Pulmonary Embolism Support Group

By far the most common form of pulmonary embolism is a thromboembolism, which occurs when a blood clot, generally a venous thrombus, becomes dislodged from its site of formation and embolizes to the arterial blood supply of one of the lungs. Symptoms may include difficulty breathing, pain during breathing, and more rarely circulatory instability and death.

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Cardiologist

renaec23
renaec23
I know this is a very personal decision but I wanted some input on choosing a cardiologist. When I was in the hospital with my PE they assigned me a cardiologist because I have right side heart dilation. While he does seem to be very up to date on new medicines and procedures he is very short on time. He works at two or three different hospitals. His office has an email portal they want people to use but they do not respond back. I have found another cardiologist with decades of experience and his office always responds the same day. I know obviously being a cardiologist they are very busy and have people with major issues to attend to. I don't expect to be their number one priority but not hearing back at all is getting irritating. I'm thinking of dropping the one from my hospital stay althought he is the one that put my IVC filter in. Thoughts on this anyone?
TossNTurn
TossNTurn
Go with your gut on this. If you're already annoyed with a doctor and his/her office, it rarely seems to get better. Go with the one where you can actually make an appointment. You can always go back to see the other guy later, if you need to.

Another option, if you have any doctors that you *really* like is to ask them for a recommendation. You can often just call the front desk for this infor.
corvid100
corvid100
To me having a doctor that is accessible is very important. I only saw a cardiologist once, since my issues weren't very serious. But after my echo, I spent 30 minutes with my PCP asking questions, which was sooo helpful. Like you said, you get that Docs are busy, but it's nice to have one that remembers we're people, not products.
rmb
rmb
If they're not emailing you back with an appointment, then I'd talk to an office manager and raise hell.

But, if you're thinking of changing, I agree with Toss, to ask doctors you like for a recommendation. The good thing in your situation is that you likely won't need to see your cardiologist long term. I saw my cardiologist 3 times within 6 months of my diagnosis, for follow ups to see how everything was going and for subsequent echocardiograms to make sure the heart issues were continuing to improve. But after that, I didn't see him again.
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