from doctors is related to not so serious matters. When your shoulder hurts when you swim and the doctor tells you “well, then, don’t swim” it can be frustrating. But, in the end, I think we all want our doctors to be able to give us their impartial, reasoned opinions so that we can make our own informed decisions regarding our health. You are probably right, because Michael might have a personal sports medicine physician who gets paid megabucks to spend hours at a time with him. Ponder this for a moment. How many of you have been displeased that a doctor did not give you enough of his/her time during a visit? Now how many of you have gotten upset waiting past your appointment time to be seen? One may ask, then, why not give longer appointment times. The answer to that is twofold. One, economics. If you give half hour appointments for everyone you will go out of business quickly. That 15 minutes of education and reassurance is usually not reimbursed. Two, so you don't have to wait weeks to get an appointment. I'm sure many of you have had that "WTF" moment when you were told the dermatologist can see your changing mole in 4 weeks. Unfortunately, things are only going to get worse as reimbursement rates lower and lower. Picture a family practitioner making $115K a year and seeing 30 patients a day. Do they take a pay cut or try to stuff in more patients? Who the hell would want to go to medical school and accumulate debt only to do that? Never doubt that your doctor cares, because the overwhelming majority do. They do the best job they can within the framework set by the lawyers in government and the medical liability lawyers who suck the life out of them:)

Well, that's a pressure we all feel. As a pediatric subspecialist, I currently give new patients an hour -- and usually fill that time. My adminstration is trying to push that to 40 minutes. We are resisting but I don't know how successful we will be. Will patients feel short-changed with shorter appointments? Maybe - of maybe I am over estimating the value of the education I do. Certainly to talk about a serious diagnosis, like the one in question here or (in my case) chronic lung disease, I would need a fair amount of time to do the job reasonably well.

Indianapolis has some of the finest electrophysiologists in the nation, including Dr. Douglas Zipes who literally wrote the book on electrophysiology. Hi Gull! Do you know how to get an appointment with Dr. Zipes? I was told he's not taking new patients.