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The Other Half

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Re: The Other Half

#31

Post by revelation »

smacktoward wrote: post #14
pmarreck wrote: post #4

I sat on a "weird pain" in my chest for a few days. Basically it was uncomfortable to sleep on my left side, and I felt a bit short of breath. Turns out I was suffering from a double pulmonary embolism , and that the only reason I wasn't doubled over in pain is because by an odd fluke of nature, the interior of the lungs do not have nerve endings (only the exterior) and had I waited any longer I could have died. At t…

Or even if you're not experiencing any pain -- if you haven't been to the doctor in a long time... go to the doctor. Get a routine checkup! It can save your life. I almost learned this the hard way a few years ago. I was in my late 30s, and handled going to the doctor the way I always had since reaching adulthood -- which is to say, I didn't bother with it unless I was feeling out of sorts. Routine doctor visits seem…

Sometimes a high BP is just a reaction to someone measuring your BP. One side effect of a high BP is that you hear the thumping sound of your blood pulsing.

I personally have my heart rate and blood pressure explode whenever anyone tries to measure them. So I was referred to a cardiologist who did some basic checks like an echo, found nothing wrong and wired me up to a device that measures BP continuously for 24h. My BP was perfectly normal.

Re: The Other Half

#32

Post by openasocket »

joebeetee wrote: post #9

A (35ish y/o) family friend died 2 months ago from a heart attack, suspected high cholesterol. He was seemingly healthy, active and not overweight. Anyone else have experience with cholesterol in early 30's?

Similar thing happened with my grandfather. He was a great athlete, was the varsity quarterback for a division 1 school, and was on the varsity basketball and baseball teams. He had his first heart attack at 27. He was lucky, though. Managed to live another 50 years with serious heart disease.

Re: The Other Half

#33

Post by tgokh »

mikeash wrote: post #5

"I’d now had been experiencing a heart attack for about a week." Holy cow. I didn't realize this was possible. This is a good lesson to all of us not to ignore weird, painful phenomena in our body.

A lot of people equate a heart attack with cardiac arrest, where the heart actually stops pumping blood and the patient suddenly collapses, but in reality, a heart attack refers to a complete blockage of blood flow to part of the heart, and is sometimes colloquially to refer to inadequate blood flow (the term is never really used clinically).

Also, heart attacks can present very differently in different people. A large number of people (especially women) have atypical presentations that may not include the classic sub-sternal chest pain, so the symptoms often get ignored or missed.

Re: The Other Half

#34

Post by jrwoodruff »

First job out of high school was working in a department store. One of the sales guys I worked with was Keith. He smoked, liked to drink and go to Disney World.

After returning from a Disney World trip, he told me how he spent most of it on the hotel room floor because he 'threw his back out' and had general chest pain. Nothing excruciating, just annoying enough that he wasn't up for hours of walking. His friends told him to go the doctor, but he blew it off and said he was feeling better.

The next day he died in the store, behind the register, before we opened, from a heart attack. He was 36.

Last year I went to an urgent care because of chest and back pain. They sent me on to the ER after an EKG showed an abnormal rhythm. Turns out I hit the rowing machine too hard the day before and had a massive case of indigestion from Mexican food at lunch.

I felt silly, but really everyone that I dealt with was cool about it. I'm lucky enough to have insurance that covered it all, and I'm happy that it wasn't a heart attack.

I don't know if there's a moral to this story, just that... shit, you never know when your day is coming, and I still have a lot to do before it happens.

Re: The Other Half

#35

Post by JeremyMorgan »

Really glad he got in there and got it taken care of before it got really bad.

I cringed when I read he was chugging energy drinks to stay awake, given the context of the post.

Re: The Other Half

#36

Post by tgokh »

JeremyMorgan wrote: post #24
mikeash wrote: post #5

"I’d now had been experiencing a heart attack for about a week." Holy cow. I didn't realize this was possible. This is a good lesson to all of us not to ignore weird, painful phenomena in our body.

It's very possible. In EMS I meet folks that have been in having a heart attack for quite some time, it's not always dropping down like a rag doll you see on TV (though many times it is). My dad did the same thing, one day he had some chest pain that he thought was related to something he ate. Drove a semi truck around for about 6 hours, decided to come home early. He came back to the shop, parked his truck and calle…

I'm assuming you mean people can be having an MI, or experiencing angina for quite some time, not actually in cardiac arrest

Re: The Other Half

#37

Post by smacktoward »

chrisper wrote: post #22
smacktoward wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or even if you're not experiencing any pain -- if you haven't been to the doctor in a long time... go to the doctor. Get a routine checkup! It can save your life. I almost learned this the hard way a few years ago. I was in my late 30s, and handled going to the doctor the way I always had since reaching adulthood -- which is to say, I didn't bother with it unless I was feeling out of sorts. Routine doctor visits seem…

What is a long time? I came to the US in 2012 and haven't been to a doctor since. Not going to lie, the $ sign is a deterrent. But I am moving back to Europe this year so I will go to a doctor there and get all checked up etc.

Most decent insurance plans will fully cover the cost of a routine checkup, or at least only charge you a minimal co-payment. (They don't want to pay for a hospital visit for you any more than you want to have one.)

I'm no doctor, so I'm the wrong person to ask about how often you should see one. But if it's been five years, it's probably time.

Re: The Other Half

#38

Post by chrisfosterelli »

mikeash wrote: post #5

"I’d now had been experiencing a heart attack for about a week." Holy cow. I didn't realize this was possible. This is a good lesson to all of us not to ignore weird, painful phenomena in our body.

It's also common for people to have a major heart attack without receiving medical attention at all, and only discover it much later when being analyzed by a doctor who notices the damage.

Re: The Other Half

#39

Post by kozak »

I sleep with my Fitbit Charge 2 on my wrist, and I found that the Resting Heart Rate value is extremely sensitive to what happens with my body. Drank a little alcohol? See a change on my Resting Heart Rate value for that night. Got too much stress, or maybe spent a day at home without exercise? Yes, I see it on the graph. So my question is whether such an event as the one that is described would be clearly visible to the fitness tracker, maybe even clear enough to alert the wearer.

Re: The Other Half

#40

Post by RandomInteger4 »

joebeetee wrote: post #9

A (35ish y/o) family friend died 2 months ago from a heart attack, suspected high cholesterol. He was seemingly healthy, active and not overweight. Anyone else have experience with cholesterol in early 30's?

Last time I had my cholesterol checked about 6-7 years ago, it appeared normal, though my HDL was low. I'm 31 now and have been having a weird heart feeling. Not a pain though, but like beating issues. Depending on what I eat and which supplements I take, my heart starts beating weird and my blood pressure goes up.

The weird beating seems like my heart is either beating normally or weakly and then there's a "hiccup" every minute or so. When I lay down with my ear against the pillow when this happens, I can hear my blood flow, which seems weird, like my blood containing tubes/pump is wider than the amount of liquid in the chambers; like an echo-y water flow sound.

Part of me thinks this is the L-arginine I take (to get "swoll" as they say) combined with the amount of caffeine I take in? Another part of me thinks this is a valve issue from bacterial endocarditis, since I still have my wisdom teeth, though I brush 3+x/day, but I've had 2 splinter hemorrhages without trauma on my fingernails recently, though I like any signs of Osler nodes.

I'm 6'1", 184-ish, muscular build, so maybe it's all in my head and the above paragraphs are the result of hypochondria exacerbated by a lack of health insurance or the money to even pay for a routine doctor's visit. I mean, I eat all healthy homemade food; currently cooking black beans + garbonzo beans to make a hummus of sorts.

Hoping my anxiety stays tempered long enough for me to get back on my feet while finishing my current project.

EDIT: I forgot to mention a frequent shortness of breath, though like in Jason Scott's case, this doesn't seem to prevent me from physical activity, but it bothers me that I can't take deep breathes all the time.

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