GamecockDoc

So I've been having chest pain...

The beginning of almost every patient encounter that I have since starting my cardiology rotation. My favorite of the day was a walk-in. A man who has been seen by several of the partners during hospitalizations but has never followed up in the office. He has chronic shortness of breath (possibly due to his 2ppd smoking habit) but starting have some chest pain last week. It got so bad that on Friday he paid a visit to the ER. His description is not exactly the picture of cardiac pain -- sharp, associated with eating, not related to activity. So he goes to the ER and gets worked up -- EKG, cardiac enzymes, chest X-ray -- and is discharged several hours later with a diagnosis of non-cardiac chest pain. Not satisfied, he shows up at the office this morning demanding to be seen. After speaking with him, examining him, getting an EKG, and reviewing his labs we agreed that his pain is not cardiac. Talk about a waste of time. When did people start automatically disbelieving anything they are told by a non-specialist. "My family doctor thinks my cholesterol is high and I should take Zocor, but I wanted to check with a specialist." People, your family doctor went to medical school, completed a residency, and is perfectly capable to handling high cholesterol! Sorry, end of rant.

posted by GamecockDoc @ 5:11 PM