Just had a heart attack

The main risk after starting to have a heart attack (other than dying)and clearly realizing it, seems to be going into denial and not proceeding immediately to a hospital. That circus lasted almost two hours for me, so by the time the stent cleared the clot I was just on the edge of being on the way out (becoming unconscious). - I even had a smoke in the middle of the two hours before heading to the emergency room!

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.

Maybe I should go back and get my heart checked. Last year I found out I had a silent heart attack at one point(had to do some physical for insurance first time I've went to the doctor in about 8+ years). I was 27 at the time. I do remember one time in college having sharp pain in my left arm and all the signs of a heart attack, at the time I was doing some PT for a class and the instructor thought I was playing around trying to get out of it.

Good luck on your recovery.

What do people do in case of an emergency? There must be some local version of 911, no?

I don't display heart attack symptoms well perhaps due to a high tolerance for pain. That said symptoms include some sort of pain, chest (elephant sitting on chest), jaw, in my case a feeling like a baseball pressing into the hollow of my left shoulder. When it started my very first thought was "I am having a heart attack." Which is to say when you have a heart attack its distinct enough from anything else you ever felt on your body you probably recognize it as a heart attack. So don't worry, you will know when you have a heart attack as long as you don't slide into immediate denial. Another sign of a heart attack pain is the pain gets worse and one squirms to try to get away from it (like a leg cramp setting in type squirm)so as it gets worse you will definitely ask to be taken to a hospital unless you are utterly insane. For me it wasn't what I connote as "pain" which has a sense of sharpness to it, it was more like a pressure in an area that was very uncomfortable.

By the way your heart doesn't feel pain itself no nerves for that, which is why there are all these other spots that get reported as uncomfortable or painful because the body "finds someplace else" to express the problem. The other sign is the shortness of breath and gasping...this must be simply because your body is responding to the heart not getting oxygen past the artery blockage (downstream)and is trying to get more oxygen. Note also when you get that second stent they are blocking an artery to insert it so you get a chance to experience the heart attack feeling as per shortness of breath if you missed it the first time.

The deep insight is nearly dying doesn't necessarily lead to deep insights and perhaps one really has to 'die' and come back to get deep insights and maybe even that doesn't result in deep insights. The other deep insight is, "I didn't die this time and that's ok with me." Deep insight may seem mundane because its just living through proving the obvious things you already knew...might be a third insight. For me dying quickly anesthetized looked a lot better than dying slowly from cancer or in a car crash burning to death or a litany of other possibilities which I assumed was the case before but now I really believe.