Health Concerns – Part 1

Back in 2005, I was diagnosed with PVCs (premature ventricular contractions), which is one type of Arrhythmia. Further tests turned out normal and the source of my skipped beats was never found out. I was given Cordarone and I took it for 2 years, until my cardiologist asked me to stop taking it last January 2008. He said that the medicine has too many side effects, and the major one was its effects on my thyroid. My last thyroid function test last April was not good, but I wasn’t given medicines because the doctor said we should wait for the Cordarone to get off my system. I was just given Inderal-Propranolol for my palpitations, which is milder than Cordarone, but for 3 months I stopped taking it because I was feeling better. I was really hoping that I could get away with not having maintenance medicines.

But just recently, my skipped beats are back. I was supposed to have my Treadmill Stress Test, as part of my Annual Physical Examination in my office. But my ECG was so bad that the doctor didn’t allow me to proceed. She gave me prescription for Inderal again and asked me to go back to my cardiologist.

During this time, the results of routine blood tests, again, as part of my annual PE, came back, and as in the past years, I’m still anemic. From as far as I can remember, I’ve been anemic all my life, and I’ve also been reading a lot of information from the Web that anemia can cause palpitations, and it was confirmed by our doctor in the clinic, that indeed, anemia can cause skipped beats. She insisted that I go to a Hematologist for further evaluation. Actually, another doctor has advised me to go a hematologist since last year, but I didn’t, because I was scared of what the doctor might find out. But, i think, right now, for my sake, and for the sake of my family, i really need to go to the specialists.

So, for the past 2 weekends, I got busy with consulting an Endocrinologist and a Hematologist. From the endocrinologist, it was good news! My thyroid function test turned out normal, although, I still have 3 nodules in my thyroid – which just need regular monitoring. For the Hematologist, she asked me to undergo several blood tests, and when I got the results, everything was not normal. When I brought the results to my Hematologist for interpretation, she said that my red blood cells were very small, that’s why I’m anemic, and the quality of my RBCs are pale. I got scared! But she said there’s nothing that I should be worried about. She said she will just put me on full dosage of Iron tablets and after a month, she will check if my RBCs will improve, if not, she will do another test to check if I have Thalassemia. I almost freaked out because from what I had read, this is a rare disease and in fact, there were still very few information available about this disease until just recently. But, she assured me that I would only need vitamins if in case I was diagnosed with it. She also said that she’s almost certain that I only have Iron deficiency anemia and it can be corrected once I take the full dose of iron tablets. She also mentioned that this could also be the reason why I had Cholecystectomy — my gallbladder was removed last 2004, because gallstones formation has something to do with the quality of my RBCs. I was really surprised when she said this because I didn’t know that my being anemic has something to do with the removal of my gallbladder. But when I did some research in the Internet, there is really a connection between the two.