pHPT and coronary heart disease

Thought you might be interested in this paper describing a study made on the relationship between PTH and coronary heart disease. I was diagnosed with CHD two years ago prior to my pHPT diagnosis (although I have been symptomatic of PT disease for at least 10 years and first had elevated calcium in 2001) but my idiot GP refuses to accept that there is a link between PTH and heart disease. Hopefully my cardiologist will - I have an appointment with him tomorrow and I will be taking a copy of this paper with me.

Jasmine x

http://m.circ.ahajournals.org/content/126/9/1031.long

My cardio con knew nothing and wasn't interested   but my gastro con 
knows much more and ordered all my initial calcium and pth tests  

Nelly

Very interesting Jasmine, one more reason for these blasted DR's to pull their finger out when diagnosing pHPT and to actually take it more seriously than they do.
When you were diagnosed did they give any reasons for what caused it ? Did that start the investigations into pHPT ?
Amanda xxxx

Nope, not one single medic made the connection, I did that myself through my own research. They said it was probably hereditary as my dad has heart disease so left it at that. The only thing that kick started investigations into pHPT was when I sat in my doctor's surgery bawling my eyes out saying I was at the end of my tether with it all after years of feeling ill and tired, in constant pain and not sleeping, that I seriously didn't think life was worth living any longer, so he offered me anti depressants (which I refused), said let's run a few more tests and voila! - high calcium and PTH. He was like a dog with two tails because he cracked the case - I was like "why didn't you do this years ago"! 

Be very interesting to hear what the cardio has to say as I haven't seen him since before my pHPT diagnosis.

Jasmine x

Good luck with the Cardio tomorrow he may have some interesting comments to make......... Or not!!!! Who knows, I find every appointment I go to is like a game of Russian roulette, you never know if the DR in front of you is the one with the bullet, or just an empty barrel.
I must say there's been so many empty barrels in my PTH history I must have a water pistol aimed at me.  
Hope it is a good one.
Love Amanda xxxx

Best of luck with the Cardio, Jasmine. 

Amanda, I hope you're saving all these jokes for your sit down routine      

Love 
Brigitte xx

Brilliant paper, Jasmine. Good to see you getting active again and kicking ass (or preferably the UK equivalent in some of your medic's cases).

I'm taking this to my appointment with the Addenbrookes Lipid Clinic for the Dr who kindly went to the trouble of plotting all (and there are many) my blood test results on one of Dr Norman's graphs, and yet still came down on the side of Vit D deficiency. Bless him. I have a pile of stuff for him to read!

Good luck today with your cadio - can't wait to hear how it went.

Love from Tigerlily xxxx

.....so in researching cardiac microvascular dysfunction (or small vessel disease) further as a result of reading the original paper, I came up with this....ring any bells?

J

 http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/small-vessel-disease/basics/symptoms/con-20032544

I have microvascular disease on angiogram and was on GTN spray and beta blockers until I saw my original cardio con who said don't need any meds so stop them ! idiot man but I can't be bothered fighting that one.

Nelly

Just when you feel you've lost faith in the medical profession someone comes along to restore your faith in them! Saw my cardio this afternoon for the first time since before my pHPT diagnosis. The first thing he said to me, after "hello again", was that he had read from my GPs letter that I've been really poorly with parathyroid disease so he did a trawl of the literature to make sure he was up to date with current findings and opinion, and said right then we'd better make sure we keep on top of things in view of the risk factors to your heart disease given your prolonged elevated PTH. I was gobsmacked - I didn't have to say or explain anything, he was really on the ball! He went right through all my previous Ca and PTH results and even commented on the high dose of Levo I'm on and asked who had prescribed it and for how long? He said definitely to discuss it with my endo next week as that's another risk factor against my CHD if I'm being over medicated. So I'm having another MIBI scan, this time on my heart, to check if my CHD has progressed since 2012, and because I told him I've been having some really bad calf pain and I'm worried about calcification in my arteries he's sending me for a Doppler scan and doing a CFR, although he said the pulses were good in my feet. I feel really looked after! If only they were all like that ..... bl**dy marvellous isn't it that a cardiologist takes the risks of pHPT seriously when even some endos, and definitely most GPs, don't .....

Jasmine x

Woo! That's excellent news. Really pleased it went so went.

Also hopefully another doctor who will be more on the ball the next time someone with pHPT turns up with heart problems.

One doc at a time we shall re-educate the NHS!

Now if only the endos were prepared to do their homework too.

Love
Dee
xxx

Great result  

That is such a good result, Jasmine - so pleased that it went so well!

As Dee says, one doc at a time and we'll make some changes.

Love from Tigerlily xxxx

Thank God there are some genuinely good Consultants who know what they are talking about.
He seems to be talking lots of care with your ongoing tests. It restores your faith in the NHS even if it is only one gem amongst all the rest.
Love Amanda xxxx

I'm really pleased for you Jasmine; it's about time a doctor listened, thought and gave you faith back in the NHS! I'm really pleased that you feel looked after.

I'm cautiously optimistic myself today: my GP requested I made an appointment to see him. Such a thing has never happened before but it meant the appointment was a lot quicker than normal. He had called me in to discuss my HPT!!!!! It has been one of those worse HPT down days and he saw me at my depths; he was quite shocked to see how ill I looked. (It must have been bad then, because people normally think I look great! Perhaps the "I am brave" sticker had fallen off.) Anyway, as a result of my worsening symptoms (and me telling him I just wanted someone to slit my throat and rip out the adenoma), he is writing to the consultant to hurry him along. I hope. I expect he's on holiday or something and I'm in the To Do pile, but I really hope he pulls his woolly finger out and gets on with it. I was supposed to have my op within 3 months according to the Endo and here we are and nothing's happened. I really hope the GP's letter starts things moving....... though I won't hold my breath.

Love and hugs
Brigitte xx

Oh, that's just great, Brigitte!

Perhaps some restrictive planet in the heavens has moved recently and you and Jasmine (and perhaps more of us) are seeing their cases move along somewhat.

Love that about the "I am brave" sticker! A lot of us wear one of those - best when it falls off though!

I hope you'll hear something very soon - I would make an appointment with your GP for about 2 weeks' time so that you have a window with him in case nothing has happened between now and then. But I very much hope something does!

Love from Tigerlily xxxx

Oh, that's just great, Brigitte!

Perhaps some restrictive planet in the heavens has moved recently and you and Jasmine (and perhaps more of us) are seeing their cases move along somewhat.

Love that about the "I am brave" sticker! A lot of us wear one of those - best when it falls off though!

I hope you'll hear something very soon - I would make an appointment with your GP for about 2 weeks' time so that you have a window with him in case nothing has happened between now and then. But I very much hope something does!

Love from Tigerlily xxxx

Well, Jasmine, it would appear you and I have something else in common now. My nephro told me on Monday that I need more thyroid medication, and now your cardio has recognized that your thyroid meds need to be decreased! Spooky once again!

So very happy you had such a GREAT appointment!!! Yes, it is a wonderful feeling when you find a doctor who seems to actually care! I'm very glad he has chosen to order so many badly needed tests for you. Wow, you should be walking on air today! Now that I think of it, wouldn't that feel good on our aching feet?!   

Audrey

Great news Brigitte at last a GP who is starting to take this disease seriously, even if it was because your brave sticker had slipped.
I hope they now speed this up for you.
Lots of love Amanda xxxx

Brigitte, somehow I missed your comment about the sticker. So glad the glue wore off!!!! It is so wonderful when a doctor actually cares. So many simply don't. Hopefully, it won't be long now!

Audrey

Thanks Tigerlily, Amanda and Audrey. Personally, I think my GP is trying to make amends since the last time time I "saw" him (on a telephone appointment) I was somewhat cross because he'd given me vitamin D with calcium. If his letter to the surgeon moves me further up the list, I'll be overwhelmed! 

Love and hugs 
Brigitte xx