I just ate a dry muffin. Just wanted to let you all know that if you encounter a dry muffin, here's what you do: make sure you have milk or coffee handy.
What kind of person creates an account just to be a dick about somebody's heart attack?
Just had a heart attack
111–120 of 219 posts
Re: Just had a heart attack
#112Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's a partial truth though, right? There is a system for emergency healthcare for those without even medical insurance, isn't there? Also, wouldn't you "just" get treated, rack up a bill and then go to prison for non-payment - guess that might be worse than dying?
A reasonable person knowing that they would die without treatment would surely take the enormous debt. But the problem is that "feeling some pain in your chest" is a long way from knowing that death is certain. And if your habit is to avoid going to the doctor because you know the bills could ruin your life, then your default will be "I'm fine!" As the OP made clear, getting to the hospital quickly can be the differe…
"A reasonable person knowing that they would die without treatment would surely take the enormous debt."
Single guy detected. Nothing wrong with that, just saying. Its a balance, lifelong economic death penalty for the three of them, vs they get to hang around with me for a couple decades... in the homeless shelter.
And that's assuming treatment means a cure. Most of the time, especially when the Drs are "mystified", all treatment means is the survivors are much poorer.
Currently I have great insurance, although that'll end soon enough, making these kind of balance decisions interesting in the future.
Re: Just had a heart attack
#113Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's a partial truth though, right? There is a system for emergency healthcare for those without even medical insurance, isn't there? Also, wouldn't you "just" get treated, rack up a bill and then go to prison for non-payment - guess that might be worse than dying?
A reasonable person knowing that they would die without treatment would surely take the enormous debt. But the problem is that "feeling some pain in your chest" is a long way from knowing that death is certain. And if your habit is to avoid going to the doctor because you know the bills could ruin your life, then your default will be "I'm fine!" As the OP made clear, getting to the hospital quickly can be the differe…
> A reasonable person knowing that they would die without treatment would surely take the enormous debt.
But suppose your family is depending on you. If you die, they get a decent life insurance payment. If you live but rack up crippling debt, maybe they lose the house and the cars and now nobody can pay for the kids' education.
Choice gets a little murkier then.
Re: Just had a heart attack
#114Ever since I started my startup nearly 3 years ago I've been experiencing what I'd describe as heart "flutters", "sneezes" or "thumps"; very short and sudden "misplaced" beats. They happen very ocassionally, perhaps once or twice a week. I've done all sorts of checks with a cardiologist, but everything checked out fine. I've since learned not to panic when they happen and just live with the little shocks, but, you kn…
Palpitations are often stress related. I used to have sporadic one when I was really stressed out, but they end up totally disappearing. You probably know but as an actionable first step you could try to reduce your coffee consumption and see if you are getting better after a week.(assuming you are drinking coffee)
http://www.health.harvard.edu/fhg/updates/Surprise-of-palpit...
Taking some magnesium supplement could also reduce the symptoms, since a low magnesium level, caused by stress, can also lead to arrhythmia. Typically every time I am low on magnesium I experience eye twitches that are quickly disappearing after a few week of magnesium supplements. I am surprised it was not prescribed by your GP or cardiologist.
I don't really want to give medical advice carelessly but since you have seen a cardiologist the most serious cause have probably been taken into consideration.
Re: Just had a heart attack
#115Ever since I started my startup nearly 3 years ago I've been experiencing what I'd describe as heart "flutters", "sneezes" or "thumps"; very short and sudden "misplaced" beats. They happen very ocassionally, perhaps once or twice a week. I've done all sorts of checks with a cardiologist, but everything checked out fine. I've since learned not to panic when they happen and just live with the little shocks, but, you kn…
I am not a doctor (I don't even play one on TV). But a friend of mine had a similar experience (he also described it as feeling like his blood pressure was dropping, in addition to feeling heart flutters). After a number of tests, turned out he was having micro-seizures. He was prescribed an antiseizure medication and the symptoms stopped.
The cardiologist didn't find it. He went to a neurologist, and that's who diagnosed him.
Your situation could be completely different, but I thought I'd share the experience just in case.
Re: Just had a heart attack
#116Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's a partial truth though, right? There is a system for emergency healthcare for those without even medical insurance, isn't there? Also, wouldn't you "just" get treated, rack up a bill and then go to prison for non-payment - guess that might be worse than dying?
The US doesn't have debtor's prison. One would simply have a potentially staggering amount of debt with which to deal.
You say this as if being in debt and unable to make the payments, is no big deal. Getting calls from aggressive debt collectors at work, at home, on my cell, even to relatives and coworkers, is a form of "debtor's prison".
When I asked for breakdowns of the debt itself, which I'm allowed to do under the FDCPA, I rarely got a breakdown of the total debt. One company responded to my request by serving me papers and filing a lawsuit. When I hired a lawyer to intervene and respond to the lawsuit, they dropped the lawsuit a couple of days before the date.
So the constant harassment, threats and stressors of being in over your head, is a kind of debtor's prison.
Re: Just had a heart attack
#117You're quite lucky that you could afford that hospital trip. In the US, it would typically go like "My doctor made some tests and he said that it doesn't look like a heart attack but something is wrong with one of the lines on my ECG. He asked me if its ok to call the ambulance for doing more checks at the hospital. I said no, I can't afford that. So I died four weeks later." This isn't an exaggeration. Many people l…
This is an exaggeration, and it's an unfortunate one, since it distracts from the truth of what you're saying.
As many have pointed out, a person who chose to be taken to the hospital would be taken to the hospital and treated whether they could pay for it or not. The result of this would be a serious amount of debt, but likely could be paid down with a monthly payment. The worst case scenario is bankruptcy, which sucks (though it sucks much less if you're already poor and have no credit to destroy). Best case scenario, is that you make a lot of sacrifices, cope with making the monthly payments for many years, and eventually become debt free again. Like I said: best case scenario.
I think that anyone would agree, though, that either outcome is far better than dying young. (Also note that none of these scenarios includes going to prison for failure to pay your debts. There is no such thing in the U.S. legal system, except for certain debts owed to the U.S. government, and even this situation is rare and typically involves willful failure to pay, not mere inability. Private debts are just that: private.)
The real problem is that people in the U.S. are forced to make this sort of choice -- i.e., the choice between healthcare and basic material comfort. An ancillary problem is that people believe the myths that you're perpetuating -- if they think they won't be treated, or that they will go to jail if they don't pay, they may avoid treatment and die, essentially, only out of ignorance. This wouldn't be their fault. This would be the fault of a healthcare system that sends all the wrong signals, and secondarily the fault of the people who spread half truths about the healthcare system to score political points. (And I say this as an ObamaCare supporting, lifelong democrat.)
Re: Just had a heart attack
#118You're quite lucky that you could afford that hospital trip. In the US, it would typically go like "My doctor made some tests and he said that it doesn't look like a heart attack but something is wrong with one of the lines on my ECG. He asked me if its ok to call the ambulance for doing more checks at the hospital. I said no, I can't afford that. So I died four weeks later." This isn't an exaggeration. Many people l…
It's a partial truth though, right? There is a system for emergency healthcare for those without even medical insurance, isn't there? Also, wouldn't you "just" get treated, rack up a bill and then go to prison for non-payment - guess that might be worse than dying?
I have cyclothymia and panic attacks, and these issues were worst at 25-27. At that time, I worked for a startup and had no insurance. (Now I have shitty insurance, but that's a world better than none.) Of course, panic attacks are brilliant and creative in their ability to throw weird symptoms (phantom smells were my "favorite") and every time, I'd worry about the (small) chance that "this time" it was a physical health problem, which I couldn't afford to have. I still have a brutal (and, objectively, unreasonable) fear of hospitals. It's not so bad that I wouldn't go if I needed to, but even if it's to visit someone who's fine, it takes serious chemical assistance. I can take on a cross-country plane ride without klonopin (hell, most "normal" people in the professional world can't do that, these days; granted, that has more to do with yuppies being pussies than a real anxiety condition, though) and doctor's offices are fine, but hospitals... fuck. Too many horrible memories.
There are some great individual doctors and nurses, for sure, but our mean-spirited, psychotic medical/insurance system taps into this deep-seated fear that humans have of being abandoned. Abandonment is a more vicious fear than death, for most of us. Death (when it comes peacefully; granted, that's not as common as we'd like to believe) is either nonexistence or something that's probably very interesting.
To answer your question, you can go to the ER and get treatment without insurance, but that's not going to get you preventative heart surgery or cancer treatment. If you get cancer, you can't walk into an ER and demand chemo. For plenty of Americans with cancer, their first medical attention is when the fucking thing throws a clot or causes organ failure and it's past too late.
You won't go to prison for non-payment, but you will get a huge bill, because while insurance companies are good at negotiating medical bills, you can't. If you can't pay it (and U.S. medical bills can easily top $10,000 for a routine ER visit) then you can be taken to court, have a judgment against you, and end up with your credit destroyed (there's nothing on your credit report to say that the cause of your debt or bankruptcy is a black-swan medical event, or even medical at all) and your wages garnished.
It's not like these horror stories are common, but they certainly happen and most Americans know someone who's been involved in one. It's not like 25-year-olds dying on the street due to our bad medical system is a common event, but it is a terrible system that ruins lives on a fairly regular basis. The sword of Damocles hangs over all of us. Even with insurance, it's easy to get fucked. Michael Moore's Sicko (whatever you think of him, that documentary was incredibly well-researched and important) was about people who had insurance.
Re: Just had a heart attack
#119Earlier quoted context omitted.
THe only sure fire way to check your heart is to have them pump some fluid in that allows them to see your heart and arteries pumping real time on a screen. A catheter operation in the cath lab. This can be expensive though I have heard there is a good deal in CHicago for a few hundred dollars. The rest, i.e., ECG is not a guarantee of diagnosis, I had several before my infarction as routine check ups and none reveal…
This procedure is called Angiography and I had this done for my dad after he was suffering with lack of stamina and heavy breathing even with mild exertion. The doctors found 5 blockages which wasn't surprising since he used to be a smoker and a foodie. Multiple stents were put (couple of blockages were so bad that the couple of wires used to make way for the stent bent and couldn't penetrate but thankfully they were…
I had no idea angiography could be an elective procedure with no symptoms present. Thanks for sharing, something to think about.
Re: Just had a heart attack
#120Earlier quoted context omitted.
Could a smart watch detect a heart attack?
To take an ECG tracing you need at least 3 points of contact with skin around the body (a hospital ECG has 9 leads attached to the body from which the machine calculates 12 waveforms of electrical activity). A watch based mechanism would not have the capacity to do this and even a 3 lead ECG would not be considered sufficient as it would miss too many changes. I therefore believe that a smart watch would not with any…
"Pulse and heart rate are simply not useful (neither sensitive or specific) criteria for detecting MI's"
I have a statistical medical question. Is the problem that they're completely unrelated, or that interpersonal variation is larger than the typical impact?
Very long term data analysis with a sudden change might be much different than the experience of a ER doc seeing someone for the first time.
I guess the relevant data source would be someone hooked up to monitoring gear in the hospital when they have a second heart attack while onsite... it might not even be visually obvious but perhaps a detailed statistical analysis would show something before/after.