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When my cardiologist called, she used words I rarely hear. I asked her to hold on as I put my cell phone on speaker so my wife could hear. She repeated, “You were right!”
Many weeks before, after my Apple watch suggested I had Afib, I called my cardiologist, who happened to be on vacation. The doctor on call suggested that I go to a trauma-equipped ER hospital.
I arrived unannounced and explained the reason for my visit. Within 2 minutes, blood was taken, and I was hooked up to an EKG machine. After reading the EKG, they sent me to the waiting room. By the way, I was feeling just fine throughout. But they gave me lots of tests in the hospital, and my cardiologist gave me more a few weeks later. I passed them all, but the mystery remained. Why were my TROPONIN levels so high and not dissipating?
I suggested that I also had unexplained elevated CK levels, another muscle enzyme. She ordered additional blood tests to check both CK and Troponin levels. The blood lab determined that I also had something that caused a false positive for high troponin, caused by my mysterious high CK levels (I guess I’m just one of those people).
The reason for the background information is that I was instructed to include the lab report in the Medical ID and Health app on my phone.
Her concern was the potential of being treated for a heart attack when, maybe, I just had indigestion.
Emergency personnel depend on the information we add to our phones. Keeping it up to date is a task we cannot ignore.
The ACC (American College of Cardiology) says there are no official guidelines yet on how to act on consumer grade ECG alerts, but research shows that Apple Watch and Kardia are pretty good at spotting irregular heartbeats like atrial fibrillation. As a retired physician, I find life without gadgets quite peaceful – if I don’t stick a thermometer in my mouth, I don’t worry about having a fever!
Glad you are OK , but think of the stress you would have avoided by not wearing a watch masquerading as a doctor…
The ER doc disagrees with you. He says the watches are 90% accurate and they bring people in who would not otherwise. Looks like my alert was one of the 10%.
I was never stressed. I felt too good. However, I’m glad I took the advice of my doctors to go to the ER.
These health devices will continue to improve. What I found interesting was how every medical professional took the alert so seriously.
Now I know I have an issue that is quite rare and can avoid any stress next time. I consider that a win.
In addition to all the tests, I signed a zillion forms.
In my case the Watch provided enough info for a helpful discussion with my PCP. And that experience sent me looking for something that was closer to a legit Electronics for Medicine EKG.
But many people approach this 180 degrees from my approach. For some, info from a gadget like these just sparks needless worry. Health, like finance, can be deeply personal too.
Richard,
Thanks for the informative post!
I am glad you are feeling OK.