The local hospital is a joke when it comes to managing early-onset heart problems.

Standard operating procedure has always been to test first- and second-generation relatives if a family member has early-onset heart disease because it is highly heritable, and to give nitrates when angina is present (even when it’s stable, but especially when it’s not stable). I am probably going to get substantially more help from my primary care physician when I see him later this week, as will I get more help from an actual cardiologist who can run a battery of tests on my heart and make the most specific diagnosis. I’d like to get put back on an ACE inhibitor soon and prescribed nitrates to take as needed at home by my primary care doctor to get me to the point where the cardiologist he refers me to can take over care. (I hope so…)

Anyway, this is just one more of many reasons why I would absolutely love to move out of Texas.