NURSE'S HEART ATTACK EXPERIENCE
FEMALE HEART ATTACKS (NOT my experience, posted by a FB friend. E)
I was aware that female heart attacks are different, but this is the best description I've ever read.
Women rarely have the same dramatic symptoms that men have ... you know, the sudden stabbing pain in the chest, the cold sweat, grabbing the chest & dropping to the floor that we see in movies. Here is the story of one woman's experience with a heart attack.
I had a heart attack at about 10:30 PM with NO prior exertion, NO prior emotional trauma that one would suspect might have brought it on. I was sitting all snugly & warm on a cold evening, with my purring cat in my lap, reading an interesting story my friend had sent me, and actually thinking, 'A-A-h, this is the life, all cozy and warm in my soft, cushy Lazy Boy with my feet propped up.
A moment later, I felt that awful sensation of indigestion, when you've been in a hurry and grabbed a bite of sandwich and washed it down with a dash of water, and that hurried bite seems to feel like you've swallowed a golf ball going down the esophagus in slow motion and it is most uncomfortable. You realize you shouldn't have gulped it down so fast and needed to chew it more thoroughly and this time drink a glass of water to hasten its progress down to the stomach. This was my initial sensation--the only trouble was that I hadn't taken a bite of anything since about 5:00 p.m.
After it seemed to subside, the next sensation was like little squeezing motions that seemed to be racing up my SPINE (hind-sight, it was probably my aorta spasms), gaining speed as they continued racing up and under my sternum (breast bone, where one presses rhythmically when administering CPR).
This fascinating process continued on into my throat and branched out into both jaws. 'AHA!! NOW I stopped puzzling about what was happening -- we all have read and/or heard about pain in the jaws being one of the signals of an MI happening, haven't we? I said aloud to myself and the cat, Dear God, I think I'm having a heart attack!
I lowered the foot rest dumping the cat from my lap, started to take a step and fell on the floor instead. I thought to myself, If this is a heart attack, I shouldn't be walking into the next room where the phone is or anywhere else... but, on the other hand, if I don't, nobody will know that I need help, and if I wait any longer I may not be able to get up in a moment.
I pulled myself up with the arms of the chair, walked slowly into the next room and dialed the Paramedics... I told her I thought I was having a heart attack due to the pressure building under the sternum and radiating into my jaws. I didn't feel hysterical or afraid, just stating the facts. She said she was sending the Paramedics over immediately, asked if the front door was near to me, and if so, to un-bolt the door and then lie down on the floor where they could see me when they came in.
I unlocked the door and then laid down on the floor as instructed and lost consciousness, as I don't remember the medics coming in, their examination, lifting me onto a gurney or getting me into their ambulance, or hearing the call they made to St. Jude ER on the way, but I did briefly awaken when we arrived and saw that the radiologist was already there in his surgical blues and cap, helping the medics pull my stretcher out of the ambulance. He was bending over me asking questions (probably something like 'Have you taken any medications?') but I couldn't make my mind interpret what he was saying, or form an answer, and nodded off again, not waking up until the Cardiologist and partner had already threaded the teeny angiogram balloon up my femoral artery into the aorta and into my heart where they installed 2 side by side stints to hold open my right coronary artery.
I know it sounds like all my thinking and actions at home must have taken at least 20-30 minutes before calling the paramedics, but actually it took perhaps 4-5 minutes before the call, and both the fire station and St Jude are only minutes away from my home, and my Cardiologist was already to go to the OR in his scrubs and get going on restarting my heart (which had stopped somewhere between my arrival and the procedure) and installing the stents.
Why have I written all of this to you with so much detail? Because I want all of you who are so important in my life to know what I learned first hand.
1. Be aware that something very different is happening in your body, not the usual men's symptoms but inexplicable things happening (until my sternum and jaws got into the act). It is said that many more women than men die of their first (and last) MI because they didn't know they were having one and commonly mistake it as indigestion, take some Maalox or other anti-heartburn preparation and go to bed, hoping they'll feel better in the morning when they wake up... which doesn't happen. My female friends, your symptoms might not be exactly like mine, so I advise you to call the Paramedics if ANYTHING is unpleasantly happening that you've not felt before. It is better to have a 'false alarm' visitation than to risk your life guessing what it might be!
2. Note that I said 'Call the Paramedics.' And if you can take an aspirin. Ladies, TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE!
Do NOT try to drive yourself to the ER - you are a hazard to others on the road.
Do NOT have your panicked husband who will be speeding and looking anxiously at what's happening with you instead of the road.
Do NOT call your doctor -- he doesn't know where you live and if it's at night you won't reach him anyway, and if it's daytime, his assistants (or answering service) will tell you to call the Paramedics. He doesn't carry the equipment in his car that you need to be saved! The Paramedics do, principally OXYGEN that you need ASAP. Your Dr. will be notified later.
3. Don't assume it couldn't be a heart attack because you have a normal cholesterol count. Research has discovered that a cholesterol elevated reading is rarely the cause of an MI (unless it's unbelievably high and/or accompanied by high blood pressure). MIs are usually caused by long-term stress and inflammation in the body, which dumps all sorts of deadly hormones into your system to sludge things up in there. Pain in the jaw can wake you from a sound sleep. Let's be careful and be aware. The more we know the better chance we could survive.
= new reply since forum marked as read
I just edited the OP, it wasn't me, posted by a friend on FB. (and I don't have a cat!)
I was just laying on the couch watching the tube at 2am, and noticed that my lower back had a radiating achiness. It was annoying enough that I got up and took some Tylenol for it, and decided to go lie down in bed. But after a little while it wasn't feeling any better, and this nameless feeling of dread poked me and said, you should wake up your wife. I wasn't thinking "heart attack", but it was enough of a sense that "something here is wrong" that made me act. so I woke her up, and started to describe how I was feeling. When I got to "and my left arm is achy too, and my jaw feels pretty tight" she was wide awake. We argued for a while as to what to do (denial is a powerful thing), but eventually came around to eating a *NONCOATED* aspirin and calling the EMTs, who put me in the wagon and off to the ER I went. 15 hours later, I had three shiny new stents including one in my LAD (aka "the widowmaker"
, but amazingly no measurable damage.
So:
1. That feeling of "something just ain't right here"? LISTEN TO IT.
2. Definitely eat an aspirin, 325mg *non* coated. you want it to get absorbed sooner, not later.
3. Symptoms vary widely, and can be ambiguous. Play it safe, call the experts (aka the EMTs, Paramedics, Rescue Squad, 911, whoever) and TRUST THEM.
Also, often times the dramatization of clutching one's chest and falling down isn't an MI, it is cardiac arrest. They are different. An MI means you are in water over your head and can't swim. CA means you've already sunk. If you get help quickly enough, MIs can be survived. CA, not nearly so much.
Finally, this revelation. The outward symptoms of an MI and of a Panic Attack are identical. High pulse, sweating, aches, tension, feelings of dread, all of it. Unless you know how to tell the difference, err on the side of safety, then LEARN how to tell, to avoid it in the future.
(Note: I'm not a doctor. This isn't medical advice. Your estate doesn't get to sue me.)
I think it is easy to confuse shortness of breath with fatigue. It isn't a problem oxygenating your blood -- it is a problem getting the blood where it needs to go. They probably feel the same ("need more air, please!" , so when it happens to me, I am acutely aware, but wait it out to see if just sitting improves things. If the blood is being blocked, resting won't help.
For me, ambiguous chest pain spikes my anxiety response. I've figured out that I can distinguish between muscular pain and cardiac pain because I can find a spot that when I push there, it hurts. "Oh, it hurts *here*." Cardiac pain radiates. This calms me down a little, but then I still have to deal with the symptoms. I'm able to distinguish between an anxiety attack and a heart attack by taking a Xanax and waiting a little while. If there comes a point that I forget that I'm having pain, it isn't cardiac. Cardiac pain *doesn't* go away, and no amount of Xanax is going to make you forget you are having a cardiac event.
Luckily for me, I've only had the one event (7+ years ago, knock wood). It kicked me in the ass to change my diet and lifestyle. Cardiac rehab greatly improved my outcome. I see my cardiologist regularly. I've been able to get to that place where it no longer rules my life, and most of the time I don't think about it. But that took much longer than I would have guessed. I'm absolutely convinced that stress is the real killer, and I restructured my life and career to avoid stress whenever possible. This has the added benefit of improving my general happiness as well.
I take a handful of drugs every day (ugh). Aspirin + Plavix works wonders, but screws with your ability to clot (well, that's the whole point). Unfortunately, every little scratch or pinprick can become an annoying bleed. It's only a little bit, but you don't realize until its dripped halfway down your arm. It usually freaks *other* people out when they notice it happening. I was able to cut my aspirin back from 325 to 81mg, but I haven't noticed much of a difference yet.
By far, the most surreal part of the whole thing was spending four days in cardiac ICU and going home with just a Band-Aid on my thigh.
Response to elleng (Original post)