So I was put on a beta-blocker for my cardiac issues and referred to a cardiologist, which wasn’t an entirely bad thing… the fact that I have cardiovascular issues that are starting to be recognized isn’t, anyway, because I have a strong family history of early-onset heart disease on my mother’s side. I have been coughing nearly constantly since that started even in spite of taking all the cough medication I safely can. And then I found out that people with bronchial asthma are generally not supposed to be prescribed beta blockers, even cardioselective ones in cases where the bronchial asthma is definitely not mild. This explains why I have literally been coughing for more than a week now. It tracks. If I can get through to my primary care doctor’s office next week, I’m going to be calling them, explaining the coughing thing (which I had intended to do earlier, but I had hoped that it would ride itself out and that this medication would still be viable), asking to be prescribed a different medication, and asking where the hell the second prescription I was supposed to be on for my heart went because I clearly heard “two prescriptions” while I saw him.

This cough needed to go away yesterday though, as my voice has faded in and out and I am just over it.

I got a referral to cardiology after probably needing one for years when albuterol and prednisone started to cause more problems than they were repairing, and I was put on a beta-blocker and a separate medication intended to help keep me from going into an abnormal arrythmia (and definitely to keep me from having palpitations). Those are supposed to help tide me over until I can get in with cardiology, although I am welcome to a return visit in the event that they… don’t, and we need second-line treatments along with or instead of first-line treatments. All in all, I am happy for this because I felt like people had the impression that thirty-somethings can’t actually have heart problems, even though my own mother had heart problems at this age and hers contributed to her death. She wasn’t on Hospice long enough to have someone be able to come by and turn her implanted device off because she died three days after being put on Hospice, having an oncologist honestly think he could substantially ameliorate the worst grade of lung cancer there is, and her heart came to a full stop in spite of that thing being set to repeatedly shock her (“back to life”) at the end.

Welcome to the jungle, I guess. The things that I said years ago about our… lack of… relationship are still true.

I’d still like to move out of Texas at one point, though. Standard operating procedure for treating angina isn’t even being followed here and I have to ask for it, supposing that I even get it, due to my age. I didn’t know that congenital heart problems had, or have, an age, but go off. Isn’t the whole point of this “early-onset”?

In a few hours, I see my primary care physician to get the referral to a cardiologist that it is clear as day I need. As already stated, I’m going to ask to be put on a stronger ACE inhibitor, and I’m going to ask to be prescribed short-acting or long-acting nitrates for episodes of angina that will hold me over until I actually see the cardiologist. Aspirin helped ease symptoms of angina until it… didn’t, and high-dose Benadryl is no longer effective at drying out secretions in my lungs that I would otherwise have coughed up and am now coughing up. I look forward to being started on medications that better address this, which might in turn address the fact that I have gradually started feeling cold all of the time, and hope that a referral to cardiology is expedited and that I’m able to see the fellow reasonably soon. If my bronchial asthma isn’t as severe as my care team thinks because I’m having heart problems that can mimic asthma, particularly with vague shortness of breath that isn’t worked up, it might also be that I’m on medications that I don’t actually need to be on… or medications that are causing this to get worse, as some lung medications can actually worsen heart problems if not needed. For fun I might hilariously make a list of my symptoms at one point.

I’m really hoping for enough nitrates to hold me over, though. That’s the biggest thing here. Nitrates, please.

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.