by Carolyn Thomas ♥ @HeartSisters
Having a heart attack felt nothing like I thought it would feel. For one thing, unlike sudden cardiac arrest, in which the heart stops beating and you stop breathing, during my heart attack (myocardial infarction), my heart continued beating, and I was walking, talking and conscious throughout despite horrific symptoms – so how could I possibly be having a heart attack?
Like most women, I’d never really thought about my heart – except maybe when running up that killer Quadra Street hill with my running group. Heart disease kills six times more women than breast cancer each year (in fact, it kills more women than all forms of cancer combined). And since 1984, heart disease kills more women than men annually.
Women need to know all the potential symptoms of a heart attack, and demand help immediately if these symptoms do hit. So I asked the members of WomenHeart’s online patient support community to tell me their very first symptoms. Their heart attack stories may surprise you:
Debra, age 42, USA: “I was under a lot of stress the week I had my heart attack. My first symptom was an odd squeezing sensation in my chest, as if someone reached out and grabbed my heart and squeezed it a few times. No pain – it really didn’t hurt. After my chest sensations went away, my upper back between my shoulder blades started to ache immensely. Later, I felt an odd numbing/tingling sensation move up my arm, which immediately made me worry and was the reason I went to the ER, as I knew this was a classic heart attack symptom. My chest sensations went away after I used my emergency inhaler (for asthma) as I had mistaken the beginnings of the heart attack as an asthma attack. But my back pain fluctuated, and arm tingling did not go away. In hospital, doctors found a 94-96 % lesion in my left anterior descending coronary artery (LAD – the dreaded ‘widowmaker’ heart attack) that they were going to stent. But after the first stent was implanted, an area in my artery near the stent dissected (tore) and I had to have emergency double bypass open heart surgery. I did not recognize my initial chest sensations and back pain as a heart attack and as a result I did not seek immediate help. Now approx 41% of my left ventricle is damaged. I was diagnosed with congestive heart failure a few weeks after being discharged for my heart attack.”
Sandra, age 37, USA: “I woke up at 3 a.m. and my first symptom was heartburn, even though I’d eaten nothing that might cause that. My husband brought me antacids, then a sharp pain went through my back and I told my husband I felt like I was going to die – all in the matter of one minute from the initial symptom. My heart actually stopped and I had to be defibrillated twice in hospital, and then was unconscious for four days. Three more trips to hospital afterwards, but no plaque, just spasms that felt like heartburn, nausea and sometimes chest pain (it is hard for me to tell the difference!) “
Lidia, age 56, UK: “The first symptom of my heart attack was heartburn – first time I’d had heartburn in 26 years since I was pregnant. I had no pain at all, but this heartburn would not go, no matter what I took for it. This was on my birthday, and I’d had too much to eat and drink! I Googled ‘heartburn’ and up popped ‘heart attack symptom’ – so I took an aspirin and went to hospital, where cardiologists implanted a stent in my LAD. During the previous few months before this day, however, I’d been aware of occasional palpitations, but I’d put it down to too much coffee and not enough sleep.”
Laura, age 40, USA: “I was asleep and my symptoms woke me up. I had several simultaneous symptoms, but the first one seemed to be chest pain in the centre-left, somewhat under my left breast area. I’d never felt anything like it, so sometimes it’s hard to describe – it wasn’t sharp or crushing or burning, more like a dull pressure. I also had pain down the inside of my left arm that radiated up into the left side of my jaw and my left ear. I was very overheated, and I felt like I was going to throw up. The nausea and overheating faded, but the pain – chest, arm, jaw – stayed. In hospital, I was diagnosed with a heart attack caused by SCAD – spontaneous coronary artery dissection*, treated with six stents.”
Sulma, age 61, Mauritius: “The sequence of events is so vivid in my mind. Before my heart attack, I had had some shortness of breath after exertion, like going upstairs. My first big cardiac symptoms were a discomforting epigastric pain and a tightening chest pain that woke me up at 4 a.m. from my sleep. This gradually radiated down the left arm, a numbing sensation. I started sweating as the pain grew in intensity during my trip to the ER, which took about 25 minutes. I was restless every second, and the pain in my chest became unbearable and tight. These symptoms persisted until I was given an injection and rushed to the Cardiac Unit for angioplasty and one stent implanted in my LAD. As it was placed, all the pain went away.”
Martie, age 46, USA: “There is a lot of heart disease in my family. My first symptoms were heartburn that progressed to a pressure on my chest. The pressure got to a certain point, but did not get progressively worse. I also had a strange aching feeling in my elbows. It was weird, like arthritis I think, that became worse with time. But the most prominent symptom I had, which did keep getting stronger and would not go away, was the little voice in my head telling me this was not normal. I wanted to mention this because it is my one piece of advice to all my friends: “Listen to that voice in your head!” When we got to the ER, when staff heard that I had both chest pain and this odd pain in my elbows, they took me right in quickly! Even before my first obvious symptoms, I had noticed a dead tired, flu-like fatigue, “tired to the bone through and through” as I told my son. I almost went home to bed after driving the kids to school (I would be dead now! I needed groceries first though!) My symptoms did change a bit – one would subside, and another would get worse. The only one that got much worse was in the elbows! I had to be air-lifted to a hospital with advanced cardiac care. Cardiologists there found a large unexpected arterial tear (SCAD: Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection*) and repaired half of it with three stents. They left the other half to heal itself. Three weeks later, they found that it had indeed healed.”
Sharon, age 43, New Zealand: “My heart attack started as I was walking across a flat lawn on my way to feed our goldfish. The pain struck out of the blue. I had no idea that a heart attack could present with pain in the back rather than the chest. My first symptom was a strong pain in between my shoulder blades, a lot like very bad indigestion but in my back instead of my tummy. A few minutes after the pain in my back started, I got very, very hot, then I felt nauseous. Then after several minutes, I felt the pain travel through into my centre chest, and then down my left arm to my hand. Like many others, that’s when I guessed that this might be serious. The pain kept increasing in my back until it was unbearable, but the other symptoms pretty much stayed the same until I was treated in hospital. Thank heavens for morphine – yay! I was diagnosed with a heart attack caused by SCAD (Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection*) of the LAD (Left Anterior Descending coronary artery). Two stents were implanted. They were tough days.”
Dawn, age 49, USA: “I was asleep and woke up not being able to breathe. I felt an ache in my left shoulder blade. My throat felt ‘full’ and my lips were numb. These symptoms came and went until I ended up in hospital and had four stents implanted. But even before that night, I’d been feeling extremely tired; I kept telling my hubby I wasn’t sick, but something was wrong. I never had any chest pain at all until six months AFTER my heart attack.”
Gloria, age 63, Canada: “I had a tremendous, dull, pressing pain in the centre of my chest, as if a walnut were being pushed into it. I also had numbness in my right shoulder radiating down my arm and felt as if the arm suddenly became weighted. Later, the same symptoms were manifested in my left shoulder and arm. Chest pain stayed, but the numbness in both arms gradually went away. This was replaced with blinding pain in between my shoulder blades. Once started, the back pain only got worse. I could no longer sit, stand, lie down or walk around. The pain was so intense it took my breath away. I remember thinking that these were signs that you could be having a heart attack. These events took place between 4 p.m. on Christmas Eve 2007 and about 11:30 a.m. on Christmas Day, before I finally thought it was serious enough to get my son to drive me to our local hospital. These just didn’t sound like the classic cardiac symptoms I had heard of. I lost conciousness while the ER doctor was trying to convince me it was a gallbladder attack and not a heart attack. It took three days to stabilize me before I could be flown to the cardiac centre in Victoria, where I had an angioplasty done with two stents implanted. The previous two months had been unbearably stressful. I would get out of breath walking, but I just put that down to steep hills in town. I had put on weight, and the week before the heart attack, for some reason I gained 10 pounds. Maybe someone will read this and decide not to wait as long as I did.”
Diane, USA, heart attack at age 33: “My first heart attack was 23 years ago but I remember it as though it were yesterday. I had just turned 33 the month before it happened. I put my 3-month old baby to sleep in her crib, checked on my older daughter and went to the living room to relax before heading to bed myself. My first symptom was like a fist in the center of my chest, pushing and squeezing to get out. The pain felt as though someone was gripping me inside right in the center of the sternum and squeezing until I could hardly breathe. My left arm hurt from the shoulder to the elbow, then stopped and picked up hurting at my wrist into my hand. I started feeling very sick to my stomach and vomited until there was nothing left, but still continued retching. I was sweating like crazy. I woke up my husband, and told him I thought I was having a heart attack, but not really believing that was happening because I had no clue what the symptoms of a heart attack were. While waiting for the ambulance, I went from abnormal sweating to freezing cold. In hospital, they diagnosed a 98% blockage of the LAD, which they did angioplasty for. I spent 15 days in hospital. I had just given birth three months prior, but even during the pregnancy and afterwards, I had been getting that same feeling in my chest off and on. I had mentioned it to the ob/gyn but they told me that I had so much amniotic fluid that it was pushing my insides up into my chest and that was the cause of the feeling.
My second heart attack happened 10 years ago when I was 46. I was having ongoing problems with unstable angina so I had to have a stent implanted. The day after I came home from hospital, I walked into my living room and all of a sudden, I had this overwhelming feeling that something was terribly wrong. I told my husband to call 911. In hospital, they stabilized me and sent me to another hospital, where a cardiologist attempted to open up the new stent that had just been implanted. It had closed up, causing another heart attack. I went into cardiac arrest twice. I am now 56 and in need of bypass surgery for another blockage in the circumflex artery which they are unable to stent. Since I am not having symptoms, they are holding off on it, to my relief.”
Kathi, age 55, USA: “I awoke around 1:30 a.m. and felt pain down my right arm. It intensified as time went on, with the pain/tightness extending to my chest area. I had intense nausea and began vomiting and having bouts of rampant diarrhea in between. When I got to the hospital, the cardiologist found my LAD had collapsed without any coronary artery disease. While he was implanting two stents, he caused a hole in my artery, so had to put in a third stent. I believe that my heart attack was caused by stress and by an overdose of a variety of hormones prescribed for my chronic fatigue syndrome. Even before that night, I’d felt flu-ish with no energy, not unusual with CFS. I didn’t feel quite right, but I had no clue what it was and because I have CFS, I thought it may be related to that. One day, I noticed difficulty in getting my teeth to feel clean. All that day I felt like I needed to brush my teeth ( and did) but they wouldn’t feel clean like they always did when I brushed them. I am very aware of my body and what goes on with it.”
Monica, USA, heart attack at age 32: “One month prior to my heart attack, I was not feeling well with chest pains, lock jaw and fatigue which is when I decided to buy melanotan 2. But my first real symptom was at 5 a.m. – pain in mid-chest radiating into my back and into my throat. I felt like I was being strangled, pain spreading into my throat and ears. The pain literally felt like 10,000 elephants sitting on my chest. In the ER, because of my young age and the fact that I weighed only 100 pounds soaking wet, they thought I was a drug user. I was later told I’d had a massive heart attack. I spent two days being stabilized before having a stent implanted, but instead of the stent, I was taken straight in for emergency bypass surgery. My heart now has severe damage to the left lower chamber. Last spring, 10 years after my heart attack, I had to go back into hospital to have an implantable cardiac defibrillator (ICD) put into my chest. I have named my ICD “Trigger”!
Allie, age 51, USA: “I’ve had two serious cardiac events with different symptoms for each one, so I’ll tell you both stories. My first symptom in January was incredible fatigue. I was sitting in bed, watching TV and could suddenly no longer even hold my head up. The next day began six weeks of on-and-off symptoms of nausea, dizziness, back pain in my left shoulder blade (which eventually began to radiate through to my chest), profuse night sweats and feelings of being intolerably hot. I began having panic attacks (my first ever), feelings of doom, and severe anxiety. The back pain felt like a muscle knot. After a while, it seemed to hurt all the way through my body to my chest with that same soreness and knot feeling. My symptoms were not related to exertion. When I went to the hospital, I had to have emergency open heart surgery for a triple bypass.
But almost immediately after my bypass surgery, the bypass grafts began to fail. My chest pain this time felt sharp and pinching as if my clothes were too tight, then it moved up the left side of my neck. My throat felt full, and it was hard to swallow. My left jaw ached (like a dull toothache, or maybe having a piece of popcorn stuck). I also felt dizzy, hot, nauseated and anxious. Any activity or emotional stress brought on chest, neck and jaw pain, but other symptoms came on without any reason. These symptoms came and went for over two months and were ignored by my cardiologist because he said they were different than pre-bypass. Finally, I was correctly diagnosed and had two stents implanted to open the failed bypass grafts. Two new blockages remain. I also have Peripheral Artery Disease (PAD) which is usually associated with coronary artery disease and strokes. I had symptoms of this even before my cardiac symptoms began – which I ignored.”
Misty, age 26, USA: “I was 35 weeks pregnant and feeling really tired because we had just put up the new baby crib the night before. I went to sleep, but woke up to this weird constricting feeling in my lower throat, like I had a lump of something stuck there. The feeling went down to my upper chest and continued down to the lower chest area. It wasn’t pain, just more of a squeezing, restricting feeling. I then started to get a slight pain that felt like acid relux. I started to feel faint so I woke up my husband. I was sweating profusely, nauseated, had the chills and felt faint. And I also had a very weird tingling and numbness in BOTH arms from my shoulders to my elbows. We went to the hospital, where I was told that I’d had a massive heart attack caused by an aneurysm. It had exploded and made a tear in one of my heart valves, allowing blood to flow through the layers and squeeze the valve. The doctors say my body just couldn’t handle the stress of the pregnancy. I ended up having an emergency C-section and triple bypass surgery. I have also had an ICD (Implantable Cardiac Defibrillator) placed because my heart muscle has not healed the way they wanted it to. But even before that day, I’d been feeling tired and short of breath, and I had just blamed it on being pregnant. Now I can see all these issues as cardiac problems and not just pregnancy.”
Joyce, age 60, USA: “My heart attack happened on the stress-treadmill in the cardiologist’s office. He handed me a nitroglycerin tablet to put under my tongue. I had extreme shortness of breath but felt no pain that I remember. I had had some symptoms in the weeks before, such as tightness in the chest and extreme pain in my left shoulder blade. I also had these same symptoms months earlier, but dismissed them as just a pulled muscle after lifting heavy luggage. Even my doctor thought I had pleurisy or a virus, but sent my EKG ( with an unusual T-wave) to the cardiologist who wanted me to come in for the stress test. I was lucky to have my heart attack on the treadmill, because a subsequent angiogram showed no blockages, but a diagnosis of Prinzmetal’s Angina.”
Kim, age 52, USA: “I’d been feeling extremely tired for some time. One day, I was putting the vacuum cleaner away, and suddenly felt as if I’d pulled a muscle in my chest, in the center of my sternum, like a tight, heavy pain. I was sweating profusely and feeling nauseated. I had pain/tingling in my left arm, and then I blacked out. When the paramedics arrived, they gave me nitroglycerin which eased the symptoms temporarily. In hospital, I had to have two stents implanted and spent two days in ICU because of low blood pressure.”
Amy, heart attack at age 28, USA: “I had crushing chest pain while I was pregnant, along with sweating and nausea. I was told it was the baby kicking my diaphragm. These symptoms continued for two years, off and on, usually brought on by exertion. After pregnancy, I was told it was exercise-induced asthma, then pleurisy. Finally, after a bad episode (burning up and down my chest – like heartburn on steroids, sweating, nausea, vomiting, tingling in my arms and legs – both sides, stabbing shoulder pain and shortness of breath) I was finally sent for a stress test, where heart attack damage was found. By this time, even walking across the room or watching something emotional on TV (like a Hallmark commercial!) would set off symptoms. I was taken to hospital, but during my angiogram, I had a massive heart attack on the table. I had to be transferred to another hospital and had an emergency double bypass. **My unsolicited advice: don’t have an angio in a hospital that doesn’t also offer excellent open heart surgery. The balloon pump did quite a bit of damage to my arteries during the transfer. Since those first undiagnosed cardiac symptoms at age 28, I’ve had a second heart attack and double bypass surgery at age 30, nine cardiac stents and three iliac artery stents implanted at 30 and 31, and then triple bypass surgery at age 31.”
Kimber, age 46, USA: “My first symptoms felt like a blow to the chest, like a shotgun smack dab in the middle of my chest. It immediately took my breath away and knocked me backwards about 3-4 feet. I also had an intense drilling pain under my left funny bone. The symptoms did not let up. At the time, I was just sitting at my desk. Doctors found 0% plaque in my arteries – I was diagnosed with a coronary artery spasm from Prinzmetal’s Angina. I remained several days at two different hospitals. My first heart attack was on May7th and my second was on May 22nd.”
Gill, age 49, UK: “I had what I later found out was classic angina, severe tiredness and increasing chest pain, treated for all sorts of things, including inflammation of the sternum, but it got steadily worse over six months. I then had an angiogram that showed severe disease in two of my coronary arteries. I was treated with various medications over six months, but steadily worsened. Then doctors attempted a stent placement, which failed and I was sent home the same day with a small dissection (tear) which I was told would heal by itself. But two days after the dissection, while watching TV, I had increasingly unstable angina, unresponsive to nitroglycerin, with sweating and nausea. I went to the ER where I had a bigger heart attack, with crushing pain, pain radiating up into my throat and tongue, nausea, vomiting and sweating, plus pain in my left arm. These symptoms came and went, in between different drugs they were giving me. A further angio showed that the dissection had not healed but extended, and the artery was full of blood clots. I was then sent immediately by ambulance with police escort to a cardiac unit a couple of counties away, where I had four stents implanted. This did not cure the problem, however, so two months ago I had to have double by pass surgery.”
Nancy, age 44, USA: “I believe I had SCAD (Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection*) 10 years ago, but was misdiagnosed with costochondritis, 11 days postpartum. Two years ago on a Sunday afternoon, I had a strange spell of nausea, headache and faintness out of the blue – a combination of sick feelings that lasted a few minutes, and which struck me as unusual. I lay down and felt better. That was the day before more heart attack symptoms started after some heavy exertion, again due to SCAD. I think the artery must have torn a bit that Sunday, but it was not yet severe.
The next morning (my theory) the tear extended after physically demanding exertion, then I had the heart attack.I think this is important to clarify because one could conceiveably prevent the dangerous extenson of an arterial tear by avoiding exertion (if you’ve had the prior symptom of unusual faintness/nausea). Get medically checked out if you have that unsettling out-of-the-blue nausea/faintness feeling. Do not engage in physical exertion until cleared that your heart is ok.
I went to hospital with very painful central chest pressure, labored breathing, pain/numbness radiating to throat and arm, difficulty standing or talking. In the ER, my blood tests showed elevated troponin cardiac enzymes (confirming heart attack, which the ER doc initially diagnosed as anxiety). I was taken to another hospital where the dissection was discovered and I received two stents. Two days later, two more stents were implanted for an intractable spasm of the left anterior descending coronary artery (LAD). The pressure and pain from the LAD spasm felt more life-threatening than my dissection, maybe because it was a bigger artery?
But even before those events, for some time I’d had non-pain angina symptoms like chest pressure and shortness of breath. I thought it was just from exertion or allergies. It felt like your chest and breathing might feel when you exercise in very cold weather. I’d also had spells of chest tightness when awakening, which I just attributed to anxiety because we had a child health crisis going on.”
Erna, age 49, USA: “Late one evening, I was working on a website for my son-in-law when I started having some pain in my right arm and thought that maybe I had worked my arm too much with the computer mouse. But the pain started radiating into my shoulder and after this into my back. There was no pain in my chest. I thought it was time to quit, and I did some meditation. I had no memory of anything else until the next morning, when I awoke and felt awful. I could not breathe, my back hurt, and I felt like throwing up but could not. The symptoms got steadily worse and I called 911. The firefighters and paramedics who responded knew right away that it was a heart attack when they saw my EKG. When we got to the ER, however, the doctor told the nurses to take the EKG leads off because I was just having a panic attack. But the paramedics were still there and they insisted that my leads be placed on again, and that’s when they saw my pulse flip-flopping on the monitor. I was sent by helicopter to a different hospital where I had three stents implanted. It was very scary.”
Corby, age 51, USA: “My first cardiac symptom was anxiety and pressure in the upper chest – I tried to dismiss it as indigestion. (I also ignored the pain in the back – even months before, generally when I was feeling stressed). I had swelling in the hands and feet, was out of breath climbing stairs – I thought it was just the cold air. These came and went. Then I had a squeezing feeling, pressure in the center of the chest and towards the left but still felt like severe indigestion. My head and arms broke out into a cold sweat and felt clammy. I had nausea and the ‘dry heaves’. I was driving myself to work and decided to pull into the ER on the way. I had emergency bypass surgery for a blockage in my left anterior descending coronary artery (LAD) with a mammary artery graft.
This week, six years later, I just got out of the hospital again with a blood clot in my lung. I thought at first I was having another heart attack. The symptoms were crushing pain to the chest and numbness in the arm, a clammy feeling, cough, low grade temp. I am on blood thinners and they don’t know why this happened.”
♥
Thank you to the 22 women who generously shared these compelling survivor stories here with us.
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© 2009 Carolyn Thomas www.myheartsisters.org
* Have you been diagnosed with Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection? Find out if you are eligible to participate in new SCAD research being done at Mayo Clinic.
This article was re-published on KevinMD on 12/31/2010.
See also:
- Hysterical female? Just anxious? Or heart attack?
- How women can tell if they’re headed for a heart attack
- Researchers openly mock the ‘myth’ of women’s unique heart attack symptoms
- Am I having a heart attack?
- Time equals muscle during women’s heart attack
- Women fatally unaware of heart attack symptoms
- Is it heartburn or heart attack?
- What is causing my chest pain?
- Heart attack misdiagnosis in women
- Why does your arm hurt during a heart attack?
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ive had pain in my left middle finger. when i lift my left arm its so exhausted. now i have tingling in my lower lip. i am 32 six pregnancies five live births. ive been diagnosed with something like abnormal sinus tachycardia. that was about seven years ago. ive been on toprol, carvedilol and cardizum. but nothing the last year except for lexapro. my mom had a major heart attack at 49. should i call the doctor or my cardiologist or is this just exhaustion? i have a high level of stress right now as well. i realize this is just a forum but i appreciate any advice. thank you.
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It’s impossible to answer your question, as your symptoms may or may not be heart-related. Best advice: see your physician.
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I’m 41 – A couple of months ago I was having a coughing attack – the kind where you cough so hard you vomit. Well, while vomiting I experienced a sudden and intense sharp pain across my chest, both arms went very weak, cold sweats and instant fatigue. I was told I probably pulled a muscle from coughing. For quite some time now I’ve been having pain in my left shoulder that radiates down the inside of my arm to my elbow, sometimes to my wrist and my left arm gets numb. This intensifies when I am really stressed. It’s quite painful as well. This morning I got heartburn really badly and the pain came back in my arm…
I’ve been told before that I was a woman and just having an anxiety attack by a physician; within a month of that “diagnosis” I was actually diagnosed with cancer. I’m not really trusting of medical professionals at the moment. Bottom line, should I continue to be concerned?
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I been feeling my heart beat fast every time I go up my stairs I can’t breath my lips been feeling numb and tingling my left arm gets swollen and numb I also have tacky cardia I been to the doctors and he said that I can still work I dont know what to do
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Julie, you need a second opinion, particularly if any of these symptoms are unusual FOR YOU (for example, tachycardia can often cause exercise intolerance, which could be “normal” for you). But left arm “swollen”? – not typically a cardiac symptom. Go get a second opinion.
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I’m sitting in bed and have been up for hours. For 4 days I have been having upper right back pain and up to the neck. I cannot turn my head left. I thought that it was maybe just a pulled muscle. I haven’t been working out this week so I thought some how it happened in my sleep. Tonight I woke up with more severe back and neck pain and now pain in my elbow and a tingling all the way down my right arm and to my fingers. It hurts for me to try and get out of bed. Not having any chest pain. I’m only 29 and a healthy weight. I need some answers. Do I need to go to the ER?
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Typically, not being able to turn your head doesn’t sound like a heart symptom. This may or may not be heart-related – but at this point you just don’t know. If the symptoms do not ease up if you take a muscle-relaxant, call your doctor.
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Sounds similar to me when I had to have surgery on my neck. My neck and back hurt and my right arm tingled all the way down to my fingertips … I was able to move my head, but had limited mobility. I ended up having a cervical discectomy with fusion and fixation. All better now.
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I have been having what I think is heartburn that is really frequent accompanied by a persistent pain like muscle spasms behind my left shoulder blade and it radiates under my left breast area. I have seen my family practitioner and have had EKG’s done and he, my Dr. was not concerned and was given either a muscle relaxer or was told that I just had acid reflux and gave me more medication. Needless to say, none of this has helped my symptoms. I am scared to death that there is something going on that no one is listening. Does anyone have any suggestions?
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Rhonda, it may be time for you to become the “squeaky wheel”. Have you asked your family doctor for a referral to a cardiologist? Have you been referred to an internal medicine specialist to rule out acid reflux? Are you generally prone to anxiety? SOMETHING is causing these distressing symptoms – they may or may not be heart-related, but at this point, you simply do not know yet.
Also, start immediately to keep a detailed journal of your symptoms – when they hit, what you’re doing when they hit (time of day, eating, sitting, moving around, resting, lying down), how you are feeling when they hit (stressed out, anxious, feeling calm), what activities are involved if any, do symptoms start slow and get worse or come out of the blue? etc. and bring this written report to the doctor. Also check out “What Is Causing My Chest Pain?”
Good luck to you,
cheers,
C.
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I know this from experience. A normal EKG does not mean you don’t have heart problems… I had a heart attack at 46… my main artery that pumps blood to the heart was 99% blocked. I have two stents. My dad and my brother also had heart attacks at age 46. Their EKG’s were always normal. My grandfather on my mom’s side died of a heart attack at 52. His EKG’s were normal. My mom was short of breath and went to the doctor, her EKG was normal… she has two stents.
Please don’t let a doctor tell you that you don’t have heart problems if your EKG’s are normal. I am now 54 years old… I am currently wearing a Holter monitor (for 21 days) and will then have another nuclear stress test and an echocardiogram.
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Hi. I didn’t realize young women could have heart attacks. Recently I’ve had some strange things happen to me but I don’t know if it’s my heart. Over the past six weeks or so I have had a couple of episodes that have been disturbing. I get this sensation in the center but kind of toward the left just under my breast that causes intense pain. It’s like a squeezing and yet a torn muscle at the same time. I can’t breathe when it happens and nearly double over. I have also been short of breath and my heart beat seems to be irregular. Lately I’ve had heartburn. I got laid off so I don’t have medical insurance anymore but last year my heart was fine. Thank you.
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I stumbled upon this site because of the unusual chest pain and left shoulder blade pain (feels like a knot is slowly pushing my shoulder blade out…it’s highly uncomfortable and pretty painful). The chest pain is currently under my left breast. I’m concerned, but trying not to jump to a hypochondriac conclusion, considering I’m only twenty three years old. I’m a little dizzy, the pain radiates to the back of my head, and my left arm will feel kind of ‘cold’ (like when the nurse gives you an IV and pushes cold saline in it) on occasion. I’m not laboring my breathing, but it feels as if I’m not taking enough breathes, like I ‘forget’ to breathe and hurry up to compensate, if that makes sense at all.
Anyway, due to monetary issues, I don’t think I’ll run to the ER just yet, but these stories helped tremendously. I’m going to keep a very close eye on how I feel in a few hours, and my husband is going to do the same; if I pass out, he’s taking me straight to the ER.
Thank you for this website!
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Hi Susan – sorry you are experiencing these distressing symptoms. They may or may not be heart-related, but right now you just don’t know for sure. SOMETHING is causing this – and passing out may not be the most alarming symptom you have. Good luck to you.
C.
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Thank you. I finally decided I’m going in now. I’m trying to find my insurance card. Our phones are not working at the moment, so my husband doesn’t want to risk me collapsing and needing immediate care. Since the pain is spreading, he talked me into heading in.
Thank you!
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What ever happened to you? I have the exact same symptoms.
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Thank goodness for this site!
My husband (a firefighter) has had 8 – 9 untreated “episodes” over the past 18 months and each one sounds similar to what is listed above. The trick now is getting him to go to a doctor!!
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Kylie, get your hubby to read this.too. Men can be just as stubborn as women are when it comes to being in denial about cardiac symptoms. Doctors call this “treatment-seeking delay”. SOMETHING is causing hubby’s “episodes” – he needs to find out what. Right away!
Good luck,
cheers.
C.
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Firefighters are high risk for heart attacks because of the hazards they are exposed to and the stress of fighting a fire. I’m surprised he doesn’t take it more seriously. He can’t be a manly man if he’s dead.
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As I read the stories I realize Im not alone with my symptoms being over looked. Right now I sit here with tight chest and pain in my left arm and in my elbow that comes and goes; early this week I was having pain in my left and right legs. Im sick and tired of being sent home . Plus I have high blood pressure and overweight and a smoker with so much stress in my life. I just develped the tightness in my chest. The inhaler is not working that well.
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My name is Laurie I am 40, recently. I progressed heart disease with no option of bypass or stents. Reading everyones stories gives me some hope. Recently I have had the pains in my elbows, well actually anytime I get upset along with the chest pains and fatigue. What does the elbow pain signify, I had this again today it has been coming and going. My only chance of survival is heart transplant and as for now Im still not on the list. I see the cardiologist again on Dec 27th I have gotten sicker and have been dealing with this for 3 1/2 yrs.. I will be asking about the provisional list.. until then I read for knowledge.. thanks ladies.
Laurie.
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I hope everything went well for you and you got your transplant.
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I am so glad that I found this site. Now I know that I am not alone dealing with heart disease. I learn more each time that I read the stories here. The sharing gives me courage and hope. Thank you
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Keep up with that courage and hope, Ann!
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Thank you… I have been feeling discomfort on my right side but nothing serious. I have been under much stress being layed off for a year and living in the worst city for employment (St. Louis MO), what I did in IT/Telecommunication is being outsourced. I make jewelry and paint and have made my hobbies into work. This helped me understand and I’m frightened because I don’t have medical insurance otherwise I would be going to the Doctor. If it gets worst, I’m going to the Hospital.
Thank, Deb
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Thanks for your comment here, Debby. Having no health insurance is an American tragedy. Do not hesitate, however, to go to the E.R. if any serious symptoms become worse. Good luck to you….
C.
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If you have chest pain go to an ER right away and when you arrive tell them immediately that you are having chest pain. Don’t say anything about not having insurance. You can sort that out later. You need to be checked out by a doctor to see what type of heart issue you have. Do not diagnosis yourself. Stress can give you symptoms which are similar to a heart attack. But don’t wait for it to “go away”. It could be a symptom of a cardiac event. Best wishes for the new year!
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Don’t worry I’m angry not crazy. The Plavix and aspirin are the two medications I won’t stop. If I truly have that stent in my heart my system will attack it the moment I stop taking it. My antibodies were very high before this and that is a chance I’m not willing to take.
Robin
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Hi,
I had a heart attack December 2, 2010, when I made up my mind to got help it appears I had been having it for nearly 24 hours. I never had chest pains of any kind but I had a cough. I survived a heart attack or they say I did.
From time to time I will pick up a lung infection because I smoked with asthma. I was used to having a little pain following a heavy cough, it didn’t last a minute and it didn’t come back although I coughed the rest of the day like normal.
During the night I got up with a very heavy cough and very short winded. I was having a lot of trouble breathing but I didn’t use my inhaler, around 1:30 in the morning I began to throw up and that’s when I knew it was time to go to the hospital. I spent the rest of the night throwing up, it eased up around 7:00 that morning and I waited for my sister to take me to the hospital because it was only 5 minutes away from my home.
I was awake but they carried me into the ER; what I thought was a bad asthma attack was a heart attack. The doctor stepped out of the room for a minute to get some test results and came right back to tell me I was having a massive heart attack. He said he needed to do a coronary angioplasty asap to assess the damage and do what ever repair was needed. We discussed the form of anesthesia I would be given, then I coded.
When I woke in the CICU, I learned that not only had I had a AMI but that it had caused me to go into CHF and CODE. My cardiologist said because of how long I had been having the AMI that my heart had suffered a large amount of damage. I fully understand what he said but I still don’t feel that I had a HA because I never felt pain.
Vetia
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Hello Vetia – what further evidence do you think you’d need to convince yourself that this was indeed a heart attack, even without chest pain, which as you know is ABSENT in about 40% of us even in mid-heart attack? Please tell me you are no longer smoking….
Cheers,
C.
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Greetings Carolyn,
I have not smoked since the day of the heart attack, I couldn’t because the cough had become bad when I would light up. I would stop when ever my asthma flared.
I’m in a bad place right now and I ‘m not good at listening and I’m tired of taking all of the medications. Now in order to believe, I would have to see my heart with the stent in place to believe.
Robin
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Hi Robin – it’s perfectly natural to be in denial about such a scary diagnosis. It’s also unfortunately common for heart patients to stop taking their meds, start smoking again, quit paying attention to a healthy diet or exercise, and generally behave as if this heart attack had not really happened. It’s a free country – you are a grownup who can make up your own mind no matter what others advise you to do or not do. But why not, for the sake of argument, continue as if you were a real heart patient who now gets a second chance to live a healthier life? Is there ANY downside in living healthy?
When denial goes on for several months, it can lead to unsafe decisions. Please read this for some tips on what to do if you’re a heart patient in denial before you decide to stop your Plavix or other anti-platelet meds.
C.
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I did this too. While I was on sick leave I stopped taking Norvasc because I thought it was making me dizzy and weak. I got an episode of chest pain and when I told the doctors about stopping Norvasc they told me that I should never stop medication needed to keep my heart working properly. I’m on it for life. Some doctors don’t always explain the importance of the medications they put you on. Nevertheless, always talk with your doctor before stopping any medication you’ve been prescribed. Take care.
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I just wanted to remind all women, our dental health is very important, our mouth contains harmless bacteria, providing your gums and teeth are healthy.
However, gum disease and procedures that cut into your gums may release a bacteria into your bloodstream. If you have a damaged heart valve, this can cause infection to the inner lining of the heart. Heart disease has been linked to poor oral care, its called periodontitis (chronic inflammation of the gums)
Please, don’t underestimate the longterm effects of good oral care now.
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On 3/10 my mother died of cardiac arrest; she had fainted two days previously at home, she thought nothing of it. She again fainted the following day and was rushed to the hospital.
It was discovered she had had a heart attack. The next morning she was getting a heart cath done, that evening she rang for the nurse to help her to the restroom, she immediately collapsed, passing away two hours later.
I am telling this because she told me the day of the heart attack she had felt nothing, no pain, only some fatigue, I have often wondered if taking certain medications (she was on medications for high BP and thyroid) can mask the symptoms or if the heart cath triggered the cardiac arrest.
Just trying to make sense of something that happened so very fast.
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Dear Sad, I’m so sorry about your tragic loss. I’ve sent you a longer e-mail response as well, but I also wanted to thank you for sharing your mother’s story here, because it’s so important for women to know, as in your mom’s case, that our heart attack symptoms can be as vague as fatigue or dizziness/fainting spells. Your mother’s physician is the best source of help to clarify the specific questions on her experience.
Take care,
C.
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I am so sorry about your mother, that is so sad.
I am 49 and having a lot of symptoms chest pain, left arm numbness, tingling in my fingers, nausea, mid chest discomfort, fatigue, numbness in my right foot on the outside and last two toes.
This started last July, the chest pain was unbearable! I thought I was dying! My husband called the ambulance and to make a long story short… they found nothing wrong with my heart! They kept me 2 days for observation. They did find a mass on my thymus gland which they are now calling a cyst. I still have the chest pain off and on and all the other symptoms but have been to two different cardiologist and nothing. I am not imagining this and feel totally helpless!
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Diagnosing heart attack in women is not as clear cut as it is with men (crushing chest pain, pain running down the left arm, etc). When I was in cardiac rehab one of the women had nothing more than pain in her left arm. She went to her doctor who told her to take acetaminophen for the pain. The pain persisted and 3 days later her doctor told her to come back in. They gave her an ECG which showed that she had a heart attack. That was the only symptom she had. No shortness of breath, no chest pain, no weakness, no sweating, no vague feeling of being unwell – nothing else. But her age range put her into a potential heart event category. She didn’t smoke, she wasn’t overweight – she was generally in good health. Her doctor was shocked. My doctor was shocked too when she heard that I was in the hospital.
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My symptoms started three years ago. The doctors didn’t believe me. EKG was always fine, so that was that. After the last ER visit where I was once again DXed with GERD I gave up. I got tired of asking for help and over the past months had given up hope.
The fatigue was awful and I hadn’t left my home in weeks because I just couldn’t drag myself outside. Showering was a major ordeal because of not being able to breathe and it wore me out. I think I was ready to just die to stop the pain and fatigue. Was tired of being tired.
I questioned if I was just making it up, but deep down I knew I wasn’t.
Finally a doctor listened and sent me for a cath (angiogram). Was 98-99% blocked in LAD. They sent me by ambulance to a larger hospital where I was stented.
By the time the medicine from the stenting wore off I could breathe again, for the first time in 3 years it was like breathing for the first time! It has only been 2 days and I feel better than I have in years. They say to take it easy and I will but I feel like I can finally live again!
If anyone is reading this and having symptoms, knowing that it isn’t in your head, DON’T GIVE UP UNTIL SOMEONE LISTENS TO YOU. Scream it from the rooftops until someone responds. I’ve had EKGs, stress tests, nuculear tests, and nothing showed what was wrong until they finally cathed me. Only then was it an emergency.
Don’t just shut up and sit down like I did. I lost 3 years of my life but am so thankful for the cardio doctor that finally listened and looked. I can’t wait to start life again!
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THREE YEARS of this?!?!? That’s horrible, Kay. I hope you are feeling well and beginning to enjoy your new life now. Yours is an important story for all women to hear. We can experience debilitating cardiac symptoms that, undiagnosed, come and go over a long period of time. I hope readers take your wise advice: “Scream it from the rooftops!”
Cheers,
C.
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Hi, my name is Bruce Johnson, a heart attack survivor and I couldn’t help but respond to your comments. I suffered my coronary some years ago while on assignment for my TV reporting/anchoring job in Washington, DC.
I have since met and become very close with other women and men, young and not so young who recovered from coronaries to discover incredible new and better lives. Recently a female colleague in her very early 40’s suffered a heart attack on the street. She had emergency angioplasty, a couple stents and is still recovering physically and mentally.
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I have had all of this too, but no one ever finds anything to do with my heart. I even had heart cath last Aug. I continue to have chest pain and nausea, fatigue, dizziness, numbness, tingling in left arm and no one can give me answers! My dad had 98% BLOCKAGE and had to have triple bi passes. Did your leg look like someone beat you to a pulp after they did your heart cath? Mine did it was horrible, i am wondering if they even did it right and gave it 110%. I was the last one to get a heart cath that day and i wonder? Dr.’s are human and get tired too, could they have missed something?
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Hi Sherri – the bad bruising you describe following your heart cath is unfortunately not unusual. The Cleveland Clinic describes it like this: “the blood thinners we use for angioplasty can cause bleeding at the arterial puncture site even if everything is done perfectly. Hematomas are essentially bruises in the tissues around the artery. What you describe isn’t necessarily out of the ordinary.”
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I had the same bruising problem. My procedure was last weekend. My thigh looked like someone had beaten it with a mallet! The bruise stretched from the juncture at my body down to within a couple of inches of my knee, all the way across the top to the inner thigh. Looked like the state of Texas, purplish and blue. I can’t complain though, since they probably saved my life! (99% occlusion in the circumflex posterior). The procedure itself was quite smooth, obviously routine to them. After the local anesth, I couldn’t feel a thing except heavy pressure. Being gentle isn’t a priority, compared to speed, I ‘d guess. The girl who shaved me looked at the assisting and said, “How’s that?” To which he shrugged and responded, “Looks okay to me” as if he couldn’t have cared less if a rogue hair follicle or three got into my bloodstream or not (he had announced it was his last procedure of the night).
I was awake the whole time, so I finally decided I needed to get this cavalier guy onboard and deliberately flattered him by telling him he looked so YOUNG, how old was he anyway? He was obviously not a youngster, but that perked him up considerably and he began to pay a little more attention to what he was doing…lol)
My procedure was about 2 am, so don’t know if I was the first or the last for the surgeon. The nerve sensation is still not back to normal in the bruised area. I haven’t had any of the symptoms you report afterward. Right now, though, I’ve got a “stitch” right between my shoulder blades and hope it’s from falling asleep with too many pillows under my neck last night…
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Congratulations! I had been tired for a LONG time too, but I always assumed it was from an underactive thyroid. After I got that med, I DID feel more energetic but still not what I considered normal. It actually NEVER OCCURRED to me that I might have heart disease. Never. And apparently I looked too healthy to my doctor for him to suspect it too. He nagged about high blood pressure and losing weight, and cholesterol. But never actually used the words heart disease.. I’ve been researching a lot about the meds I was given post cath, and I wonder if anyone else is wondering about the pluses-minuses of statins /cholesterol meds? It certainly seems like a mixed bag of opinions out there.
Truthfully, right after my cath, I felt GREAT! Then, after I started taking the meds, (prevastatin, Plavix, metoprol tartrate) I’m not feeling nearly as well as I did at first. Makes me feel…too ..fragile, somehow.
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I posted a link to this page on the members forum for the Track Your Plaque website. Thank you for collecting these stories!
Linda
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Oh my God, these stories are such an eye-opener, but most of it is scary. Heart attacks occur to people who don’t even know they are having one. I’m glad I ran into this website and read it. Now, I’m aware of the dangers and the symptoms of having a heart attack. Thanks for posting all the stories.
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So interesting, lots to think about here. thanx for this.
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How different all the stories are and yet so frighteningly similar. We wait so long because we don’t want to be a nuisance or cause a scene. Oh, and how embarassing to be wrong and waste everyone’s time. Time is your life. Thanks for reminding even those of us whose stories you told.
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Just correcting a mistake in the synopsis of my story above:
My classic HA symptoms (caused by “SCAD”) did not come out of the blue, they followed physical exertion. It was my day-before-the-Heart attack-nausea symptom that came out of the blue. That is probably when the artery began to tear, but not enough to cause HA.
The next morning (my theory) the tear extended after physically demanding exertion, then I had the heart attack.
I thnk this is important to clarify because one could conceiveably prevent the dangerous extenson of an arterial tear by avoiding exertion (if you’ve had the prior symptom of unusual faintness/nausea) .
Get medically checked out if you have that unsettling out-of-the-blue nausea/faintness feeling. Do not engage in physical exertion until cleared that your heart is ok.
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Thanks for clarifying that, Nancy. Most women have never even heard of SCAD (Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection) so your experience will help educate others. I’ve edited your story to include your comments.
Regards,
C.
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Hi,
I too had a very unusual experience. 6/6/09 I was siting in bed, suddenly the though just entered my mind “What if I died today”? (I NEVER thought things like this) then I had what I call an Orb start at the top of my head and go through my body to the tip of my toes! My chest had a weird different feeling, my left arm a small tingle, but the presence of fear was very strong, I was being told I needed to get to the hospital NOW! I called my daughter and asked her to please come over, I old her I was not feeling well and wanted to go to the hospital and get checked.
When I finally got there and explained all that I was feeling (took forever it seemed) they were going to do a stress test, but luck for me the Dr. that was there decided he would rather I have an angiogram. They found that 2 of my major arteries were 85% blocked, the other 55% blocked, they stented 2. When I found out what had occurred, Oh my stars, that’s when I almost had a heart attack (LOL).
I now look back at symptoms that have gone away, and pains that have stopped, (I also had Lyme Disease to complicate matters). Things Dr’s had told me “it’s because you’re getting older, you have arthritis, your skin is thin in that area, all kinds of excuses!!! I want to let people know what these things are so women all over will know and possibly relate to the symptoms I had. It may save someones life!
~ Blessed Be ~
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Hi, I wanted to return to give a list of the symptoms that I had, that have disappeared since I have had the stents put in, it may help someone out > I suddenly began to gain weight > I started out at 98 lbs, went to 110, then 115, 120, that was NOT me at all I KNOW my body!!! I began to get cellulite in my thighs butt and upper arms.The right side of my neck would get a pain that felt as though someone stuck it with a long pin for 5 seconds, that was VERY intense! My right thigh (in the center) felt a though it were being amputated with a dull saw, that would ache for 2 weeks at a time, then stop for a while, then return 2 weeks, constantly!!! I had bags under both my eyes that were so puffy, looked like I never slept.My left arm had tingles and strange pains on & off all the time. The area under my neck, above my chest looked a dirty colour all the time, I asked the skin Dr. what was wrong (you have thin skin in that area),
EVERYTHING iI mentioned above – GONE – I have lost 30 lbs. and I have not tried to loose weight, ALL the pains have gone, never to return, the discoloration, is now the same as the rest of my skin (guess the skin got thicker) LOL, the PUFFY EYES, GONE!!! Cellulite – GONE!!! I don’t look at all my age, I feel Immortal! I am now going to cardiac rehabilitation which is a fantastic way to get back in shape – and give your confidence back, I am doing Great, and feel better with each passing day.
This site is also fantastic, it’s nice to see how other woman feel and share our feelings. I hope this helps someone!!! ~Blessed Be~
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Hi,
here I am again, a few months later. My BD was 1/30, I remember hearing somewhere people die close to their BD. Well, I guess that stuck in my head, I ended up having pains that I thought were heart-related, so I ended up in the hospital.
I had a stress test and a few other tests (made me feel much better). However, I followed up with my Dr. and he said out loud what I didn’t want to say or hear: I have Lyme Disease again. (3rd time) I tried taking antibiotics and got very sick for 2 days. I am not taking them now. I am just taking my heart meds as I have been, I am looking for an alternative way to treat the Lyme Disease.
Right now I am thinking positive, and refusing to allow it to get me down!!! Does anyone else out there have Lyme disease too, if so, how are you treating it???
~Blessed Be~
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I’m sorry to hear of this development, Lin, especially since just a few months ago you were feeling so great! I’m not familliar with effective treatments for Lyme except antibiotics. You’re probably already familiar with this Lyme Disease organization: http://www.ilads.org/lyme_disease/about_lyme1.html
Good luck – hang in there and please keep us all posted.
C.
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Hi, I wanted to let you know, I have found an excellent woman cardiologist. I am no longer feeling like a number.
I am not taking anything for Lyme (I don’t feel I have it back). She sent me for a few tests, and I feel so much better! She has made a big difference. She has given me peace of mind, which we all know makes you less stressful about things we don’t understand. I also wanted to Thank you very much for your response and your site =) I read everything that comes in (RSS). I have learned a LOT in 1 year thanks to ALL these Beautiful Ladies … ~Bright Blessings~
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I have always wondered what it would be like and if I would know- I am overweight, I’ve had extreme stress in my life over the past 30 yrs, due my husbands illness, I have high blood pressure {which I am on meds for} and my cholesterol is high- I don’t dwell on this subject but……. I have had some symptoms before and wondered.. The weight is slowly coming off and I am aware now of what to look for- thanks sooooo much.
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Wow!!! Great stories. I have never thought this thing can be so close to us.
Thank you for collecting the stories. They are a good read.
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Thank you so much for compiling all of our stories and weaving them together into a coherent whole. I’ve posted the link on my Facebook page and will be sharing it with all of the other women in my life.
best,
Laura
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My gosh, this is fantastic! Carolyn, we must talk. This is what I was writing you about for my literary agent. But, I’ve never had any willing participants to tell me! Of course, my problem these past six years is that I always seem to be surrounded by women where I’m the only heart disease survivor. I need to find more forums, I’m trying! I want to reprint on my blog. But, I’d love to get your story STILL! and perhaps two more pages of these kind to use for my book. And then I have to get it together to buckle down and finish it. Write me so I don’t take up any more space here!
Such a great article on the “devil himself“. Both the cardiologists that sent me home, one with disgust, wore white coats, had the clipboard, and sat next to me with his legs crossed properly! It was the male nurse who got it right and a young woman intern doctor that demanded finally I stay in the hospital. My husband and I heard the white coat arguing with her that I should go HOME… I refer to him as an ugly man…
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Morning Carolyn,
My name is Kimberly Attkisson, I’m one of the women whose story is mentioned above (Kimber, age 46, USA).At the time I wrote about my H/A symptoms I did it in “short story” – I now think it’s important to give full details.
March 2009 I was offered a “once in a life time” position. I chose to leave a company where I had been working for almost 11 years. I started my new job April 7th 2009 – everything was going great, and I felt like the most blessed person alive.
May 7th (a month to the day) I was at work sitting at my desk humming the Olive Oil and Popeye tune “do, to-do, to-do” when all the sudden it felt as if I had been shot with a shot gun smack dab in the middle of my chest. The impact had knocked the wind out of me and though I was sitting, I was literally pushed back in my chair 2-3 feet. My mental state was momentarily marred as many things were running through my head; “I have to get to my desk so I could use it to help me stand up” – “I need to get outside to catch my breath”. I looked at the clock and thought “I have another 45 minutes before I go home”…..many things were running ramped in my head. I then felt as if someone was drilling under my elbow (funny bone area).
Doctors say my heart enzymes secretion was 15.9 and that I had all the “un-classic” symptoms of a heart attack, my angiogram showed 0% plaque, they assumed it was a blood clot until I had another H/A (similar symptoms but less severe) May 22nd.
So here we are today, thankful to be alive while taking daily doses of slow release nitro in hopes of preventing a third…
Kimberly Attkisson
San Diego
“Change is hard, but more times than not… it brings opportunity”
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I love this idea, and I think I learned a lot.
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I just got home form the hospital and a registered nurse on the telemetry floor asked me what my symptoms had been and said, “I just read that women’s symptoms were different than men’s, that they usually are nauseated.” This from a cardiac nurse! She’s just now hearing this? I’m mailing that unit a copy of this. Thanks so much.
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great job
thanks for helping us to tell out stories
god bless
surviving heart disease one day at a time
with trigger04/08
for 10 years
nanamo
monica
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I highly recommend that everyone forward this collection to friends, family and stick copies all around public areas like canteens, break rooms, gym locker rooms.
Lives will be saved! Well done Carolyn.
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