A NURSE'S HEART ATTACK EXPERIENCE

I am an ER nurse and this is the best description of this event that I have ever heard.   Please read, pay attention, and pass it  on!
 
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.

of anything since about 5:00 p.m.

(breast  bone, where one presses rhythmically when  administering CPR).

 '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.

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 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 This fascinating process continued on into my throat and branched out into both jaws 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 stints 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 stints.
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.