Female Heart Attacks

[Judy Harder]

Female heart attacks

Don't want to alarm anyone but want to provide the information so you know how to respond....Heaven forbid, but I really hope this saves just ONE person's life. Share this with your friends and family. Heart attacks can and do kill! Judy

NURSE'S HEART ATTACK EXPERIENCE

I am an ER nurse and this is the best description of this event that I have ever heard/read. 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 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 ministering 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 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.'

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.

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 your friends (male & female) you care about!**


 

[Diane Amberg]

Well written and very accurate.

[Wilma]

When I read this, I thought to myself, I should tell about my heart attack since it was different from this.  My symptons were entirely different.  I didn't have any kind of chest discomfort.  It was all in my back.  Just left of the spine and just below shoulder level.  I would have some pains and relaxing for awhile would make them go away.  This went on for several weeks and each time I would just relax until the pains stopped.  Then they got worse, so I would take a couple of aspirin and a muscle relaxant and sit and breathe deeply and evenly.  Then one morning even that wasn't helping.  This time the pain was radiating to the left.  It just happened that we were here in Howard at the time and I was alone in the house.  Not knowing how much longer my husband would be outside, I went ahead and called Janet.  I didn't think I should try to get to my husband out in the garage.  He came in about the same time Janet got here and the rest is history.  I entered the hospital on a Wednesday and Friday the doctor told me it had to be by-pass surgery and as soon as possible.  I wanted to put it off to the following week as my Missouri daughter had just started home after spending a couple of days with me, but the doctor said no, that we shouldn't wait that long.  I had five by-passes.

So, Ladies, if you are having discomfort that you can't attribute to anything else, it just could be your heart.  Even though you might not have heard that your particular set of symptoms could indicate heart problems, consider it.

[sixdogsmom]

I think that is good advise Wilma, so many women I have talked to say the same things. Often even the doctor may miss the real problem. Don't ignore symptoms, they may not go away!

[Diane Amberg]

Wilma, were some of your bypasses on the posterior side of the heart? Posterior infarcts do tend to send discomfort to the back instead of the chest. As you know sometimes the real trouble is hard to pin down.

[Wilma]

Diane, I don't know.  In fact, I didn't know my heart had a posterior.  In fact, I don't know much of anything about the heart.

[srkruzich]

just so you know, this also applies to men too. My 4th attack that i had was after i had poured a concrete pad to put my trash cans on and when i got done, my back was hurting.   I went up town to get something to eat with the kids, and on my way home i stopped at the emergency room to get it checked out it was hurting so bad.I thought i had wrenched my back.  They kept me after a enzyme test.  Said i had an attack.
I think they put a stent in a artery on the back of my heart.

I also know that left side i think shows pain in legs if your having trouble and right side is upper body. 

But the key is this, to listen to the pain.  IF its constant and doesn't go away or lessen with rest or inactivity you probably have a muscle ache.  IF it increases with activity, and decreases with rest or inactivity go get it checked. It can be back pain, brachial plexus pain, arm, neck, jaw, chest, leg pain. 

[Diane Amberg]

  Sorry Wilma! The posterior is the back side of anything, not just the part you sit on. I'm sorry. The posterior side of the heart is the rear side, and has arteries and veins much like the front or anterior side. Narrowing or clogging of those rear arteries tend to send pain to the rear, so ones back aches. On a happy note, as we age, "collateral circulation" tends to open up to add room to move blood along when the main blood vessels aren't as open as the heart would like them to be. They are little extra blood vessels, especially in the rear of the heart, that aren't open and just sit there until the heart senses it isn't getting quite enough blood. In many people, not all , those little extra vessels slowly begin to open to allow the needed extra blood through. In very young people they aren't available yet, so a blood clot to the heart or a bit of fat that breaks off and moves to the heart can be deadly, yet a much older person who already had some narrowing arteries might have some collateral circulation and survive. The big artery on the front is often called the "widow maker." It's the left anterior (front) descending (takes blood down) artery and if it suddenly blocks or clogs, death or at least sudden cardiac arrest is common, because it services the whole front left side of the heart with fresh oxygenated blood.That's the big muscular pumping part of the heart that creates circulation and without fresh oxygen that part dies or is severely damaged. If it can't pump properly the whole body suffers.

[Wilma]

WOW!  Is that ever informative?  I was 72 when my heart attack happened.  Was that old enough for the collateral circulation to be effective?

[Ms Bear]

My oldest daughter is a certified nurses aide and when she had her heart attack at 46 she had some pain in her jaw and then became very nauseated and remembered a friend had mentioned that he was nauseated when he had his heart attack.  She told her husband and he rushed her to the hospital.  The enzyme test was how they knew for sure that she was having a heart attack.  She wasn't very happy to get to spend her 46th birthday in ICU but she was fortunate that a Cardioligist had opened an office there five days earlier.  Until then heart patients were life flighted to Pheonix.

She did do okay with out any surgery and she got to spend her 47th birthday with Chicken Pox.  We are waiting for her 48th.