Latest update February 6th, 2025 7:27 AM
Cardiovascular professional warns against “waiting symptoms out”
While utilising the services of Google to gain an understanding of some medical conditions, it is not the recommended path if manifested symptoms are to be properly diagnosed. This is according to Cardiovascular Professional, Ms. Ramona Chanderballi, who revealed that far too many persons seek medical attention when the symptoms of their condition had considerably advanced.
Cardiac Sonographer
According to Chanderballi, it is especially troubling that oftentimes persons choose to “wait out their symptoms” in hopes that “it will eventually pass”. As such, she has warned that even if persons are manifesting symptoms of a common cold, they should seek medical attention before a conclusive diagnosis can be made.
“You should still go and see your doctor, don’t wait for symptoms to get worse,” said Chanderballi as she drew attention to many patients being belatedly diagnosed after suffering for extended periods with symptoms of cardiovascular diseases.
This leads to a state of affairs whereby conditions that could have been readily treated result in fatal outcomes.
Some patients who avail themselves for treatment present with a lot of symptoms at this point and these could include, “they can’t sleep properly; they are unable to eat; they can’t move about and that is usually when everything goes downhill.”
Ramon Chanderballi
Symptoms, Chanderballi disclosed, can include shortness of breath and this, she noted, should never be taken for granted. “Shortness of breath is not normal, especially if you are trying to climb a flight of stairs…we usually ask patients, do you get shortness of breath when you are sitting or when you are walking and that is when we know that they have something going on,” said Chanderballi, a Cardiac Sonographer at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation [GPHC].
“Aside from shortness of breath, swelling of ankles is one of the big ones [symptoms]. If it is not your heart, it could be your kidneys and in which case those are two organs that you do not want to not be working,” said Chanderballi.
Seeking to sensitise patients about symptoms that may suggest the development of cardiovascular diseases during Kaieteur Radio’s Monday Edition of Your Health Matters, Chanderballi revealed, “If you need more than two pillows to lie in bed at nights to sleep, if you are getting severe chest pains and you are getting pains running up and down your left arm or pains at the back of your left shoulder, generally those are emergencies.”
Added to this, she disclosed, “For a stroke, if one side of your face is drooping and you can’t control it and you are having problems walking, seeing, all at the same time, please head to the emergency room right away.”
As she stressed the need to guard against cardiovascular diseases, Chanderballi said that, “In general, even if it is not heart related, it could be lung related and if it is lung related, it also puts pressure on the heart. So if you are getting shortness of breath and if you can’t lie flat, go see your doctor.”
Emphasising the need for persons to utilise their neighbourhood health centres, Chanderballi made it clear that “you can go to your local health centre [first] if it is too much of a hassle to come into the city or to come to the hospital [GPHC] and the waiting time at the health centre is a lot less.” According to Chanderballi, once the health workers at a health centre find something significant that requires further attention, “they will refer you to the hospital.”
To help slow the degeneration of their health, Chanderballi advises that persons embrace healthy lifestyle changes such as reducing their tobacco and alcohol consumption even as they choose to eat a balance diet and exercise regularly.
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