A NURSES HEART ATTACK EXPERIENCE
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> I am an ER nurse, (day in and day out!) and this is
> the best description of this event that I have ever heard.
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> Please read, pay attention, and send it on!
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> FEMALE HEART ATTACKS
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> 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.
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> Here is the story of one woman's experience with a
> heart attack.
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> "I had a completely unexpected heart attack at about 10
> :30 PM with NO prior exertion, NO prior emotional trauma that one
> would suspect
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> might've 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.
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> 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
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> my initial sensation---the only trouble was that I
> hadn't taken a bite of anything since about 5:00 p.m.
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> After that had seemed to subside, the next sensation
> was like little squeezing motions that seemed to be racing up my
> SPINE (hind-sight, it
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> was probably my aorta spasming), gaining speed as they
> continued racing up and under my sternum (breast bone, where one
> presses
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> rhythmically when administering CPR). This fascinating
> process continued on into my throat and branched out into both
> jaws.
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> "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
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> 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
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> 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,
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> nobody will know that I need help, and if I wait any
> longer I may not be able to get up in moment."
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> "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 unbolt the door and then lie
> down on the floor where they could see me
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> when they came in.
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> "I 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
> Cardiologist was already there in his surgical blues and cap,
> helping the medics pull my stretcher out of
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> the ambulance. He was bending over me asking questions
> (probably something like "Have you taken any medications?") but I
> couldn't make
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> 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.
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> "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.
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> "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."
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> 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!
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> 2. Note that I said "Call the Paramedics." Ladies,
> TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE! Do NOT try to drive yourself to the
> ER--you're a hazard to others on the road and so is 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.
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> 3. Don't assume it couldn't be a heart attack because
> you have a normal cholesterol count. Research has discovered
> that a cholesterol
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> 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!
