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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
cosy 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 oesophagus 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 dialled 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!** |