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Just had a heart attack

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Re: Just had a heart attack

#121

Post by ssharp »

I had a scare about two weeks ago. I woke up in the middle of the night with a lot of tightness in my chest, which I've never really felt before. I was also a bit dizzy/disoriented and became extremely anxious over whether or not I was having a heart attack. My first reaction was to look online for heart attack symptoms and began reading how you shouldn't be looking online and should be going to a hospital.

The final straw for me to NOT act was that I had no radiating pain. No pain in face, jaw, arms, etc. I took an aspirin and went back to bed. The next day, I went to the doctor and the EKG looked fine.

The whole thing was stress-related. Two newborn twins in the NICU may do that to you. What was interesting to me was that these symptoms showed up several days after their birth and after any initial scares were over. By the time I had these stress pains, the babies were eating from bottles, gaining weight and were functioning as they should in room air.

The scary part to me was realizing that heart attacks aren't like they are on TV or the movies, where the pain is so intense that the person collapses. I'm very thankful that I didn't have a heart attack, but I learned a lot more about them from that stress spell.

Re: Just had a heart attack

#122

Post by chief8192 »

Mahn wrote: post #105

Ever 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…

Chiming in with another data point here.

Have had the exact same thing on and off for the last 10 years or so (I'm 33 now). For the longest time, it would just be one flutter every few months or so, but recently it's gotten as high as a few times a day. Definitely seems to correlate with increased stress/sodium/caffeine.

Re: Just had a heart attack

#123

Post by wpietri »

VLM wrote: post #112
wpietri wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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",…

Excellent point. I hadn't thought about that.

Re: Just had a heart attack

#124

Post by icelancer »

StefanPopp wrote: post #55

Last year when i was 27 i had a strange feeling in my chest after smoking a cigarette, i didn't smoke for 4 years in row. After 2 minutes i got very nervous and i felt overall very strange. Two days later i smoked another cigarette and the same feeling started again, but this time it felt like ants are running up my neck. After 5 minutes and calming down me teeth started to itch. From day to day i got more and more w…

>I hope that my english didn't distract you at all, i want to show that even not normal signals of a heart attack can be a sign of much bigger problems coming up.

It is my experience that those who self-apologize for their "poor" English skills are the ones who have the least to apologize for. You have a better grasp of the English language than most college graduates in the United States.

Re: Just had a heart attack

#126

Post by clavalle »

wpietri wrote: post #106
pbhjpbhj wrote: post #91

Earlier 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…

In many cases you don't know. You have a suspicion. It is probably nothing. Nope, it was something. Don't underestimate the human capacity for denial.

On top of that you have interesting incentives that you get to think about with your doctor: are they recommending this treatment to make more money?

Re: Just had a heart attack

#127

Post by sillysaurus3 »

pdabbadabba wrote: post #117
sillysaurus3 wrote: post #88

You'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 su…

Which part is an exaggeration? The death? Hardly. It usually takes some time to get someone to an emergency room, so if their heart fully clogs, the outcome is often death.

Or that people will usually forego seeking treatment because they can't afford to rack up huge bills? Again, not really an exaggeration. If you have a house that you live in with your spouse and child, then you need that house, and people will often make decisions with the best chance of preserving it. If you go bankrupt, you can lose your house except in some specific circumstances (http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/lose-home-file-chapte...).

It's easy to forget, as programmers, that most people don't enjoy the same benefits we do. Most people are living paycheck to paycheck with little savings and children.

Re: Just had a heart attack

#128

Post by joshdance »

sillysaurus3 wrote: post #88

You'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…

He is in the US? UNC Chapel Hill hospital?

Re: Just had a heart attack

#129

Post by 300bps »

gregd wrote: post #116
sk5t wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 fil…

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"

Well, have I got great news for you! There is this thing called the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. Here it is:

http://www.ftc.gov/enforcement/rules/rulemaking-regulatory-r...

Want to stop calls to your work, at home, on your cell and even to your relatives and coworkers? Send them one registered letter telling them to stop calling you. Instantly gone. Why?

Because every single call they make to you about this debt after that one letter means they owe you $1,000 in statutory damages. When you sue them they even have to pay your attorney's fees so there are a million attorneys willing to take these cases for contingency!

Here's a quick write-up of what you can do for the harassment you described:

http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/what-can-you-do-if-de...

Frankly, if you've been living in a "debtor's prison" like you've described, I'm assuming you haven't lifted a single finger to get out of it because this information is widely known in the U.S.

Re: Just had a heart attack

#130

Post by arbitrage »

Mahn wrote: post #105

Ever 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'm experiencing the same thing right now, and talking to multiple doctors about it. They all claim it's related to stress, and multiple tests have found nothing at all unusual. I'm inclined to believe them, but it's damn unnerving when it happens.
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