Saturday, January 15, 2011

THIS IS NOT A JOKE!



I received this e-mail yesterday and felt so strongly about it, i wanted to let all my dear friends know.  Maybe this is old news, but I have never seen anything so specific regarding women and heart attacks.
Please forward to every woman you love...it may save her life!


A NURSE'S HEART ATTACK EXPERIENCE

I am an ER nurse and this is the best description of this event that I have ever heard.

Please read, pay attention, and send it on! Diane K

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 & 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 & 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 p.m.



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 partner had already threaded the teeny angiogram balloon up my femoral artery into the aorta and into my heart where they installed 2 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 already 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.

'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.'



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).

MI's 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..



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 & female) you care about

3 comments:

Christa from Chloe Rose said...

My mom had a heart attack at 61, a little over a year ago. She had it two days before she went in the hospital. She went to the doctor thinking she had the swine flu and found out she had a heart attack and had to have a stent. She nearly died from the recovery process because she is a nearly 40 year juvenile diabetic. Female heart attack symptoms are definitely something to take seriously. Great reminder post!

Erica said...

Thanks for all these information. God bless and I am happy you're fine. :)

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Kira Roza said...

True life changing story of COPD.
My father was a smoker for forty years. He started when he was a teenager in high school in the early 1950s, and continued to smoke about a pack a day until he quit in 1995. For years he thought "You know? 1 smoked for forty years, and I got away with it !" No. No he didn't. In 2014, nineteen years after he had quit smoking, he started noticing that he was having trouble with wheezing and feeling like he was out of breath a lot. He was diagnosed with early stage COPD. For the first year, he was able to get by with simply using rescue inhalers once in a while, but by late 2015 he needed supplemental oxygen. At first, he could get by on the lowest tank setting of 1 liter per minute, but as time went on he needed an Oxygen concentrator at home and he needed more and more oxygen. Last year (2020) he was up to the oxygen concentrator's highest setting of 5 liters per minute, even while just sitting down. By this time I had moved in with him to take care of him. Sometimes he would be gasping for air, and he would ask me "Son, is the machine on? I just can't get enough air" his condition worsened, our hearts melted every moment as we watched him gasp for breath,we were sure he would die any moment, by the time I started reading YouTube comments,I stumbled upon a comment that said there is an traditional herbal doctor called Dr Itua Herbal Center man that cures this ailment and other human diseases,I quickly contacted him and ordered the herbs with my father's money because he wouldn't need it anymore cos he would die any moment,I received the herbs in two days and from that moment he used the herbs, he began to feel better and better, few weeks later, he was completely cured, I thank you for reading this story about my father's experience with COPD. If you know someone who is a smoker, and you love them, please encourage them to quit. We love Daddy.all thanks to Dr Itua.
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