Morning everybody,
This is on behalf of my dad who has Myelodisplasia. He also has had invective endocarditis and that is being monitored. He has symptoms of being freezing cold at night but sweating like mad at the same time.
Has anyone else got experience of trying to get two different specialties (haematology and cardiology) to have a conversation together in a multidisciplinary type situation to try to resolve anything? His next haematology telephone appointment isn’t until May next year.
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Hi @Ali24 it’s not the same but I had extensive dental work done about 15 yrs ago and the haematologist, GP and dentist all worked together for me to have antibiotics before, during and after the procedure.
I asked for it, but it is a reasonable request.
Perhaps it is best in an email to both parties.
Your dad obviously has to agree.
Let us know how you both get on, look after yourselves.
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Hi @Ali24
Sorry to hear your dad has Myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), and that you are worried about him. It sounds like his situation is stable if his next appt isn’t until May. That’s encouraging. But I can understand your concern about the two depts/consultants communicating.
Yes, I’ve needed my haematologist and cardiologist to communicate. I had Myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) that turned into Acute myeloid leukaemia (AML), and the chemo for that caused me some mild/moderate heart damage. My haematologist referred me to a cardiologist. They all talked in one of the MDT meetings at some point.
I had to have echos and ECGs regularly for a while, until my situation looked stable and then improved significantly. During this time, my cardiologist always sent his correspondence to me, my GP and to my haematologist, probably because my haematologist needed to know my heart status should I need more chemo, and because my haematology treatment caused the damage. My haematologist didn’t send letters to my cardiologist though, as they were not particularly relevant.
I’m sure your dad’s consultants will chat in a meeting at some point, to decided whether they need to liaise in future about meds or treatment. I think it’s pretty common for people to have multiple health issues and consultants, and for those consultants to liaise if necessary.
If your dad consents, you could always check with one of his consultants whether they are aware of his other health issues/consultant, and whether it warrants some liaising. But on diagnosis of an illness, consultants usually take a medical history and should be aware of the heart issue and the other consultant’s existance, since our overall health impacts treatment options and disease progression/prognosis. And of course our medical notes should contain every health detail.
If you’re ever not happy with communication between depts, you could always talk to PALS (the Patient Advice and Liaison Service) for pointers on how to deal with that.
Hope your dad is keeping okay, and that you are too. He sounds lucky to have you checking up on how things are going.
Best of luck with it all.
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Thank you for your comments.
One of the issues I have is that the consultants are in 2 different local NHS hospitals and he has different hospital numbers, so I’m not sure how much joined up thinking there is.
He’s only got the appointment in May next year as that’s the first available one.
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Hi @Ali24 I think a good thing that did come out of Covid was medical people holding multidisciplinary meetings over Zoom/Teams/etc so if they cannot physically get together the next best or even better infrastructure is there.
We await, please let us know how you and your get on.
Hi. I I am a nurse and in my opinion a MDT meeting sounds like an excellent idea. It would allow the 2 specialisms to get together and work out a plan instead of concentrating on their own issues without interaction. In my experience you sometimes have to push for these things but it makes perfect sense. Zoom and Teams meetings occur all the time now post covid so it’s possible to arrange. Good luck
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