I had a heart attack Wednesday (MRI, quit smoking, diet, overweight)
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A little more information. In 2012 i had "complete heart block" and had pacemaker inserted after angiogram. They said I did not have heart disease- it was an electrical issue. OK. But then I started thinking. Does this mean my artery got 99% blocked in only 4 years? or did they miss something/ or was it kind of blocked but not enough for a stent then? Boggles the mind. When I see my doc I'll ask all those questions. I was too out of it in the hospital to think too clearly.
Another question: Was the event which took me to the hospital the actual "heart attack" or could the damage have occurred earlier (other times I passed feeling kind of ill off as something else) and the damage got so bad it caused the event?
Have no idea how expensive it is but wondering why this particular blood test isn't run during routine physicals for people of a certain age with certain risk factors? (diabetic, overweight, family history of heart attacks, pacemaker) My docs routinely take multiple vials of blood for CBC, AlC, etc so why not run that test at the same time?
Good questions for your handsome Nigerian doctor.
They wouldn't routinely run cardiac enzymes with CBC unless they suspected something was going on. Not sure of the expense but I bet most insurances wouldn't cover unless the doc suspected a heart attack.
I'm so glad you went to the hospital to get checked out.
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Glad to hear you are on the mend!
I once thought I was having a heart attack and had my son take me to the ER. It turned out to be a-fib. I spent a night in the hospital with a nitro patch on my chest. My heart started acting up again while I was sleeping and they wanted to keep me another day, but I was finally released late afternoon. Scary!
Very thankful that you are doing well and that your DH insisted on calling an ambulance. Take good care of yourself and keep us posted on how you are doing.
Have no idea how expensive it is but wondering why this particular blood test isn't run during routine physicals for people of a certain age with certain risk factors? (diabetic, overweight, family history of heart attacks, pacemaker) My docs routinely take multiple vials of blood for CBC, AlC, etc so why not run that test at the same time?
I am so glad you heeded the warnings and are ok!!
As for your statement - I feel doctors so often run on autopilot. I still can't believe that B12 isn't a routine part of testing. I had asked my GP to add it to my CMP last fall because I had been dangerously low a few years ago and like to check it a few times a year to make sure I'm supplementing correctly and his response was "let's see how everything else comes back first". He's also called it witchcraft. There is nothing in a CMP that would lead one to test for B12!! (I'm looking for a new GP because of that). I was undiagnosed for Hashimoto's for quite awhile as well, because no one would listen to my issues nor run anything other than standard tests, which never picked it up. They just told me I was aging - which I am but it's not like a switch turns off dammit!
WOW! Good thing you had the good sense to go to the hospital! Glad you're doing well now and hope it continues. Did they put you on some special diet along with the meds? It will be interesting to hear what the Dr. says about the neck pain and time of actual heart attack. Hang in there NK!!
Heart attacks are the result, in general, of poor eating/drinking/ smoking. Not Trump........ But my bet is, you like your fast food so much, something else get the blame.
Oh, had one myself last year, with many complications. But I changed my habits, and took all the blame myself.
Heart attacks are the result, in general, of poor eating/drinking/ smoking. Not Trump........ But my bet is, you like your fast food so much, something else get the blame.
Oh, had one myself last year, with many complications. But I changed my habits, and took all the blame myself.
Yeah, heaven knows it has NOTHING to do with genetics now does it?
Wednesday morning I was aware of some fullness in my chest. No pain, no tightness, no constricted feeling, no elephant on the chest, no sweating, no out of breath. But I did have pains running up both sides of the back of my neck. After telling myself it would go away for several hours, I finally told Bob I thought he should take me to the hospital because I was afraid I was having a heart attack. Wisely he said, “If you are having a heart attack I should call for an ambulance”. And he did.
Only then did I become anxious and a bit panicky. I told the EMTs I had just worked myself up over the election and I had “Donald Trumpitis”. They said I wasn’t the only person they had in this ambulance who had gotten worked up over Trump. EKG in the ambulance was just fine but my pacemaker could be masking something. By the way, they said they don’t usually use sirens gong to the hospital because it causes more wrecks and problems. Some people actually stop dead in front of an ambulance. I’ve been in a loud siren-blaring ambulance and it is quite terrifying so I’m glad they didn’t use sirens. By the time I got to the hospital I was feeling fine and quite silly for all the fuss. “False alarm, just take me home please”. Nope---I had to stay there.
Very long story short- I was in the hall in the Emergency Department from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Fullness went away, no symptoms but blood tests showed enzyme was present which suggested heart damage. Got in a room and Thursday morning docs said it definitely was a heart attack and I needed to have catheterization. This showed the main artery to my heart was 98% blocked and I had to have a stent inserted. I was in the hospital all day Wednesday through late Friday.
To be honest the worst part was the catheterization through my groin. It felt like a roto-rooter was inserted and in a way it was. I was “twilight” most of the time but it still hurt, especially afterward. And even though I had my Nexus and Kindle I was bored silly. Hospital beds are torture chambers!
So here I am contemplating the changes necessary in my life and how lucky I am that I listened to my body. On reflection I realized I had told myself a few days or even a week or more before that “Something is wrong”… a vague uneasiness and discomfort but again no pain. But I’m a woman and a mother of kids still at home and I can’t give in to every discomfort or uneasiness. I’m glad I did this time and that Bob was home with me to take charge. Since I can’t drive any more, he has had to take the lion’s share of kids management, shopping, everything. He is my rock.
I’m a bit tired even though I slept from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. this morning. I have some new meds to take and follow up with a handsome and hunky tall Nigerian doctor next week. He was the highlight of my hospitalization! (I was so tempted to ask him if it was his uncle who was trying to get 58 million dollars out of the country and I could have a large share if….) but I held my tongue. I didn’t want to start my relationship with a new doctor with my weird sense of humor. But I bet he’s heard it before.
NK,
I'm glad you got to the hospital and got the treatment you needed.
I tend to get worked up a bit over politics too. However, sometimes, I think its better to take a step backwards. Sometimes, we need to remind ourselves that this has all gone on long before we were born and it will go on long after we are dead.
When I go to a place like the Grand Canyon and stare at all that magnificent geology that mother nature took millions of years to make it helps me remind me of how irrelevant all of this is sometimes.
I think sometimes we tend to forget just how tumultuous the last one hundred years have been. The country has gone through World War I, The Great Depression, World War II, the Cold War, and the Technology Era. Somehow, the human race made it through all that. Our children will find a way to blunder through their lives just as we found a way to get through our own. Perhaps, they will even improve on things.
In the words of an old Beatles song: "Its going to be all right".
For now, its time to worry about yourself and your own needs.
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