Christianity Oasis Forum

[Angelwings]

A Female Nurse's Heart Attack - PLEASE READ


I am anER nurse and this is the best description of this event that I have

ever heard. Please read, pay attention, and send it on!

FEMALE HEART ATTACKS

I was aware that female heart attacks are different, but this is the

best description I've ever read.

Women and heart attacks (Myocardial

infarction). Did you know that women rarely have the same

dramatic symptoms that men have when experiencing heart attack?

You know, the sudden stabbing pain in the chest, the cold sweat,

grabbing the chest and dropping to the floor that we see in the movies?

Here is

the story of one woman's experience with a heart attack.

"I had a heart attack at about 10:30 PM with NO prior exertion, NO

prior emotional trauma that one would suspect might have brought it on.

I was sitting all snugly and warm on a cold evening, with my purring

cat in my lap, reading an interesting story my friend had sent me, and

actually thinking, 'A-A-h, this is the life', all cozy and warm in my

soft, cushy Lazy Boy with my feet propped up.

A moment later, I felt that awful sensation of indigestion, when you've

been in a hurry and grabbed a bite of sandwich and washed it down with

a dash of water, and that hurried bite seems to feel like you've

swallowed a golf ball going down the esophagus in slow motion and it is

most uncomfortable. You realize you shouldn't have gulped it down so

fast and needed to chew it more thoroughly and this time drink a glass

of water to hasten its progress down to the stomach. This was my

initial sensation---the only trouble was that I hadn't taken a bite of

anything since about 5:00 PM.

After it seemed to subside, the next sensation was like little

squeezing motions that seemed to be racing up my SPINE (hind-sight, it

was probably my aorta spasms), gaining speed as they continued racing

up and under my sternum (breast bone, where one presses rhythmically

when administering CPR).

This fascinating process continued on into my throat and branched out

into both jaws. AHA!! NOW I stopped puzzling about what was happening

-- we all have read and/or heard about pain in the jaws being one of

the signals of an MI happening, haven't we? I said aloud to myself and

the cat, 'Dear God, I think I'm having a heart attack'!

I lowered the foot rest dumping the cat from my lap, started to take a

step and fell on the floor instead. I thought to myself, If this is a

heart attack, I shouldn't be walking into the next room where the phone

is or anywhere else ... But, on the other hand, if I don't, nobody will

know that I need help, and if I wait any longer I may not be able to

get up in a moment.

I pulled myself up with the arms of the chair, walked slowly into the

next room and dialed the Paramedics .... I told her I thought I was

having a heart attack due to the pressure building under the sternum

and radiating into my jaws. I didn't feel hysterical or afraid, just

stating the facts. She said she was sending the Paramedics over

immediately, asked if the front door was near to me, and if so, to

un-bolt the door and then lie down on the floor where they could see me

when they came in.

I

unlocked the door and then laid down on the floor as instructed and

lost consciousness, as I don't remember the medics coming in, their

examination, lifting me onto a gurney or getting me into their

ambulance, or hearing the call they made to St. Jude ER on the way, but

I did briefly awaken when we arrived and saw that the radiologist was

already there in his surgical blues and cap, helping the medics pull my

stretcher out of the ambulance. He was bending over me asking

questions (probably something like 'Have you taken any medications?')

but I couldn't make my mind interpret what he was saying, or form an

answer, and nodded off again, not waking up until the Cardiologist and his partner

had already threaded the teeny angiogram balloon up my femoral artery

into the aorta and into my heart where they installed two side by side

stints to hold open my right coronary artery.

I know

it sounds like all my thinking and actions at home must have taken at

least 20-30 minutes before calling the paramedics, but actually it took

perhaps 4-5 minutes before the call, and both the fire station and St.

Jude are only minutes away from my home, and my Cardiologist was all

ready to go to the OR in his scrubs and get going on restarting my

heart (which had stopped somewhere between my arrival and the

procedure) and installing the stints.

1. Be aware that something very different is happening in your body not the

usual men's symptoms but inexplicable things happening (until my

sternum and jaws got into the act). It is said that many more women

than men die of their first (and last) MI because they didn't know they

were having one and commonly mistake it as indigestion, take some

Maalox or other anti-heartburn preparation and go to bed, hoping

they'll feel better in the morning when they wake up ... which doesn't

happen. My female friends, your symptoms might not be exactly like

mine, so I advise you to call the Paramedics if ANYTHING is

unpleasantly happening that you've not felt before. It is better to

have a 'false alarm' visitation than to risk your life guessing what it

might be!

2. Note that I said 'Call the Paramedics.' And if

you can take an aspirin. Ladies, TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE! Do NOT try

to drive yourself to the ER - you are a hazard to others on the road.

Do NOT have your panicked husband who will be speeding and looking

anxiously at what's happening with you instead of the road. Do NOT

call your doctor -- he doesn't know where you live and if it's at night

you won't reach him anyway, and if it's daytime, his assistants (or

answering service) will tell you to call the Paramedics. He doesn't

carry the equipment in his car that you need to be saved! The

Paramedics do, principally OXYGEN that you need ASAP. Your Dr. will be

notified later.

3. Don't assume it couldn't be a heart attack because you have a normal

cholesterol count. Research has discovered that a cholesterol elevated

reading is rarely the cause of an MI (unless it's unbelievably high

and/or accompanied by high blood pressure).

MIs are usually caused by long-term stress and inflammation in the

body, which dumps all sorts of deadly hormones into your system to

sludge things up in there. Pain in the jaw can wake you from a sound

sleep. Let's be careful and be aware. The more we know the better

chance we could survive.

Why have

I written all of this to you with so much detail? Because I want all

of you who are so important in my life to know what I learned first hand."

A

cardiologist says if everyone who gets this mail sends it to 10 people,

you can be sure that we'll save at least one life.

**Please be a true friend and

send this article to all your friends (male and female) you care

about!**