• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

letter from Doc... Come back we need to discuss chest XRay

N

NetGuySC

Golden Member
Last week i got a chest xray for I had some mid/upper back pain. Doc said the xray was fine and that it was a muscle spasm.

Now a week later I get a letter saying to make an appointment to discuss the xray.

Went in today and they say that in the xray that it looks as though I have hardened arteries around my heart. So they took about 5 tubes of blood, urine sample, ekg, and sonargram of my heart ( I forget the word that I should use here).

Of course I know nothing of the results of these tests.


I am 36 years old....Isn't this kind of young for this to be happening

Yes I smoked since age 18, am 5'11" 195 lbs

Kind of strange to be thinking of my mortality, used to kind of think I would live forever, if you know what I mean


Yes i haven't smoked since just before i walked into the doctor office today. exactly 14 hours and 20 minutes ago
 
that's pretty weird, you got an xray and they said 'hardened arteries around the heart.? usually blood vessels aren't all that well visualized on xrays except for some lung vasculature, and you certainly can't tell whether they're 'hard' or not. you can't see coronary vessels on a routine xray. not sure exactly what he means, other than cholesterol buildup.

anyway your doc just probably just checked pretty routine stuff like your lipids right, because if he is concerned about things like coronary artery disease, smoking and hyperlipidemia are two major risk factors. others include diabetes and hypertension, if you have either of those you need to be especially careful. i don't understand the clinical utility of an echo, it seems a stress test would be more appropriate.

don't sweat it too much right now. anyway certainly #1 priority is to stop smoking, that is the singlemost important thing you can do to improve your health. then comes diet and exercise, but you know all those things already. make sure you keep tabs on your chest/back pain. any radiation to arm or jaw, sweating with pain, or new pain with rest, probably hit up the ER. from what your doc is doing, doesn't sound too bad, you've got lots of room to improve your health. good luck.
 
Originally posted by: NetGuySC
Last week i got a chest xray for I had some mid/upper back pain. Doc said the xray was fine and that it was a muscle spasm.

Now a week later I get a letter saying to make an appointment to discuss the xray.

Went in today and they say that in the xray that it looks as though I have hardened arteries around my heart. So they took about 5 tubes of blood, urine sample, ekg, and sonargram of my heart ( I forget the word that I should use here).

Of course I know nothing of the results of these tests.


I am 36 years old....Isn't this kind of young for this to be happening

Yes I smoked since age 18, am 5'11" 195 lbs

Kind of strange to be thinking of my mortality, used to kind of think I would live forever, if you know what I mean


Yes i haven't smoked since just before i walked into the doctor office today. exactly 14 hours and 20 minutes ago
Click to expand...


don't sweat it too much... they will check your lipids and what not, put you on an oatmeal diet for the rest of your life and tell you to quit smoking. no biggie. keep a positive attitude and a beer in the fridge and it will all be okay.
 
Originally posted by: NetGuySC
Last week i got a chest xray for I had some mid/upper back pain. Doc said the xray was fine and that it was a muscle spasm.

Now a week later I get a letter saying to make an appointment to discuss the xray.

Went in today and they say that in the xray that it looks as though I have hardened arteries around my heart. So they took about 5 tubes of blood, urine sample, ekg, and sonargram of my heart ( I forget the word that I should use here).

Of course I know nothing of the results of these tests.


I am 36 years old....Isn't this kind of young for this to be happening

Yes I smoked since age 18, am 5'11" 195 lbs

Kind of strange to be thinking of my mortality, used to kind of think I would live forever, if you know what I mean


Yes i haven't smoked since just before i walked into the doctor office today. exactly 14 hours and 20 minutes ago
Click to expand...


don't sweat it too much... they will check your lipids and what not, put you on an oatmeal diet for the rest of your life and tell you to quit smoking. no biggie. keep a positive attitude and a beer in the fridge and it will all be okay.
 
Originally posted by: dethman
that's pretty weird, you got an xray and they said 'hardened arteries around the heart.? usually blood vessels aren't all that well visualized on xrays except for some lung vasculature, and you certainly can't tell whether they're 'hard' or not. you can't see coronary vessels on a routine xray
Click to expand...

of course you can see vessels on an xray depending on the strength of the xray used. They just don't do xrays to look at the lungs. They also look at the heart and the vessels surrounding the heart. Now, as far as being able to tell if they are 'hard' or not, I don't really know.
 
Originally posted by: prvteye2003
Originally posted by: dethman
that's pretty weird, you got an xray and they said 'hardened arteries around the heart.? usually blood vessels aren't all that well visualized on xrays except for some lung vasculature, and you certainly can't tell whether they're 'hard' or not. you can't see coronary vessels on a routine xray
Click to expand...

of course you can see vessels on an xray depending on the strength of the xray used. They just don't do xrays to look at the lungs. They also look at the heart and the vessels surrounding the heart. Now, as far as being able to tell if they are 'hard' or not, I don't really know.
Click to expand...

i should have specified chest xray, which i assumed he received for his back pain.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top