What is different about a woman's heart attack?

Women often don't suffer the same dramatic symptoms as men when they have a heart attack. A friend just sent me a nurse's description of a female heart attack and it's right on! I wrote a book about heart disease and heart surgery for a surgeon and heard all about this...over and over and over again.

 

A Nurse's Best Description of a Female's Heart Attack

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! FEMALE HEART ATTACKS I was aware that female heart attacks are different, but this is the best description I've ever read. 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 that 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 firsthand. 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. 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) who you care about!*

Secrets of the Apple Tree Tavern

    BOOK ALERT for those who love a great story:

            Secrets of the Apple Tree Tavern

                             a novel by

                                       Mary Ellen Gavin

                If you want a book that will keep you up until four in the morning because you can’t put it down, this is it. Mary Ellen Gavin has wound the culture and customs of Irish Americans into one cliffhanger after another.

                How can you not care about Francis Fleming, an adorable, plucky, red haired, child?  When he is rescued by a warm hearted, resourceful, Irish cop who doesn’t mind bending the rules avoid dragging the boy to a draconian orphanage, cheers are in order. And that is only the beginning.

  Next, buckle up for the ride. Frank takes off on his journey to adulthood with the help of Mae, a member of the tribe who takes him under her wing and poses as his aunt. She happens to own the Apple Tree Tavern. It’s New York and the bar is a refuge for one and all as they march through the aftermath of the Great Depression only to plunge into the War to End All Wars.

                There are so many more events to share – but the risk of being a spoiler is too great. Discovery is all.

                Mary Ellen infuses each of her characters with a personality that jumps off the page. There are no cardboard figures on her horizon. She gets up close and personal with each and every one of them. It’s a slice of life with no blinking allowed. If there is a chance there will be bleeding, she lets them bleed.

              Yes! People die in and around the Apple Tree Tavern and it isn’t pretty. It’s life! The good, the bad and the ugly are laid bare. At the same time, there is so much loving and caring involved, the reader isn’t given the opportunity to turn away. When I got to the last page, I still wanted more.

                Gavin took ten years to research and write this volume. We can only hope she is secretly working on a sequel and is close to finished.

Thank you, John Kerry! Saving Afganistan!

For once there is news that isn't depressing and renews faith in our leaders. It was such a relief to read this headline and story from the New York Times:

Afghanistan to Audit Every Vote Cast, Kerry Says

Afghanistan will conduct an audit of the entire eight million votes cast in a runoff vote for the recent presidential election, Secretary of State John Kerry announced on Saturday, a deal he brokered to resolve a tense power struggle between the top two presidential candidates over widespread vote fraud.

The audit will be the largest and most comprehensive possible, Mr. Kerry said at a news conference in Kabul. “Every single ballot that was cast will be audited,” he said. “All eight million of them.” John Kerry -- if anyone can let you know that someone out there cares -- I wish I could thank you personally for your leadership. Had you only won the presidential race here how different this country might be.  Counting the votes is such a sensible solution! Clean, simple, certainly nowhere near as expensive or devastating as a civil war! Anywhere in the world where people can be talked into putting down the guns and being reasonable it is certainly a good thing. Life is so short and so much of what goes on is tragically unnecessary. Good grief! We are all going to die anyway.