Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Just had a heart attack

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 219 posts

Re: Just had a heart attack

#41

Post by snarfy »

robbiep wrote: post #16
M4v3R wrote: post #4

Can someone with some medical experience write about what are exactly the warning signs for a heart attack? 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.

Doctor here. The 'typical' signs of a heart attack are chest pain usually described as dull, heavy or tight, with radiation to the arm(s) and neck. The patient often also complains of diaphoresis (sweating) , shortness of breath and perhaps weakness. '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 b…

That's how my dad died. Mom found him on the couch with a bottle of pepto bismol next to him.

Re: Just had a heart attack

#42

Post by hoggle »

robbiep wrote: post #16
M4v3R wrote: post #4

Can someone with some medical experience write about what are exactly the warning signs for a heart attack? 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.

Doctor here. The 'typical' signs of a heart attack are chest pain usually described as dull, heavy or tight, with radiation to the arm(s) and neck. The patient often also complains of diaphoresis (sweating) , shortness of breath and perhaps weakness. '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 b…

"... almost all from a coronary artery called the left main blocking...These patients unfortunately almost all dead on arrival."

How can we monitor this effectively? There must be a solution that does something after something has registered a problem.

Re: Just had a heart attack

#43

Post by linker3000 »

I am a 48-year-old T2 diabetic - I'm not grossly overweight and there is no family history of the disease; it is suspected I became T2 following a viral illness coupled with a highly stressful job.

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"

Re: Just had a heart attack

#44

Post by Akathos »

RafiqM wrote: post #18
M4v3R wrote: post #4

Can someone with some medical experience write about what are exactly the warning signs for a heart attack? 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.

Here's the thing - people experiencing a heart attack can have any combination, or none of the symptoms. So here's some of the symptoms, bearing in mind that they may or may not apply to any given situation. 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…

It's kind of ironic that these are the same symptoms as stress related panic attacks.

Re: Just had a heart attack

#45

Post by MrJagil »

robbiep wrote: post #16
M4v3R wrote: post #4

Can someone with some medical experience write about what are exactly the warning signs for a heart attack? 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.

Doctor here. The 'typical' signs of a heart attack are chest pain usually described as dull, heavy or tight, with radiation to the arm(s) and neck. The patient often also complains of diaphoresis (sweating) , shortness of breath and perhaps weakness. '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 b…

One problem with this is that, I, as an individual suffering from anxiety, "regularly" suffer form chest pains.

This often spirals into the terrible cycle of anxiety -> chest pains -> anxiety about the chest pains being a heart attack.

I can only assume that the chest pains will be different and more severe if I should ever have a heart attack.

http://www.calmclinic.com/anxiety/symptoms/chest-pain

Re: Just had a heart attack

#46

Post by philh »

vegancap wrote: post #39
mindcrime wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This. I was so reluctant to call 911 at first, but i've been a firefighter and 911 dispatcher, so knew how important it was!

I think people are scared it will turn out to be nothing and they'll be embarrassed or something. But the fact is, no one knows that it's nothing, until a medical professional checks it really is nothing. There's no shame in that.

I suspect that "worry about wasting other people's valuable time" is also part of it.

Re: Just had a heart attack

#47

Post by werid »

robbiep wrote: post #16
M4v3R wrote: post #4

Can someone with some medical experience write about what are exactly the warning signs for a heart attack? 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.

Doctor here. The 'typical' signs of a heart attack are chest pain usually described as dull, heavy or tight, with radiation to the arm(s) and neck. The patient often also complains of diaphoresis (sweating) , shortness of breath and perhaps weakness. '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 b…

> The 'typical' signs of a heart attack are chest pain usually described as dull, heavy or tight, with radiation to the arm(s) and neck. The patient often also complains of diaphoresis (sweating) , shortness of breath and perhaps weakness.

This is mostly for men, right? I've read previously that the symptoms for women are quite different.

Re: Just had a heart attack

#48

Post by robbiep »

jbb555 wrote: post #40

Are there any symptoms that indicate that it's probably not a heart attack? I recently had "stabby" pains in my chest area and as I didn't know what it was went to urgently get checked out and it was basically muscle pain (chest wall pain they said, I think?) and said that intermittent very brief "stabby" pain in your chest wasn't the most usual symptom (But that getting it checked out was still a very good idea). Is…

One of the most common presentations for heart attack that turns out to not be heart attack is reflux. If it happens after a meal, and especially if it is relieved by antacid, it is unlikely to be a heart attack.

But then again, it could very well be. Which is why you will never find a doctor who will say 'it's ok' from the history alone. They need a workup anyway... If there are no ECG or biochemical markers of heart attack and it responds to antacid in the emergency department then we can prescribe its use ongoing.

The other one that every medical student gets that convinced them that they are having a heart attack is muscular or rib pain, like which you describe. People present to hospital with it all the time but we usually quickly exclude it as a heart attack.

If you're concerned, always present.

Re: Just had a heart attack

#49

Post by dontdownplease »

mindcrime wrote: post #36
dontdownplease wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Looking at the picture on his LinkedIn profile https://www.linkedin.com/in/philliprhodes it does look like he may have been overweight. I suspect that is a huge contributing factor in this. I'm sorry if anyone get offended by this, but it does look like mindcrime could have been more proactive in looking after his weight. Now it's completely possible that mindcrime has some other condition which limits, or at least r…

Yes, I could have been more proactive. I made a lot of sacrifices in terms of not working out, overwork, stress, etc., in the quest to get this startup going.

Maybe you can find some casual running groups in and around North Carolina? I attend one and we run every Wednesday and Saturday. Even though I'm 20 years younger than the average runner some of the guys (who were on track to be the position you find yourself in now) have really turned their life around with respect to looking after themselves. I would encourage anyone of any age or fitness to do the same. Having people around you who can encourage you makes it so much harder to give up.

Re: Just had a heart attack

#50

Post by robbiep »

MrJagil wrote: post #45
robbiep wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doctor here. The 'typical' signs of a heart attack are chest pain usually described as dull, heavy or tight, with radiation to the arm(s) and neck. The patient often also complains of diaphoresis (sweating) , shortness of breath and perhaps weakness. '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 b…

One problem with this is that, I, as an individual suffering from anxiety, "regularly" suffer form chest pains. This often spirals into the terrible cycle of anxiety -> chest pains -> anxiety about the chest pains being a heart attack. I can only assume that the chest pains will be different and more severe if I should ever have a heart attack. http://www.calmclinic.com/anxiety/symptoms/chest-pain

Literally yesterday I treated a patient who has had 4 presentations this year to emergency with chest pain that sounds cardiac enough, except it lasts for several hours sometimes and sometimes she can 'feel it coming on' and heD it off by relaxing. Still, it could always be a heart attack and until a through work up is done to exclude it (acutely, ECG and troponins, as outpatient, stress test), it is worth investigating.

In her case the deeper I delved into her personal life the more it became apparent that this was a clear cut case of stress/anxiety related pain- that was having physical manifestations.

for her, we discussed exactly what you are describing: that anxiety leads to the pain, which then leads to fear about it being a heart attack, which worsens it etc. we went through the work up we had planned and after her second troponin was negative we sent her home to have an outpatient stress test to see if she may have some partial blockages. If that is clear, we as medical personnel feel comfortable knowing that her episodes are non-cardiac in nature- and referral to psychologist for CBT (which she had previously undertaken to good effect) was recommended. I think she will do well, she appears willing to seek help.

I hope you are also seeking help for your anxiety, and that you have had at least one good work up for your chest pain to exclude a cardiac cause.

Post reply on HN