Thread: Do I need a second opinion?

My youngest son, he's 1, went for a normal checkup and our pediatrician diagnosed him with a heart murmur as well as other stuff that is inconsequential to this thread.

Which to say the least leveled the wife and I.

The pediatrician said that it was nothing to worry about and said that we should not run out and get a pediatric cardiologist (we have no insurance), just watch for outward signs of distress.

WT*!!! Since when do we mess around with heart problems?

Anyone have any experience with these in children. Apologies in advance if this is a bad memory for people.

In many cases heart murmurs are not a big deal - I've been living with one since birth (had open heart surgery at 8-mos of age). Hasn't slowed me or affected me in any way.

My niece was discovered to have a murmur when she was young - no affect (although she does get checked annually).

However, I am not a doctor and am in no way qualified to comment on what you should or should not do. If I were in your shoes with a child who was diagnosed with a murmur, despite knowing what I know about my own, I would likely seek out some more conclusive information from a specialist.

Hope everything works out fine.

Cheers,

i don't think its any thing to worry about. They can grow out of those as well. I would suggest if your worried about it to take your child to another doctor. You don't need a specialist to diagnose a murmur. For simplicity and long term planning you might take your son to your Family/General practicioner and ask if he can hear the murmur and if he agrees with the Pediatrician that its not a big deal.

You can proceed from there . . .

You could also see a Cardiologist and ask him if he knows why there is a murmur and if he agrees as well.

I think it would be cost prohibitive to send your son to a Pediatric Cardiologist, and I'm not sure that would be all that helpful at this point.

Without insurance you have to watch out for the typical medical idea of a cure, which is to conduct expensive tests for a few years until the body corrects itself anyway.

I would also buy a stethescope and have them tell you what they are listening to and compare it to your own heart. Afterall, you'll want to know if and when it gets worse, if it does.

There is one important thing about heart problems, they usually demonstrate themselves in intense physical activity. If he is running and playing like other kids, it should be okay. If he is acting or looking more tired than other children his age, I'd keep investigating.

I suggest though, that if you can afford it, that you do in fact get another opinion. My son died a few years ago because he based his actions on a single doctors prognosis and doctors are wrong a lot of the time.

Good luck and I hope it works out.

I was born with a congenital heart defect. They referred to mine as a heart murmur. I had a very small hole between two of the chambers in my heart and when it would pump there was some leakage between the two which could be seen on an electro cardiogram gram or even heard with a stethoscope by someone who knew what they were listening for.

In my case I went to the National Children's Cardiac clinic twice a year when I was very young and later once a year. I would drink something that was sort of like chocolate flavored chalk and they would look at my innards somehow. I don't really remember. I stopped going when I was about twelve.

I was supposed to have antibiotics if I ever had a puncture wound, deep cut , or a tooth extraction. I was supposed to avoid very strenuous exercise. I ignored the admonition to avoid the exercise and did whatever I wanted to with no problems. It was said that I would eventually grow out of it. When I was 18 I was rated 1Y by my local draft board as a result of the murmur as it was still detecable.

As an adult I haven't mentioned it to doctors who give me checkups figuring that if it is an issue they will bring it to my attention. So far so good, I am 60 now and avidly ride bicycles on and off road. I don't have heart disease and feel pretty good. I suspect no two cases are identical so having the child looked at to determine the source of the murmur is probably a good idea. If he is as lucky as I was it won't be a problem for him.

Originally Posted by AFDavis11

i don't think its any thing to worry about. They can grow out of those as well. I would suggest if your worried about it to take your child to another doctor. You don't need a specialist to diagnose a murmur. For simplicity and long term planning you might take your son to your Family/General practicioner and ask if he can hear the murmur and if he agrees with the Pediatrician that its not a big deal.

You can proceed from there . . .

You could also see a Cardiologist and ask him if he knows why there is a murmur and if he agrees as well.

I think it would be cost prohibitive to send your son to a Pediatric Cardiologist, and I'm not sure that would be all that helpful at this point.

Without insurance you have to watch out for the typical medical idea of a cure, which is to conduct expensive tests for a few years until the body corrects itself anyway.

I would also buy a stethescope and have them tell you what they are listening to and compare it to your own heart. Afterall, you'll want to know if and when it gets worse, if it does.

There is one important thing about heart problems, they usually demonstrate themselves in intense physical activity. If he is running and playing like other kids, it should be okay. If he is acting or looking more tired than other children his age, I'd keep investigating.

I suggest though, that if you can afford it, that you do in fact get another opinion. My son died a few years ago because he based his actions on a single doctors prognosis and doctors are wrong a lot of the time.

Good luck and I hope it works out.

+1

Doctors can and will be wrong sometimes. Any decent doctor will be able to hear a murmer. Most shouldn't have a problem with just sticking a stethoscope to his chest gratis.

i have no idea about heart problems so i apologize ahead of time. if it were me (and i am very close to the point of having kids ) i would get another opinion, not necessarily a specialist, but it is nice to get two opinions, and then simply make sure that the child stays healthy. simple right. but seriously, in todays society kids are not healthy, so give your child the best chance by feeding him good whole foods and encouraging exercise. my parents did this for me and i can't thank them enough. plus (and i don't know how healthy you are or any of that) it is a great opportunity to pay more attention to what you eat and how much you exercise. i know it sounds simple, and it is, but it is something that you can do very easily that will make a huge impact.

if i'm venturing where i shouldn't with this then i apologize.
Wes

Originally Posted by chee16

i have no idea about heart problems so i apologize ahead of time. if it were me (and i am very close to the point of having kids ) i would get another opinion, not necessarily a specialist, but it is nice to get two opinions, and then simply make sure that the child stays healthy. simple right. but seriously, in todays society kids are not healthy, so give your child the best chance by feeding him good whole foods and encouraging exercise. my parents did this for me and i can't thank them enough. plus (and i don't know how healthy you are or any of that) it is a great opportunity to pay more attention to what you eat and how much you exercise. i know it sounds simple, and it is, but it is something that you can do very easily that will make a huge impact.

if i'm venturing where i shouldn't with this then i apologize.
Wes

No you are not out of line and we do exercise the kids regularly and we eat as healthy as we can. All home cooked very rarely eating out. I used to run 3-4 miles a day but surgery two years ago sidelined me. This summer I will be working towards a 1/2 iron man.

If you follow the people who say no and there is a problem later on, you will beat yourself over the head with this for the rest of your life.

If you follow the people who say yes and there isn't a problem, you might feel bad about 'wasting' money.

But considering your kids are probably the most important persons in your life, and this issue is a potential problem for your kid, I think you really should get a second opinion.

Hello, there are certainly many misconceptions of what a heart murmur is. I am a working cardiology tech and perform cardiac echos (ultra sound) every day and have for over 25 years. As an explanation, the heart has 4 rooms and 4 doors called valves. Blood moves from room to room and makes noise. Same kind of noise you hear when you turn on your water faucet. A murmur is nothing more than an abnormal noise. Murmurs are classified into innocent functional murmurs and pathological murmurs. Many doctors only know that they hear an abnormal noise and don't know what is causing it. Echocardiography, ultrasound exam of the heart can be entirely normal in a person with a heart murmur. So in that person the murmur is NORMAL for that heart. Additionally children's hearts frequently have murmurs because the structure of the heart is changing and developing. As one reaches adolescence or even young adulthood those murmurs are usually gone. It is true however that many children are born with a congenital abnormality or defect in the structure of part of the heart.
The doctor that said your child has a heart murmur could order an echo without your child being referred to a pediatric cardiologist. This exam is normally done in a pediatric cardiologists office by a trained echocardiographer like myself and then the images are reviewed by the cardiolgist and a report sent back to the referring M.D. Of course if you have no insurance the cost of this exam is not small.
I certainly am not advising you to do anything one way or the other just trying to provide a bit of education.

Good luck and realize that everything may be totally OK.

Originally Posted by singlewedge

No you are not out of line and we do exercise the kids regularly and we eat as healthy as we can. All home cooked very rarely eating out. I used to run 3-4 miles a day but surgery two years ago sidelined me. This summer I will be working towards a 1/2 iron man.

good for you! i am always glad to hear that someone who is asking a health question is also very conscience of their own health, and your child's for that matter. in the area that i live there are many people that get sick and assume that it is bad luck, rather then associating it with health and fitness. this is obviously not your case, which is great to.

also, as a side note, i played football all through high school ( in Canada it isn't quite as big as the US, not the same calibre for sure) and soccer since i was 8, and i can distinctly remember playing football with guys who talked about being diagnosed with a heart murmur when they were younger, and having no problems.

mkevenson, that is some great info, it seems you would be the exact person to answer this question