Thanks Judi Cole!
This has been around before but well worth a re read.
I recommend you read this account. I hope you never need it, but it could
give you or someone you knowthe info you need to make sense of symptoms you
would not expect.
*NURSE'S HEART ATTACK EXPERIENCE
*This has been passed on from an ER nurse and is the best description of
this event that she had ever heard. Please read, pay attention, and send it
on!
*FEMALE HEART ATTACKS
*
I was aware that female heart attacks are different, but this is the best
description I've ever read.
Women and heart attacks (Myocardial Infarction). Did you know that women
rarely have the same dramatic symptoms that men have when experiencing heart
attack ... you know, the sudden stabbing pain in the chest, the cold sweat,
grabbing the chest & dropping to the floor that we see in the 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 on e 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 to20myself 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 lay 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 & nbsp;'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 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). MI's 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.
*
A cardiologist says, if everyone who gets this mail sends it to 10 people,
you can be sure that we'll save at least one life.
**Please be a true friend and send this article to all the friends (male &
female) you care about!***
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