I had a heart attack at about 10:30 PM with NO prior exertion; NO prior emotional trauma that one would suspect
might've
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
spasming),
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 footrest 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 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 unbolt 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
cardiologist 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 stents 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.
A nurse’s advice:
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
doctor 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.
Read another story of a rescue by emergency medical technicians.
Thanks to Cheryl Long for the source story by an anonymous nurse.