I am an ER nurse and this is the best description of this event that I have ever heard.
FEMALE HEART ATTACKS
I was aware that female heart attacks are different, but this is description is so incredibly visceral that I feel like I have an entire new understanding of what it feels like to be living the symptoms on the inside. Women rarely have the same dramatic symptoms that men have… you know, the sudden stabbing pain in the chest, the cold sweat, grabbing the chest & dropping to the floor the we see in 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 stents.
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). 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 to tell the tale.“
Reblog, repost, Facebook, tweet, pin, email, morse code, fucking carrier pigeon this to save a life!
I wish I knew who the author was. I’m definitely not the OP, actually think it might be an old chain email or even letter from back in the day. The version I saw floating around Facebook ended with “my cardiologist says mail this to 10 friends, maybe you’ll save one!” And knew this was way too interesting not to pass on.
Female heart attacks are much different, and most people don’t know it!
This is so much more helpful than the fucking lists that basically describe everything that happens during a really nasty panic attack and then tell you to go seek help as if you don’t have an anxiety disorder that does this to you on a regular basis and can afford to go to the emergency room.
The fact that sherlock doesn’t say “because you *chose* her” but says “because you chose *her*”
The fact that when John says “oh God yes” it sounds like a goddamn porn movie
The fact that Sherlock always corrects everyone when they are wrong and he never corrected anyone who assumed that he and john were a couple
The fact that when John tells Irene “I am not gay” she responds “well I am. Look at us both” meaning if she is gay and she likes Sherlock then John, who isn’t gay, can also like Sherlock
The fact that John licks his lips when he asks Sherlock if he has a boyfriend
The fact that when Sherlock answers “no” John comments that he is also single
The fact the the most observant man on earth thought that John flirted with him
The fact that when Irene is naked John asks her to cover herself but when Sherlock is just wearing a sheet he leans closer and takes a better look
The fact that when Sherlock says “John doesn’t know where to look” Irene says she thinks he knows exactly where and John is not looking at Irene
The fact that when Irene says somebody loves you, the shot changes and we see John
The fact that even though it is Mary and John’s wedding we mostly see Sherlock through the entire episode and we hear stories about him and John
The fact that in the scene where they discover Mary is pregnant, that is supposed to be a happy moment between husband and wife, we only see Mary in three shots and the rest of the scene is John and Sherlock looking at each other
The fact that Sherlock leaves the wedding early
The fact that when Sherlock thought Irene had died the first time, John and Mycroft thought that Sherlock would go back to doing drugs and after John got married he found Sherlock using
The fact that Sherlock says “I meant to say *always* and I never did” and then he says that Sherlock is a girl’s name while he has *just* found out that the baby is a girl.
The fact that when John is living with Mary he has, once again, nightmares
The fact that Sherlock says that fire exposes our priorities and we see John running towards Sherlock after the explosion and Sherlock trying to save John from a fire
The fact than Sherlock tells John not to write about the unsolved cases but then he explains an unsolved one in front of everyone just to praise John
The fact that in Irene’s living room Sherlock deduces that John has a date tonight but we later see him at home saying he’ll be next door of sherlock needs him
The fact that Sherlock sees Mary in a wedding dress shooting him and Mark Gatiss said they did it in case somebody didn’t understand the first time that John marring Mary is killing him
The fact that when Moriarty says that John is in danger Sherlock’s heart restarts
The fact that Sherlock says you might need to restart my heart looking at John
The fact that john shaves for Sherlock
The fact that when Sherlock’s winking when he meets john for the first time is out of character until you realize that in Many Happy Returns Sherlock says that people seem to like it when he winks
The fact that the relationship that mrs Hudson describes between herself and her husband reflects the relationship between Mary and John
The fact that in front of the least sensual and sentimental kiss between Sherlock and Janine john has the most excessive reaction
The fact that in Sherlock’s speech when he says “you know, he is a romantic” he then turns towards John and winks
The fact that John doesn’t remember that his girlfriend has a dog but he remembers how many messages with “that sound” Sherlock has received and then Sherlock answers “thrilling you’ve been counting”
The fact that Sherlock tells Irene that sentiment is a chemical defect found in the losing side but he tells John “two people that love you most in this world” and on the same episode John says “the two people that I love and care about most in this world”
The fact that they both have to include Mary when they confess their love for each other
The fact that when they are both drunk John leans forward and touches Sherlock’s knee and then says “I don’t mind.”
The fact that Sherlock never begs for mercy but he begs for John’s life in Irene’s lining room
The fact that when Irene asks “are you jealous” John avoids answering directly and he simply states that they are not a couple. Therefor he shouldn’t be jealous.
The fact that Irene who has an interest in Sherlock she comments on his cheekbones and on the next episode John makes a comment on his cheekbones as well.
I made this list like forever ago and I found it yesterday and I thought “It doesn’t hurt to share”
Also the fact that irene clearly uses dinner as a sexual metaphor, which Sherlock repeatedly rejects…and when John asks “dinner?” Sherlock replies “starving”.
