Just had a heart attack
Wish I had some deep insights to share as a result but right now all I can really say is
"If you start feeling chest pains, don't hesitate to call 911. If I'd waited much longer I probably wouldn't be here to send this. Learn the warning signs and call 911 if in doubt."
[+] [-] M4v3R|11 years ago|reply
While it's definitely wise to call 911 when in doubt, it's good to have own understanding first so we don't ignore the symptoms AND don't flood 911 with false problems.
[+] [-] robbiep|11 years ago|reply
'Typical' signs do not present in everyone: in particular diabetics are at increased risk of having 'silent' heart attacks, And chest pain that is not typical may also be a heart attack.
An ECG can rapidly demonstrate that a patient is having a heart attack or as we call them myocardial infarcts, and excellent intervention is often possible.
If the above condition/pain is experienced and there is not a clear ECG picture of a heart attack troponin levels are taken at 6 hrs, an increase f which will demonstrate that there was cardiac specific muscle damage.
Without wanting to alarm anyone, there is in the US 250,000 sudden cardiac deaths a year, almost all from a coronary artery called the left main blocking: this vessel supplies a huge percentage of the heart muscle and when it blocks there is no warning and the heart doesn't have enough fuel to keep pumping.. These patients unfortunately almost all dead on arrival. There is very little that can be done to predict this as their first episode of chest pain usually results in death within minutes, and there are rarely indications that the patient is at risk of such a problem.
[+] [-] RafiqM|11 years ago|reply
Chest Pain The first and most obvious sign is chest pain. It may be radiating down your left side (jaw/arm). It is generally described as a crushing pain. This symptom is less likely to occur for women or people with diabetes. If the chest pain is not relieved by resting (i.e. sitting down), it points towards a heart attack.
Shortness of Breath As a body attempts to bring more oxygen into the body faster (because your heart isnt perfusing efficiently anymore), breathing will become faster and more shallow.
Pulse - Rapid, Weak You should take your pulse a few times a year to get a baseline of what it's normally like. During a heart attack, it can become faster and weaker. However, this is relative - your pulse may normally be weak. This is why it is important to have a baseline.
Nausea, Dizzyness, Sweating, Weakness These physical symptoms by themselves are usually not a concern (they happen with many sorts of illness really) but in combination with the above can be a warning sign.
In any discussion about heart attacks, it's important for you to understand the risk factors: http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/heart-attack/b...
If you're high risk and are suffering from the above symptoms, its always advisable to err on the side of caution and call the emergency services. In fact, if you're at all worried, just call.
There are some things you can do to help yourself during a heart attack: 1) Call emergency services. 2) Make sure emergency services can access you, especially if you're on your own. Unlock door, etc. 3) Half sitting position. Place your back up against a wall and sit with your knees raised. 4) Take an aspirin. This will thin your blood and relieve pressure on your heart. 5) Try control your breathing. 6) Try not to worry (yeah, I know, this is a hard one).
Source: EMT (Emergency Medical Technician) with voluntary ambulance services.
[+] [-] rottyguy|11 years ago|reply
My question is why can't we detect this high level of blockage much earlier (as in with a physical). Are the tests too intrusive or too expensive to recommend that the test(s) be performed periodically (eg maybe every 5 years after 30 or 40?)
Thanks!
[+] [-] bprieto|11 years ago|reply
- Feeling diffusely sick, no specific pain, but a feeling that something was wrong.
- Oppression in the chest.
- Mild pain in the left arm
- Cold sweat.
I tried to drink some water, open a window to have fresh air, sit and relax, but after a couple of minutes nothing improved. I was at the office (alone) so I googled the symptoms of a heart attack and next thing I was calling 112 (Spain's equivalent to 911).
It was a mild heart attack, I got a procedure in the ambulance that stopped the attack, and a barely had heart damage. I had a triple bypass surgery a week after the attack, because the three main arteries were clogged. So it went well, because with those arteries I could have had a more serious attack at any moment.
My advice would be, if you are not feeling right and you never before had those symptoms, call 911 (or whatever the number is in your country). The people that picks up the phone are trained to assess the calls, and anyway it's better to raise a false alarm than to die.
[+] [-] quinndupont|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] decaysa|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] escapologybb|11 years ago|reply
That's also one of the terrible things about anxiety bringing on these types of symptoms, if you've already had a heart attack and subsequently you have an anxiety attack which brings on similar symptoms there is just no way to discount anything (for me). Also not fun.
Luckily the heart attacks I had weren't the result of an underlying problem with my heart, it was because I was going in to urine retention which caused either sodium or potassium to build up in my system causing all the problems. I can never remember which one it was!
But seriously, if you feel the symptoms get help.
[+] [-] StefanPopp|11 years ago|reply
Two days later i smoked another cigarette and the same feeling started again, but this time it felt like ants are running up my neck. After 5 minutes and calming down me teeth started to itch. From day to day i got more and more weaker. After 4 days i couldn't walk more then 25 meters without pain in my chest and short breathing. Thankfully one of my co-workers dad is a doctor and he said that he wants to take a look on me. After i arrived at his office i had to walk up 20 stairs and when i opened the door i've fall down on the floor.
Immediately two people took me to a room where they checked some stuff. My doctor made some tests and he said that it doesn't look like a heart attack but something is wrong with one of the lines on my ECG. He asked me if its ok to call the ambulance for doing more checks at the hospital. I said yes, please.
5 minutes later ambulance arrived and took me to the hospital. I was quite unsure if i should be happy or not as my doctor said it doesn't look like a heart attack. In the emergency room they took my blood to check if troponin is in my blood. The test was negative. I told them my history and the history of my dad who had his first heart attack with 36. I had 92 kg at 172cm. They made some other checks and everything said my heart seems to be normal, except one line on the ECK. The doctor said i have to stay for at least 1-2 days for additional tests.
First night, they check my blood pressure shortly before i slept. 180 / 130 @ 80 bpm. They gave me some stuff to get it down to a normal value. First morning, i woke up. I had pain in my chest so hard the i was close to fall out of the bed. Rolled left, rolled right. 2 minutes and 20 clicks on the emergency button later a nurse came into my room and gave me painkillers. 10 minutes later ECK + blood test. Everything negative except that one little line in the ECK. Two hours later i they made the first test. They brought me to the ultra sonic room were they took a look on my heart. 10 Minutes later they said, everything looks normal. One day later the next test. Cycling. I had to stop after 2 minutes and a pulse rate of 120bpm. The nurse asked me if i am serious that i cant ride more. They expected me to get up to 180bpm. The doctors got nervous, my blood tests are still negative, no troponin and the ECK is also negative, except one line. They decided to make a test called echocardiography. While watching my heart the gave me a medicament to speedup my heartbeat. When they hit 120bpm i started to sweat, at 130bpm they gave my emergency medicaments to calm me down. It took almost 30 minutes and 1 lorazepam to calm me down.
After that test they put me to the intensive care unit. For the first time they found troponin in my blood. I had 10+ cables all over my body. Every 4-5 hours they made blood tests, also when i slept. They gave me blood thinner and tranquilliser. After 4 days in intensive care unit they made a cardiac catheterization and they found a 99% closed vessel after 10 minutes. Another 10 minutes later i had my first stent. The complete process took around 45 minutes always with full consciousness. I felt horrible but i was so lucky that they found the problem. One day later the doctor told me what happened and what the future is. They said i can live a normal life without the risk of a heart attack but i have to change my life radically. So i did. One year later i am doing sports multiple times per week. I lost over 15kgs, never touched a cigarette again and i feel so much healthier now.
My doctor told me after everything was over that 3-4 weeks later i would be dead without help. My heart has no damage and only 2 little 30% spots are left. As long as i live a normal life and i don't want to run marathon i wont have problems in the future. The little strange ECK line is also normal now =)
I hope that my english didn't distract you at all, i want to show that even not normal signals of a heart attack can be a sign of much bigger problems coming up.
[+] [-] HeyLaughingBoy|11 years ago|reply
Probably a selfish, personal comment, but I immediately searched for the word "troponin" in this thread and smiled to see it in the second post.
As an engineer having spent the last decade or so on an instrument that, among other analytes, measures the level of troponin in your blood (serum), it's quite satisfying to remember that my work is saving lives. Sure, you may not have been analyzed by one of our instruments, but somewhere a group of software, electrical, mechanical and biomedical engineers out there suffered through the miasma of FDA-required procedures, onerous development process, reviewing every line of code, arguments about exactly what a STAT reponse means, ridiculous training requirements, long validation procedures run by the most anal testers ever and ended up with an instrument that helped save your life.
It might not be as exciting as state of the art webapps, but it's nice to be reminded that we matter.
[+] [-] icelancer|11 years ago|reply
It is my experience that those who self-apologize for their "poor" English skills are the ones who have the least to apologize for. You have a better grasp of the English language than most college graduates in the United States.
[+] [-] johnmaguire2013|11 years ago|reply
That was a couple months ago. I think I'm going to go somewhere again. Maybe a psychiatrist, maybe a different doctor.
I'm the kind of person who just sits on things without really caring, and I probably do need to get this checked out.
[+] [-] oriste|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] thearn4|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ludicast|11 years ago|reply
You are right on the money about calling 911. As men we tend to be slow making the call, and don't want to seem like whiners. I always think of the line from The Edge - "Most people in the wilderness, they die of shame".
Had emergency surgery for aortic dissection myself in february (mentioned it on caffeine thread here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8520241). I felt for a moment like someone grabbed my heart, then agonizing back pain took over, and some nausea. But no more chest pain. I really just assumed I hurt my back working out, because I do easily it once a season (though I'm getting older, but am acting younger)
I sort of ruled out heart issues because I did cpr in real life a few days earlier (I'm a fireman with FDNY (though now probably looking at forced retirement)). And took my CFR (EMS-lite) refresher a week before that. Thought it would be a total coincidence it's my heart.
Even though it takes time to heal, 8 months later I have mostly "healed from the healing process", and you will get there in time. In some weird way it is one of the best things to have happened to me too, kind of plants your feet on the ground in the way few things can.
The major post surgery things I had were:
- Chills waking me up at night
- Nerve damage from my shoulder being mis-positioned at some point
- The pericardium being partially removed during surgery lets me hear my heart much more intimately than I'd like to
But all these are way better now. Still have a lot of insomnia still.
[+] [-] narag|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] purplsnkrs|11 years ago|reply
I didn't find Rehab that bad, but then I was the youngest person there by about 30 years and a bit of a novelty. The drugs were the absolute pits though, I found that my reaction time dropped by about half a second. It took me about 2 months to be able to play squash again even after I regained by physical fitness.
They never found a root cause for my MI (there was no plaque , and they don't know why the clot formed). I still get asked if they know why it happened - like that's the most important thing. It's okay to not want to share any causes of your MI with everyone who asks. Apart from your medical professionals, they don't have a right to know.
Good luck and let me know if you ever need to talk.
[+] [-] nostromoa|11 years ago|reply
Next phase was the month to a year as one ponders whether one managed to induce heart failure (enough damage not to pump blood in sufficient quantities) when faced with the tiredness any exertion including rehab seems to induce. The possibility of always being tired IS DEPRESSING. Also there is the "fun" of pains in the area one felt the heart attack pain bringing the question of "am I having another heart attack." And then there are all those stories about how great someone or other felt after having their arteries cleared as if one got a tune up...these stories are B.S. one is looking at about 6 months of not feeling great with any somewhat serious heart attack.
My overwhelming sentiment as the anesthetic set in before they cleared my Widow Maker and inserted a stent was, well, feeling pretty good and the notion there were "worse ways to die," and a certain willingness to go with it if this was it. So I guess I'm not much scared of dying once there.
Mentioning the heart attack is devilish fun in a gathering because most males start to squirm immediately.
There is a disconnect between one feeling fairly back to oneself and other's views of you who has had a heart attack(if they never had one). No one will learn from your example and stop smoking or eating less crap so don't even bother to think so. You'll be lucky if you manage to improve yourself your own bad habits.
After a while one resumes ones devil may care posture towards life with occasional reflective moments on when the 'next one' will be and if there will be a next one(probably).
So as far as great revelations? Not many mostly mundane discoveries. A stent is better than being filleted. Being alive appears better than dead to those of us that are still alive. And next time I feel a heart attack I WILL GET MY ASS TO AN EMERGENCY ROOM ASAP to reduce heart muscle damage that ensues the longer I wait.
[+] [-] linker3000|11 years ago|reply
I ended up in Accident and Emergency (UK) after developing what was thought to be a bad chest infection - I was coughing up bloody fluid from my lungs. After a some examination and an ECG, I was whisked into a ward and scheduled for a angiogram. A day or so later, right after the angiogram, I was told I had some damaged blood vessels around my heart and I had "probably" had "at least one" heart attack sometime in the past!
Every physician that did the rounds while I waited for a stent operation asked me whether I'd had any further chest or arm pains and I had to keep telling them that I'd never had any such pains - no 'classic' symptoms.
The upshot was that the heart damage was put down to a combination of diabetic-related complications, possibly not helped by one of the meds I had been taking.
3 years and 5 stents later (should have been 4, but one of the blood vessels tore during the procedure so I had to have an extra 'covered stent'!) and I am still up and about - albeit with some reduced heart function.
So, as robbiep commented - "'Typical' signs do not present in everyone: in particular diabetics are at increased risk of having 'silent' heart attacks"
[+] [-] parasubvert|11 years ago|reply
Basically this is inflammation of the lining of your heart. the most common cause being idiopathic (ie. We don't know), or viral, followed by trama post-surgery or radiation therapy. Sometimes it has been caused by vaccination (influenza and others).
The symptoms make this tricky to diagnose, but if you have some combination of fever, consistent or spamming chest and/or upper back pain, difficulty lying down or adjusting position, lethargy, shortness of breath, change in unrine habits / color, go get checked out - an echocardiogram will often reveal the inflammation. High dose (500-625mg) aspirin helps. Most times it will resolve through such NSAIDs or with steroids.
Left too long this can lead to liver damage and can become a chronic constructive condition that mimics heart failure. This is generally curable by surgery to remove your pericardium.
[+] [-] wcchandler|11 years ago|reply
In all seriousness, I hope you have a speedy recovery. Be thankful it happened in the RDU area. We have two of the best med schools in the country within a 30 minute drive of each other. I'm certain you'll pull out of this without a problem.
[+] [-] mindcrime|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] vegancap|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hereonbusiness|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mindcrime|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] noir_lord|11 years ago|reply
I kept insisting he get medical attention and he kept saying he was fine, in the end I said either you go get medical attention or I phone an ambulance.
So he goes to a local NHS walk-in center (I'm in the UK) where the first nurse who saw him phone an ambulance, daft macho sod was having a heart attack.
Saw him not long since, he'd gotten back into cycling, looked incredibly well and had dropped 3-4 stone (42-56lbs) having just completed a 300 mile charity ride.
Moral of the story, if you start getting chest pains radiating into your arms, sweating profusely get your ass to the hospital ASAP or phone an ambulance, early intervention greatly improves the outcome.
[+] [-] Mahn|11 years ago|reply
I've since learned not to panic when they happen and just live with the little shocks, but, you know, I'm only in my 20s, I can't help but wonder what my heart will do when I get to my 40s.
[+] [-] ctdonath|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] seren|11 years ago|reply
http://www.health.harvard.edu/fhg/updates/Surprise-of-palpit...
Taking some magnesium supplement could also reduce the symptoms, since a low magnesium level, caused by stress, can also lead to arrhythmia. Typically every time I am low on magnesium I experience eye twitches that are quickly disappearing after a few week of magnesium supplements. I am surprised it was not prescribed by your GP or cardiologist.
I don't really want to give medical advice carelessly but since you have seen a cardiologist the most serious cause have probably been taken into consideration.
[+] [-] 300bps|11 years ago|reply
My recommendation is to get checked out by your doctor and a cardiologist and trust what they say. Meaning, when they tell you everything is fine you should believe that.
I mainly experience PVCs (http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/premature-vent...). I probably experience those at least a handful of times per day. When I'm super stressed I can have them a dozen times per hour. The link I provided gives you common triggers and can help you reduce their frequency.
[+] [-] nathanb|11 years ago|reply
The cardiologist didn't find it. He went to a neurologist, and that's who diagnosed him.
Your situation could be completely different, but I thought I'd share the experience just in case.
[+] [-] chief8192|11 years ago|reply
Have had the exact same thing on and off for the last 10 years or so (I'm 33 now). For the longest time, it would just be one flutter every few months or so, but recently it's gotten as high as a few times a day. Definitely seems to correlate with increased stress/sodium/caffeine.
[+] [-] arbitrage|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jbb555|11 years ago|reply
Is that correct?
[+] [-] ssharp|11 years ago|reply
The final straw for me to NOT act was that I had no radiating pain. No pain in face, jaw, arms, etc. I took an aspirin and went back to bed. The next day, I went to the doctor and the EKG looked fine.
The whole thing was stress-related. Two newborn twins in the NICU may do that to you. What was interesting to me was that these symptoms showed up several days after their birth and after any initial scares were over. By the time I had these stress pains, the babies were eating from bottles, gaining weight and were functioning as they should in room air.
The scary part to me was realizing that heart attacks aren't like they are on TV or the movies, where the pain is so intense that the person collapses. I'm very thankful that I didn't have a heart attack, but I learned a lot more about them from that stress spell.
[+] [-] atko|11 years ago|reply
Could you provide any information as to what could be the possible cause of your heart attack? Your age, habits etc?
[+] [-] dontdownplease|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mindcrime|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|11 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] JohnBooty|11 years ago|reply
One night I had pain and tightness in my chest. This isn't really anything new, because I have asthma and sometimes it feels like that. But then I noticed pain radiating from my chest down the inside of my arm. I realized that was one of the signs of a heart attack.
Got to the hospital just in time. Almost went into cardiac arrest in the ER. Lips were blue, heart rate began to plummet, etc.
It turns out it wasn't a heart attack, actually - it was peridcarditis, an inflammation of the lining around the heart. In severe cases (although this seems rare) it can swell so much that your heart can't pump effectively. You can die. I almost did.
Moral of the story doesn't change! Even if you're young and healthy, get to a hospital if you feel something in your chest.
[+] [-] charlysisto|11 years ago|reply
Hope you recover fast, and yeah EXERCISE (if the doctor says so).
[+] [-] mgkimsal|11 years ago|reply
Related to the topic... I've had 'chest pains' of varying degrees for... 20+ years - chest pains alone aren't going to signal me to call, unless I feel they're different somehow from what I've had in the past. Someone else posted below that arm pains and sweating usually accompany this, so I'll have to look out for those - never had those, but have 'chest pain' often. And yes, have been to ER and had scans, and they can never find anything. :/
GET WELL.
[+] [-] nostromoa|11 years ago|reply