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Just had a heart attack

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Re: Just had a heart attack

#211

Post by spb »

icelancer wrote: post #124
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.

I'm not sure if this is a Dunning-Kruger effect or not, but it sure feels like it.

Re: Just had a heart attack

#212

Post by GimbalLock »

Just wanted to say thanks for this post. I read it this morning, and after lunch had the worst allergic reaction I have ever had. Luckily I already had epipens, just in case.

I had never used one, but when it came time for it, I just did it. It probably saved my life. My airway was closing up. I dialed 911 and injected while the phone was ringing. All is okay now.

Anyway, thanks for the PSA.

Re: Just had a heart attack

#213

Post by decaysa »

CmonDev wrote: post #193
decaysa wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me this is a real issue. I have genetic high cholestrol (I'm on 80 mg lipitor) and I suffer from gastric reflux and excessive gas. I've been to ER twice when I thought I was having a heart attack but it was just bad gas/heartburn :( Now I'm sure to dismiss the real attack...

Are you overweight? Does your gastric reflux / gas have any associated episodic shortness of breath? Just trying to make parallels with myself.

No I'm not overweight would be suicide for me ;/. No smoking or anything like that. I am a bit unfit though.

I've never had shortness of breath while not active. That's also what the doctor told me to look out for. It's still scary and confusing though.

Re: Just had a heart attack

#214

Post by rswail »

ck2 wrote: post #13

Glad to hear you survived and are getting better. When people say "start feeling chest pains" do you mean like WOW that really hurts, or hmm that doesn't feel right kind of pain.

Only speaking for myself (other people have different symptoms), thre was some chest pain in my upper left chest, but it was mostly in my arm and shoulder blades and jaw.

It wasn't like on TV... guy clutching his arm and thrashing around... it was more like "damn, that hurts! Why does my arm hurt? Hmm, now my jaw... why am I in a sweat... goddamn, I better get to the ER..."

I was actually pretty calm. Drove there, parked carefully, walked up to the ER... as soon as I said "pain in my chest, left arm, jaw..." all the bureaucracy stopped and the medical stuff happened. Took about 5 minutes to be shaved for electrodes, aspirin given, ECG and bloods taken.

30 minutes later was admitted and was talking to the cardiologist about risk factors of angiograms...

Re: Just had a heart attack

#215

Post by oriste »

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 had a similar experience. Not to discourage or demoralise you, but keep a close check on your cardiovascular system. I had 3 relapses (stenosis) since my first stents in October 2010. Did (and continue to do so) all the right things, have all the right measurements, blood and fat values. Yet every year in January/February I'm taken back to cardio-surgery for yet another stent because of yet another stenosis. Hope you fare better.

Re: Just had a heart attack

#216

Post by ctdonath »

CmonDev wrote: post #192
ctdonath wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At 40, I generally felt fine, but something in my heart rhythm just seemed out of sync. TL;DR - went to a cardiologist, who basically asked me "why are you still alive?" and wanted to install a pacemaker the next morning ("don't die in the meantime").

Well, what happened then?

Well, I didn't die.

Needed a valve replaced too (no point installing pacemaker, then replacing the valve and having to re-install the pacemaker), so "don't die" stretched out to 11 days. After getting to watch a live X-ray of my heart, had open-heart surgery (which my boss wanted me to take as a vacation day), had an external pacemaker attached for 3 days (whatever happens, don't pull those wires out...hey, stop turning that "pulse rate" dial!!!), and then had the pacemaker installed. So now I'm a cyborg, with periodic data dumps and parameter tweaking, and looking at a the-hard-way battery change (whole unit upgrade while they're at it) next year. I couldn't sleep on my left side for two years because a wire was inductively stimulating my diaphragm when pressed close; eventually reprogrammed the wire's voltage/current to a tolerable state.

Feeling great, appreciate software which doesn't crash, and mechanical valve ticks like a clock.

As a bonus, the software monitors other things (while it's in there, may as well), and served to mitigate atrial flutter when that (unrelated problem) tried to shoot my heart rate to >350 beats per minute, pacer slamming on the brakes at 150bpm. ER crew was surprised when I walked in and calmly explained the problem. Glad that was in place to keep things together until the drive-thru heart surgery (run a blowtorch up an artery, zap 2 distorted nerves, go home) to fix that problem.

Re: Just had a heart attack

#217

Post by CmonDev »

ctdonath wrote: post #216
CmonDev wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, what happened then?

Well, I didn't die. Needed a valve replaced too (no point installing pacemaker, then replacing the valve and having to re-install the pacemaker), so "don't die" stretched out to 11 days. After getting to watch a live X-ray of my heart, had open-heart surgery (which my boss wanted me to take as a vacation day), had an external pacemaker attached for 3 days (whatever happens, don't pull those wires out...hey, stop turn…

That's hardcore, glad you are fine! I cannot complain about much now.

Re: Just had a heart attack

#218

Post by ctdonath »

CmonDev wrote: post #217
ctdonath wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, I didn't die. Needed a valve replaced too (no point installing pacemaker, then replacing the valve and having to re-install the pacemaker), so "don't die" stretched out to 11 days. After getting to watch a live X-ray of my heart, had open-heart surgery (which my boss wanted me to take as a vacation day), had an external pacemaker attached for 3 days (whatever happens, don't pull those wires out...hey, stop turn…

That's hardcore, glad you are fine! I cannot complain about much now.

I complain about very little now. Having already been dead ("M'am, everything is going fine, they're stopping his heart now"), I know how bad it can get, survived that, and know nothing can be worse.

Re: Just had a heart attack

#219

Post by zaroth »

coned88 wrote: post #190
robbiep wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 investigat…

I suffer from anxiety and panic and have for years. Just reading this post and your post makes me anxious. The reason being I have seen a Cardiologist and had stress tests but years ago. 2 of them about 9-10 years ago after so many ER visits and then another about 5-6 years ago. All were fine. EKG's have always been normal as has blood work when I did go to the ER. At my primary care doctor EKG's have also always bee…

Wow, that's horrible, but I'm also upset you put it on robbiep. It's random advice on an internet thread titled "Just had a heart attack" under a comment "Can someone with some medical experience write about what are exactly the warning signs for a heart attack?".

That sounds like there was more than ample warning about the subject matter. If it's triggering, you might not want to seek it out?

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