wcr
Well-Known Member
Wednesday evening after work Terry and I were putting up a swimming pool and I felt a pain in my chest. It stopped me dead it was so sharp but was quickly gone so I went about my business. We ate dinner late and I was sitting on the couch and said I don't feel so good and am going to bed. This was at 9 pm. I tried to read but started having pain in my throat (not really my jaw or neck but in my throat). My chest was hurting from about my nipple line up (that's nipple line where they should be , not where they are now) and my back hurt. The points of my shoulders ached and my left elbow ached.
I am a nurse with 30 years experience, 18 of which as an ER nurse. I have taken care of many heart attacks, many successful and many not. I am lying in bed going through the check list in my head. Ok, I have pain in my chest. Does it feel like an elephant sitting on my chest? No. Is it heavy pressure? No. What does it feel like. It aches, almost a spasm type pain but constant and it has a tingling feeling to it. Tingling? Never heard that before but it does feel kinda tingly. Does it radiate to my back, yes. Does it radiate down my left arm? That's an interesting question because both my shoulders ache and hurt (they have always talked about left arm pain). Yeah, there is pain in my left arm but radiating? To me radiating would mean the whole arm but instead I feel it more in my elbow and a twinge in my wrist. More the joints than my whole arm. Am I diaphorectic ( to the lay person this means are you sweating like a pig), no. Are you short of breath, no.
Denial is a wonderful place to live but I knew something was going on but really questioned it even with my training and experience. I couldn't get comfortable in bed, it wouldn't go away. Terry came in at 10:30 and I said I needed to go to the ER. Poor man, he was dead tired and only wanted to sleep. At this point I threw up twice and got dizzy. He said I am calling 911.
THIS IS IMPORTANT!!!!! I would have died if he had taken me to the hospital in our car! It is about 45 minutes to the hospital from our house. The paramedics are 2 miles from us. They got there very quickly but I was falling apart rapidly between calling them and their arrival. My heart rate went into the 20's (normal 60-100) My blood pressure when they could get it was 40/20. Without them getting there when they did I would have died. They started working on me and called the other ambulance so I had a 2 paramedic team transporting me to the hospital, lights and siren.
If I had gone in our car I would have died on the way. What would Terry have done? he can't do cpr and drive at the same time. Does he keep driving and end up at the ER with a dead body? He was already freaked out but think of the anguish of being in the situation to have to make that decision. And what if he wasn't here and I tried to drive myself. I would go unresponsive and have an accident, hopefully not killing anyone when I did. That is why they always say call 911.
By this time Iwas hurting pretty bad but they couldn't give me pain meds because of my blood pressure so they started me on a dopamine drip, a fluid bolus until it came up enough to have pain meds. They are doing 12 lead ekgs in the field so they transport straight to the hospital that has a cath lab because time is muscle as they say. Meaning the quicker they can open the artery and return the blood flow to the part of the heart that wasn't getting oxygen because of the blockage, the less damage done to the heart muscle.
They radioed the hospital and the cath lab team was waiting by the time I got there and got me right into the lab and put a stent into my heart(a mesh kind of like the chinese handcuffs we played with as kids) From the time I started having pain until they opened up the artery was about 2 1/2- 3 hours. I am very lucky because my heart is injured and will take time to heal but the permanent damage will be minimal for the long term effects.
The tough part will be the life style changes. I am day 4 without cigarettes but doing ok since I have really good incentive to quit. I am trying to be positve about the dietary changes but can't help thinking of it as eating bark and twigs. Good fiber, low sodium, low fat, low sugar, I'm overweight and need to lose weight. Boy, that just took all the fun out of life. This week I turn 56, no cake and ice cream for me, pass the jello please.
I am alive. Those 3 words are inconsequential until you are put into the position to say them and mean them with every damaged fiber of your heart. I am a trained professional but things could have gone much differently because when it happened to me I thought as a person and not really as a professional. Denial and downplaying the significance of warning signs is human nature.
This is long but I hope you will read it and remember it if you are ever in this situation. Men and women are not created equal and all the warning signs we hear about usually refer to men and you hear this vague thing about women not having the classic syptoms. It is better to be safe than sorry.
I am a nurse with 30 years experience, 18 of which as an ER nurse. I have taken care of many heart attacks, many successful and many not. I am lying in bed going through the check list in my head. Ok, I have pain in my chest. Does it feel like an elephant sitting on my chest? No. Is it heavy pressure? No. What does it feel like. It aches, almost a spasm type pain but constant and it has a tingling feeling to it. Tingling? Never heard that before but it does feel kinda tingly. Does it radiate to my back, yes. Does it radiate down my left arm? That's an interesting question because both my shoulders ache and hurt (they have always talked about left arm pain). Yeah, there is pain in my left arm but radiating? To me radiating would mean the whole arm but instead I feel it more in my elbow and a twinge in my wrist. More the joints than my whole arm. Am I diaphorectic ( to the lay person this means are you sweating like a pig), no. Are you short of breath, no.
Denial is a wonderful place to live but I knew something was going on but really questioned it even with my training and experience. I couldn't get comfortable in bed, it wouldn't go away. Terry came in at 10:30 and I said I needed to go to the ER. Poor man, he was dead tired and only wanted to sleep. At this point I threw up twice and got dizzy. He said I am calling 911.
THIS IS IMPORTANT!!!!! I would have died if he had taken me to the hospital in our car! It is about 45 minutes to the hospital from our house. The paramedics are 2 miles from us. They got there very quickly but I was falling apart rapidly between calling them and their arrival. My heart rate went into the 20's (normal 60-100) My blood pressure when they could get it was 40/20. Without them getting there when they did I would have died. They started working on me and called the other ambulance so I had a 2 paramedic team transporting me to the hospital, lights and siren.
If I had gone in our car I would have died on the way. What would Terry have done? he can't do cpr and drive at the same time. Does he keep driving and end up at the ER with a dead body? He was already freaked out but think of the anguish of being in the situation to have to make that decision. And what if he wasn't here and I tried to drive myself. I would go unresponsive and have an accident, hopefully not killing anyone when I did. That is why they always say call 911.
By this time Iwas hurting pretty bad but they couldn't give me pain meds because of my blood pressure so they started me on a dopamine drip, a fluid bolus until it came up enough to have pain meds. They are doing 12 lead ekgs in the field so they transport straight to the hospital that has a cath lab because time is muscle as they say. Meaning the quicker they can open the artery and return the blood flow to the part of the heart that wasn't getting oxygen because of the blockage, the less damage done to the heart muscle.
They radioed the hospital and the cath lab team was waiting by the time I got there and got me right into the lab and put a stent into my heart(a mesh kind of like the chinese handcuffs we played with as kids) From the time I started having pain until they opened up the artery was about 2 1/2- 3 hours. I am very lucky because my heart is injured and will take time to heal but the permanent damage will be minimal for the long term effects.
The tough part will be the life style changes. I am day 4 without cigarettes but doing ok since I have really good incentive to quit. I am trying to be positve about the dietary changes but can't help thinking of it as eating bark and twigs. Good fiber, low sodium, low fat, low sugar, I'm overweight and need to lose weight. Boy, that just took all the fun out of life. This week I turn 56, no cake and ice cream for me, pass the jello please.
I am alive. Those 3 words are inconsequential until you are put into the position to say them and mean them with every damaged fiber of your heart. I am a trained professional but things could have gone much differently because when it happened to me I thought as a person and not really as a professional. Denial and downplaying the significance of warning signs is human nature.
This is long but I hope you will read it and remember it if you are ever in this situation. Men and women are not created equal and all the warning signs we hear about usually refer to men and you hear this vague thing about women not having the classic syptoms. It is better to be safe than sorry.