RE: [HEALTH] 5 Signs A Woman Is Having A Heart Attack
I think the tendency of a lot of women, including me, to not be a bother and take care of others first comes into play, and you can quickly lose the ability to advocate for yourself when you're having a heart attack.
I knew within seconds of the onset of symptoms that I was having a heart attack, but I went into denial and didn't seek immediate help for two reasons: First, I had my dog with me, and I was afraid she would get lose or bite someone, and second, I felt an urgent need for my bed and, frankly, my bathroom.
My first symptom was pain in my upper underarms, followed quickly by pain in the center of my chest, nausea, and a feeling that diarrhea was just ahead. I had just left a Nicaragua beach and was near a restaurant when symptoms hit, but instead of seeking help there, I headed toward my home several blocks away.
It was a holiday morning, and no one was about once I left the beach area. I walked and rested, walked and rested, trying to get home before I began vomiting ... or worse. None of my neighbors were outside to help, so I walked up the pathway to my house. Once my dog was safely inside the fence, I asked for help from my husband and sought my bathroom--but I didn't immediately say I thought I was having a heart attack.
The help I received wasn't adequate; a medical student (and neighbor) told me if I were having a heart attack I'd be dead, and even though I knew she was wrong, I went along with the fantasy that I wasn't having a heart attack. Our house was 75 yards up a walkway from the street, with 34 steps at the end. I knew I couldn't get back down those steps on my own. If I were having a heart attack, that meant some other people would have to get my overweight body down those steps or across a field, while I would likely be vomiting--so it was better to go along with the med student's diagnosis of heartburn. Not being a bother could have killed me.
That is really scary, @steemerpat! Thank goodness you're still around. I guess that was part of the point in the post - most women will find excuses for not seeking immediate help. We're generally the ones fixing the boo-boos or saying, "No, I don't have time to be sick."
My heart flutters don't happen very often but when they do, I attribute them to stress...or something. To this day I've never had it checked out because in my entire family history, no one's ever had a heart attack or any kind of heart disease. It's usually cancer. There was one brain aneurysm and only one relative (that I know of) who lived to be about 86 (old age & dementia). So, in my head I'm thinking... No way would I ever have a heart attack. Kind of silly, right?
And chances are that I would have done the same thing "not being a bother", especially if I was out with my pups because they're my fur babies and I would want to know they're safe and secure too. And that medical student... hopefully she got a lesson out of your experience...or joined a new field of study!
Yes, I wanted to illustrate the crazy thought process that can endanger women. It's good you're going to get checked for blockages--but possibly also for mitral valve prolapse? It's a mostly benign anomaly that a small percentage of people are born with, and it popped into my head when you mentioned a flutter. See info here and on other sites.
I discovered that I had MVP in my mid-thirties; I was overscheduled and stressed, and that's when I began having pain and other symptoms. I have the heart murmer that sometimes accompanies MVP; the doctor who diagnosed me (after imaging) could hear the murmer, but I've found since then that most doctors can't hear it.
The protocol for awhile in the U.S. was that anyone with MVP should take antibiotics before dental procedures, but after a while that requirement was dropped. By then I had been dosed with lots and lots of antibiotics.