Queersetti
Bastardo Suave
- Joined
- Apr 10, 2003
- Posts
- 37,288
October 3, 2009
It started out as a normal day. I got up around 6am, made coffee and read the newspaper. My niece Donata was staying with me while she went to college, and she got up a bit later. I was feeling a little worn down, and felt I was getting a toothache on the left side of my lower jaw.
Donata was making breakfast and we discussed a magazine article I had read the night before. She was interested in it, so I went back upstairs to my room to retrieve the magazine. While I climbed the stairs, I began to feel winded, and when I reached the top I could not catch my breath at all. I started to turn to go back down, and I blacked out.
The next thing I knew I was lying, halfway down the steps, with Donata pounding on my chest. I sat up. I felt a little woozy and had banged my hip a bit, but was not in any pain. But Donata had called 911 and when the paramedics arrived, I agreed to be taken to Maine Medical Center.
When I arrived at the emergency room, they immediately ran me through a battery of tests. They could not find anything wrong. But suddenly, as I was waiting for another test, I began to experience a feeling something like a Charlie horse, except that it seemed to be in every part of my body at once. I broke out in a cold sweat and felt nauseous. As I was attached to an array of monitors the nurses knew what was going on immediately and began to scramble.
Everything went black.
I awoke, staring at the ceiling. It took me a minute to be able to focus on what was going on around me. The first thing that bought me back to my senses was hearing someone speaking Italian, which seemed awfully odd in that context. Of course, it was Donata ( she is from Genoa), who, in her panic, forgot all her Eng lish.
My heart had stopped, but they had defibrillated me in under a minute. I was stabilized, and then taken to the catheter lab, where they found an 80% blockage in one of the arteries of my heart. They inserted a stent. There was another blockage, 60%, which they stented two days later.
I was on my feet and out of the hospital in 4 days. I took a cardio rehab course, and i have been doing fine ever since.
I decided to post this, not for any sympathy, as I am fine, but because, since this experience, I feel an obligation to spread some knowledge.
I was incredibly lucky. The incident at home was something just short of cardiac arrest. If I had gone into full arrest then, I would not have survived, despite my dear Donata's heroic efforts. If the second incident had occurred anywhere other than in the hospital, I would have died within minutes.
I live a fairly healthy lifestyle. I live in one of the most walkable cities in the country, and I take full advantage of that. I eat, primarily, a Mediterranean diet, generally considered very heart healthy.
On the day this happened, my blood pressure, my heart rate and my cholesterol were all well within the normal range.
And I was feeling pretty good. A bit tired, but otherwise fine. I did not recognize that the pain I felt in my jaw was not a toothache, but an indicator of cardiac malfunction.
You probably think you would recognize the symptoms of an imminent heart attack. You are probably wrong. Many people never feel any chest pain. Most women do not. The most common symptom in women is back pain.
If you have any recurring pain or discomfort in your chest, your upper abdomen, your neck, your back, please, I urge you not to ignore it. Be especially aware of pain that "crescendoes". Believe me, you would rather seek help and find that you don't have a problem than shrug off something that might kill you.
Not everyone is as lucky as I am.
It started out as a normal day. I got up around 6am, made coffee and read the newspaper. My niece Donata was staying with me while she went to college, and she got up a bit later. I was feeling a little worn down, and felt I was getting a toothache on the left side of my lower jaw.
Donata was making breakfast and we discussed a magazine article I had read the night before. She was interested in it, so I went back upstairs to my room to retrieve the magazine. While I climbed the stairs, I began to feel winded, and when I reached the top I could not catch my breath at all. I started to turn to go back down, and I blacked out.
The next thing I knew I was lying, halfway down the steps, with Donata pounding on my chest. I sat up. I felt a little woozy and had banged my hip a bit, but was not in any pain. But Donata had called 911 and when the paramedics arrived, I agreed to be taken to Maine Medical Center.
When I arrived at the emergency room, they immediately ran me through a battery of tests. They could not find anything wrong. But suddenly, as I was waiting for another test, I began to experience a feeling something like a Charlie horse, except that it seemed to be in every part of my body at once. I broke out in a cold sweat and felt nauseous. As I was attached to an array of monitors the nurses knew what was going on immediately and began to scramble.
Everything went black.
I awoke, staring at the ceiling. It took me a minute to be able to focus on what was going on around me. The first thing that bought me back to my senses was hearing someone speaking Italian, which seemed awfully odd in that context. Of course, it was Donata ( she is from Genoa), who, in her panic, forgot all her Eng lish.
My heart had stopped, but they had defibrillated me in under a minute. I was stabilized, and then taken to the catheter lab, where they found an 80% blockage in one of the arteries of my heart. They inserted a stent. There was another blockage, 60%, which they stented two days later.
I was on my feet and out of the hospital in 4 days. I took a cardio rehab course, and i have been doing fine ever since.
I decided to post this, not for any sympathy, as I am fine, but because, since this experience, I feel an obligation to spread some knowledge.
I was incredibly lucky. The incident at home was something just short of cardiac arrest. If I had gone into full arrest then, I would not have survived, despite my dear Donata's heroic efforts. If the second incident had occurred anywhere other than in the hospital, I would have died within minutes.
I live a fairly healthy lifestyle. I live in one of the most walkable cities in the country, and I take full advantage of that. I eat, primarily, a Mediterranean diet, generally considered very heart healthy.
On the day this happened, my blood pressure, my heart rate and my cholesterol were all well within the normal range.
And I was feeling pretty good. A bit tired, but otherwise fine. I did not recognize that the pain I felt in my jaw was not a toothache, but an indicator of cardiac malfunction.
You probably think you would recognize the symptoms of an imminent heart attack. You are probably wrong. Many people never feel any chest pain. Most women do not. The most common symptom in women is back pain.
If you have any recurring pain or discomfort in your chest, your upper abdomen, your neck, your back, please, I urge you not to ignore it. Be especially aware of pain that "crescendoes". Believe me, you would rather seek help and find that you don't have a problem than shrug off something that might kill you.
Not everyone is as lucky as I am.
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