We are hurting here

My wife went to a cardiologist for ultra sound on the heart area Wednesday.
The Dr. found a mass in the aortic arch.
He said it could be a tumor, a clot, plaque, or an artifact (shadow or other picture anomaly).
She is know on COUMADIN® to thin the blood "just in case".

We got insurance approval yesterday for a CT Angiogram and found out today that we can't be scheduled until the 28th.

WTF?
Why in the hell do we have to wait so damn long during such a potentially life threatening situation?
If it is a thrombosis then we fear a stroke could happen any moment.
We are both stressed to the max.

Monday morning we are going to call radiology centers all over San Diego area to see if we can somehow get in to one and get a definitive picture.
We have Blue Cross POS so we are hoping we can figure this out soon.

Any advice would be most helpful.
Thanks

IF WE HAD A REAL GOVERNMENT, IT WOULD ALREADY BE DONE.

TOO MANY PEOPLE IN THE PAYOFF CHAIN.

you try to schedule the testing there.

There are several 'clinics' within and outside of hospitals that specialize in Women's Health - and, especially, heart and breast health.

After my last mammogram, my physician's clinic advised I should be biopsied. They wanted me to wait almost four months -- I called my insurer and the clinic to ask if there was another clinic I could schedule the biopsy at - they referred me to a booklet of covered providers and said I could take my pick - as long as the procedure had been referred by a primary physician. I contacted a local Women's Health Center, that was listed, to see if I could schedule it sooner and I was able to get in in less than a week.

And, although my primary provider never did any follow up, the physician and radiologist at the Women's Center I wound up going to called me on a Saturday night to give me the results.

I know these can be scary times. Please let us DUers/me know how things turn out -- cuz if you don't I'll probably bug you til you do!

calls to get me in somewhere, it's usually pretty quick -- much quicker than if I'd had tried to make the appointment myself.

Let us know how it goes!

This delay surprised us both.

The reasoning was that they "worked us in" and something to the affect of "the person that does the test doesn't work but a few days of the week".

Frustrating.

Sharp's been pretty good with getting us in quickly whether or not the doctor we had was with their group; hubby had pain in the chest earlier last year and they took care of him the same night, running all the tests the Cardiologist and emergency crew felt they needed to run. We've always had good luck with their urgent care facilities (such as Grossmont or Downtown/4th St), and they have quite a few clinics and hospitals, your chances of getting a halfway decent radiologist before the middle of next week.

UCSD is supposed to be good, also.
Don't use Alverado, they're a Tenent Health Care hospital and they've been having problems lately.

Crossing my fingers for your wife, Blue Cross isn't the worst insurance, and most of the hospitals have no problems accepting it on a walk-in basis.

Haele

I hope a solution can be found quickly. :hug:

:hug:

and it will lyse(be broken down by the body) within a week. If it's plaque, it's more dangerous, but the Coumadin will prevent a clot from forming around it, breaking off, and causing a stroke. A tumor is a long shot, but it won't be going anywhere.

She's being treated. This isn't an absolute emergency. However, you do need to watch her for things like facial asymmetry or weakness on one side, or bleeding problems from the Coumadin.

A ten day wait for an angiogram isn't that unreasonable, depending on the size of whatever they saw on the image, as long as she is being anticoagulated--which she is.

A radiologist will review the film at some point. If he disagrees with the doc, she could be rescheduled for a quicker angio or it could be canceled, depending on his opinion of what's on that film. In the meantime, Coumadin is a reasonable precaution.

...but it gets a bit disconcerting when the cardiologist tells us that if she has any stroke like symptoms to call 911 immediately and when her radiologist brother (in Colorado)says that if there is a clot in the aorta then she should be in the hospital recieving Heparin doses as this is a fatal condition.

She has had very minor stroke-like symptoms for about a year and a half, off and on. Where she gets suddenly tired and feels as if her face is drooping, a "squeezing" sensation on the brain, mostly the front, and speech is slow/slurred. We thought we had this thoroughly checked back when this started. The Doctors at the time declared her as "nothing wrong" after a battery of tests.

We are anxious to say the least.

she needs to be in the hospital NOW, at least until she's got a stable PT. She should at least be getting anticoagulation shots until that Coumadin kicks in. Your brother is right. This is ridiculous.

That's why I mentioned the facial asymmetry or weakness on one side. If that happens, get her into the hospital FAST. Mention the mass in her aorta and don't let them discharge her without some answers.

In the meantime, it sounds like somebody's been dropping the ball for a long time. If anything happens, call a malpractice lawyer. The cardiologist who turned her loose is as culpable as the docs who ASSumed the TIAs were coming out of noplace.

It's always easier to be on the provider side saying "be patient" than on the patient side being afraid, wanting, needing to know asap if not before. I've been both and wish the best for her and you. Sounds like the docs that checked her out before didn't catch these episodes. Raise hell and hang in there.