3 reactions
YSK Heart Attack symptoms might be quite different than you would expect or are traditionally characterized.
I had a Heart Attack about 2 years ago and like to remind people that the symptoms and signs may not be what you would expect.
You also don’t need to be what is generally considered ‘high-risk’ or have had previous indications that you could be at risk.
For many people, it’s exactly what you see on tv… sudden chest pain, shortness of breath, arm or shoulder pain and often loss of consciousness. Mine was quite different. Rather, it was waves of discomfort that slowly built up over hours from barely noticeable to extreme discomfort.
The chest, arm and shoulder pain were present BUT were not at all the “type” of pain I expected. I had waves of tightness dead center in my chest which came and went every few minutes. It was a much more of a burning feeling. It was lower on my sternum than I’d have thought. I had never had a heart attack nor indigestion so naturally, I assumed it was the latter **and my research online convinced me it was.**
The only thing I can relate the chest discomfort too would be when you swallow food that is way, way too hot and you can feel it burn down your chest.
I always assumed a cardiac event would have been a sharper pain on my upper arm/shoulder and a sharper, more acute pain closer to where we (mistakenly) generalize our heart to be...upper left chest. In fact, **my symptoms were almost line-by-line identical to that of heartburn or indigestion ... it wasn’t, and the difference can be life or death.
**
My arms hurt but it was more of a burning pain on the back of both arms and slight, not severe. Maybe felt like a pinched nerve. I had always heard that a heart attack caused pain predominantly in one arm. I felt some in both and because I didn’t clearly have pain in one arm more than the other, I downplayed the possibility of it being cardiac.
Vomiting and sweating followed a few hours into it which was the real big red flag...the ambulance not far behind the vomiting. The rest was a blur until the ICU but I do remember some of it.
I made the common mistake of equating the symptoms to heartburn or indigestion and should have gone to the ER 10 hours sooner and therefore found myself VERY lucky to have made it through.
PLS don’t fuck around. I’m not an older guy, I’m not in bad shape and had never had indicators that I was high risk.
A friends mother passed away a few years ago from a heart attack and by all accounts, it seemed to be a stomach bug. Nausea, hot spells and general stomach issues. Went to bed and never woke up, and in hindsight, if I knew then what we know now, we would have called for medical attention and possibly changed the outcome. She too wasn’t at the age you’d expect nor was she overweight or the typical high-risk category. Entirely different from what I experienced or would have expected from a cardiac event.
If you suspect a heart attack, do yourself and your loved ones a favor and treat it as such.
Better to be safe and be in the ER than be stubborn and wind up in the morgue.
TLDR - Symptoms and signs of a heart attack can vary from person to person and can be very different men to women.
WHY YSK - **IT COULD BE YOU. IT COULD BE YOUR LOVED ONE. YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE ELDERLY, OVERWEIGHT OR PREDISPOSED. JUST BECAUSE IT DOESN’T FEEL LIKE WHAT YOU MAY EXPECT, DOESN’T MEAN YOU SHOULDN’T TAKE IT VERY SERIOUSLY. **
——————-
**When I previously posted this, the common question was how I knew it wasn’t anxiety**. I didn’t. I’ve had several pretty overwhelming panic attacks, in fact one that took me to the ER because I thought it was a heart attack ironically. *This was different*. **Something was very clearly happening, my mistake was attributing it to the wrong thing and mistakenly thinking I was clear because it didn’t ‘look like’ a heart attack.**
Mayo Clinic Reading on Symptoms of a Heart Attack https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/heart-attack/symptoms-causes/syc-20373106
Potassium too. My wife went into cardiac arrest and had to be defibrillated because her Potassium had gotten dangerously low. But that’s for another post.
I had a Heart Attack about 2 years ago and like to remind people that the symptoms and signs may not be what you would expect.
You also don’t need to be what is generally considered ‘high-risk’ or have had previous indications that you could be at risk.
For many people, it’s exactly what you see on tv… sudden chest pain, shortness of breath, arm or shoulder pain and often loss of consciousness. Mine was quite different. Rather, it was waves of discomfort that slowly built up over hours from barely noticeable to extreme discomfort.
The chest, arm and shoulder pain were present BUT were not at all the “type” of pain I expected. I had waves of tightness dead center in my chest which came and went every few minutes. It was a much more of a burning feeling. It was lower on my sternum than I’d have thought. I had never had a heart attack nor indigestion so naturally, I assumed it was the latter **and my research online convinced me it was.**
The only thing I can relate the chest discomfort too would be when you swallow food that is way, way too hot and you can feel it burn down your chest.
I always assumed a cardiac event would have been a sharper pain on my upper arm/shoulder and a sharper, more acute pain closer to where we (mistakenly) generalize our heart to be...upper left chest. In fact, **my symptoms were almost line-by-line identical to that of heartburn or indigestion ... it wasn’t, and the difference can be life or death.
**
My arms hurt but it was more of a burning pain on the back of both arms and slight, not severe. Maybe felt like a pinched nerve. I had always heard that a heart attack caused pain predominantly in one arm. I felt some in both and because I didn’t clearly have pain in one arm more than the other, I downplayed the possibility of it being cardiac.
Vomiting and sweating followed a few hours into it which was the real big red flag...the ambulance not far behind the vomiting. The rest was a blur until the ICU but I do remember some of it.
I made the common mistake of equating the symptoms to heartburn or indigestion and should have gone to the ER 10 hours sooner and therefore found myself VERY lucky to have made it through.
PLS don’t fuck around. I’m not an older guy, I’m not in bad shape and had never had indicators that I was high risk.
A friends mother passed away a few years ago from a heart attack and by all accounts, it seemed to be a stomach bug. Nausea, hot spells and general stomach issues. Went to bed and never woke up, and in hindsight, if I knew then what we know now, we would have called for medical attention and possibly changed the outcome. She too wasn’t at the age you’d expect nor was she overweight or the typical high-risk category. Entirely different from what I experienced or would have expected from a cardiac event.
If you suspect a heart attack, do yourself and your loved ones a favor and treat it as such.
Better to be safe and be in the ER than be stubborn and wind up in the morgue.
TLDR - Symptoms and signs of a heart attack can vary from person to person and can be very different men to women.
WHY YSK - **IT COULD BE YOU. IT COULD BE YOUR LOVED ONE. YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE ELDERLY, OVERWEIGHT OR PREDISPOSED. JUST BECAUSE IT DOESN’T FEEL LIKE WHAT YOU MAY EXPECT, DOESN’T MEAN YOU SHOULDN’T TAKE IT VERY SERIOUSLY. **
——————-
**When I previously posted this, the common question was how I knew it wasn’t anxiety**. I didn’t. I’ve had several pretty overwhelming panic attacks, in fact one that took me to the ER because I thought it was a heart attack ironically. *This was different*. **Something was very clearly happening, my mistake was attributing it to the wrong thing and mistakenly thinking I was clear because it didn’t ‘look like’ a heart attack.**
Mayo Clinic Reading on Symptoms of a Heart Attack https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/heart-attack/symptoms-causes/syc-20373106
Potassium too. My wife went into cardiac arrest and had to be defibrillated because her Potassium had gotten dangerously low. But that’s for another post.
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