One of the big aha moments I had in my life was in 2005 when I had my first heart attack. 3 days ago I would have said that it was my only heart attack, but I had another one just recently. Luckily, we caught it early, and I’m doing pretty well considering.
During my first heart attack, I had asked some pretty significant life-sized questions, and I re-evaluated much of my life. One of the biggest reasons for Simply Great Lives is to let everyone know that life is short and we should make life as meaningful as possible.
I wanted to take some time in this blog post to let everyone know the symptoms of a heart attack so if it happens to you, you can recognize it and respond to the warning signs early.
Symptoms
To understand the symptoms, it’s best to understand what’s going on. The heart is a muscle that pumps blood throughout the body so that the body’s cells can receive oxygen and nutrients. The heart also needs oxygen and nutrients, so it needs to supply itself with blood as well. When the arteries to the heart become blocked, a part of the heart doesn’t get the oxygen and nutrients it needs to survive.
A heart attack is when a part of the heart dies due to the blockage. When the heart receives reduced oxygen and nutrients, it become distressed. However, there aren’t nerve cells in the heart. We can’t directly feel that our heart is in distress. Instead we feel secondary symptoms in other areas of our body.
Most people experience some of the following symptoms:
- An uncomfortable pressure in the chest area. Some people say they feel like there’s an elephant sitting on their chest. This isn’t just on the left side as the myth goes around.
- Achiness in any of: the shoulders, arms, elbows, between the shoulder blades and the jaw. You can’t point to where it hurts exactly. For me, the achiness feels different than, say, sore muscles. Again, this isn’t just on the left side like we always hear.
- Stomach pain or nausea. The stomach pain might feel like heartburn, abdominal pressure, you just might feel sick to your stomach.
- Shortness of breath. This is where you are breathing normally, but still feel like you’re not getting enough air.
- Lightheadedness.
- A sense of doom or a feeling that something is just not right.
Not everyone feels all of the symptoms and the symptoms will vary from person to person. In particular, some women seem to experience flu like symptoms which is harder to detect.
You don’t just go in because you are sick to your stomach. But if for example, you are sick to your stomach, have achiness in your elbows, and feel that something just isn’t right, you go in.
Some people experience the symptoms before there is a complete blockage of the artery. If the problem can be cleared up before there is a complete blockage, it’s possible to avoid the damage to the heart. In this case, technically you didn’t have a heart attack, which is good.
If You Are Experiencing Symptoms
First, do not drive yourself to the hospital. Get someone else to drive. If there is no one available or if the symptoms are severe, call 911. If you’re aren’t sure what is ‘severe’, it’s best to call 911 to be safe rather sorry. ‘Sorry’ in this case might mean you’re dead, so don’t fool around with this.
Quite a few years ago I was collaborating on a project with a fellow at another company. I was chatting with him online and somehow the topic of my earlier heart attack came up. He called me on the phone right away, and explained he was having similar symptoms. I told him that he should go into the ER. He asked how he should go in explaining that where he was in India ambulances take a long time. I said that I didn’t know about that, but one way or another he should get to the hospital. After that I didn’t hear from him. I found out later that he had driven himself to the hospital and died in the parking lot before he could get care.
In retrospect, I really wish I had told him to call the ambulance because his care would have started when the ambulance arrived – before he got to the hospital. I think I will be haunted by this for the rest of my life.
When you go in with chest pain (some of the symptoms listed above), you will not have to wait in the waiting room. So, don’t think things like, well if I go in, I’ll just wait around in the waiting room anyway, so I may as well wait to see if the symptoms go away. Just go in and tell them you are experiencing chest pain -“chest pain” being the key phrase you want to use. You’ll be prioritized ahead of everyone else.
When you go in, they will do the following:
- Give You Asprin. Asprin reduces inflammation, and my allow more blood to flow to the heart.
- Give you Nitroglycerin. Nitroglycerin, dilates your blood vessels, which also will allow more blood to flow to the heart.
- Take EKG readings of your heart. If your heart is in distress, it often shows up in the EKG.
- Take a chest x-ray. The x-ray will let them look at the structures in the chest: lungs, bones, etc. I don’t think signs of a heart attack show up in the x-ray. I think it’s done in case there are other factors that need to be considered.
- Draw blood. When you heart becomes distressed, it will release an enzyme into the blood stream. This is one of the key indicators of heart distress/heart attack. It takes a couple hours for the enzyme to show up, so they may keep you for a few more hours and draw blood again if they don’t detect the enzyme in the first draw.
If they suspect a blockage, they will send you to the “cath-lab” where they will insert a micro camera into your blood vessels and look for a specific problem. If you signed the forms, they will fix the problem immediately if one is found and it’s a problem they can fix on the spot.. There’s no sense having them go in to discover the problem and then have someone else go in to fix it on another day.
If you want to know more you can check out the following links:
- http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/heart-attack/in-depth/heart-attack-symptoms/art-20047744
- http://www.webmd.com/heart-disease/features/his-guide-to-a-heart-attack
- http://www.webmd.com/heart-disease/features/womens-heart-attack-symptoms
- http://www.webmd.com/heart-disease/default.htm
I hope you never experience the symptoms above, but if you do, my prayer is that you’ll act on them right away and get to experience a continued long and full life.
