At first appointment, Dr. Hansen seemed to be on the ball and prepared to tackle the multitude of symptoms that I was facing; skipping heart beats, chest pain/pressure, shortness of breath, high blood pressure, dizziness, and racing heart rate. Although he was certain I was okay based on my age (26) and two EKGs from the ER, he did a Holter monitor test, and a stress echo, 'just to be certain'. I thought this was a good sign, and things would be handled with care and thought. But that's not the case. He told me that I had PAC/PVCs (mainly PVCs), low heart rate of 40BPM, and SVTs on my 24 hour Holter monitor, and although my stress echo looked okay, my heart rate was a lot higher than it should be. He said he could put me on a beta-blocker, but at my age I shouldn't worry. I was left confused as to if I was okay or not, and left unsure of what to do next. He said to make a two month follow up. He did not address the chest pain/pressure, the dizziness, breathlessness, or any of my concerns about the symptoms. He seemed to either ignore it or change the subject. I left unsure if I should be reassured, or disturbed. By a week or two later, the PVCs had gotten worse, so I went back in early, and he basically condescended me and told me there's nothing more he wants to do. He prescribed me a beta-blocker because of my concern, not his own, even though the side effects are worse than the PVCs themselves, and sent me on my way to return on my previously set up follow up date. I did not take the beta-blockers after reading about it, both medical facts and experiences, and talking to my pharmacist.I went in on the scheduled date, and told him I was still experiencing pain, skipped beats, fast heart beat, and had begun to wake up breathless almost nightly. Again he brushed it all aside as I'm, 'too young to have a problem'. During the appointment, he left halfway through without warning or apology or even a simple comment on where he was going, and didn't return for at least 10 minutes; to boot, he couldn't even remember where he had been or which patient he had been with and had to ask his nurse. At my pleading, he did a cardiac panel to check all my stats, as he hadn't bothered to do one beforehand to check cholesterol even though I'm markedly overweight due to past medications. Almost two weeks passed before a nurse called to give me results, even though the lab technician told me it'd take max 3 or 4 days for results. The nurse seemed alarmed although my tests were all normal, minus HDL being a bit low. I made a follow-up based on her concern, and yet again he shook his head and told me there's nothing more to test, and at my age I shouldn't be concerned, as well as saying, 'well it's not a matter of dieing, if you die that's about it', which I found both crude and upsetting. You think a doctor would want to do everything to prevent death, not make light of it which he's often do; 'if you die, give us a call' is his usual tag line. Never once has he said, 'if you're concerned, give us a call', although I have overhead him say it to his other older patients. While he could be right, and I could be fine, I'm extremely unnerved by his ease at writing off symptoms that have been caught by Holter; I'm also unnerved that he can ignore questions or write them off completely, especially about chest pain and pressure, or the cause of the PVCs; he's given me hardly any information on anything other than, 'you're too young to die'. Shouldn't I be informed about what PVCs even are? I had to find out for myself. He didn't offer any suggestion of what was causing them or could be causing them. He's barely offered any information other than relaying the test results each time, and telling me I'm too young to worry. His bedside manner is lacking, and he's got a one track mind when it comes to age. I will be seeking a second opinion, needless to say.
