"My Wife's Experience at a Cardiology Clinic"

My wife was referred to a cardiology clinic by her family physician after some blood work indicated elevated cholesterol. At the first appointment the cardiologist reviewed the bloodwork and family history and then began to discuss the urgency of her getting on statins, a heart medication. My wife was shocked by the news and expressed some concern around statins and asked for specific information about her bloodwork results. She asked what her number was and at what specific levels they begin to have concern. The doctor shared my wife's result but was unwilling to share the various threshold levels (thus making the actual test result unhelpful for my wife's interpretation). The doctor, rather than being transparent about the thresholds and her rationale for the treatment plan, made my wife extremely anxious and made my wife feel that her desire to avoid statins was ridiculous and naive. My wife returned from the appointment very anxious, feeling her heart could fail any day due to her family history, and thinking that nothing but statins would help her. My wife also felt shamed by the doctor for having the desire to avoid statins, a view she had due to her Mother's experience with statins (which my wife communicated to the doctor).

Medication

Interestingly, when we went home and used an online tool used to assess heart health risk with the data and discussion provided at the appointment, the result was mild to moderate. In her follow-up appointment with her the family doctor she was told that the risk was not severe and that there was time to monitor the situation by trying diet and some other lifestyle approaches to heart health. Most importantly, her family doctor met her where she was at, calmed her down and helped her to see how she could be proactive regarding her heart health rather than anxious and stressed (these being contributors to poor heart health).

Since then my wife has monitored her cholesterol regularly and seen it decline. She requested a different doctor at the cardiology clinic and had a very positive experience. The doctor was empathetic to her concerns regarding statins, calmed her down and requested a test that confirmed she has no plaque build up in her heart (calcium score test). The new cardiologist has no further concerns regarding my wife's heart health and my wife is feeling great.

Seeing the whole me