Feedback from those who've had one, please.

Last evening, I started feeling pain in my left shoulder. As if I'd slept on it badly. During the night it was very uncomfortable, waking me several times and I had to toss and turn to find a sleep position that didn't make me curse out loud. I also felt the onset of muscle cramps in my feet. Fortunately, every time they started, I was able to move enough to ward them off.

This morning, I checked WebMD for my symptoms. The top hit was "heart attack." Some of the facts I read surprised me:

• About one-quarter of people who have a heart attack have no chest pain or other symptoms.
  
• About 50% of men who die suddenly of a heart attack have no previous symptoms.
  
• Heart disease kills more than one in every four American men.

It's not yet 6:00am, so I'm undecided about heading to the emergency room, or waiting a couple of hours to call my physician.

Don't be an idiot and ask your invisible internet friends what to do.

Go to the ER or better yet, call 911 and let them take you. You should have been there hours ago.

If you are having a heart attack, the longer you wait, the more damage could be done to your heart.

Check back in after you've been evaluated.

The good news is, that if you call 911 or roll yourself into the ER and say "chest pain", you should be seen and evaluated immediately.

Godspeed.

-Rob

Get your butt to the ER.

^^^^^ What they said.

Go. Now! Right Now!

Call an ambulance or have a friend drive you, but leave NOW.

H&K-Guy

I'd bet two shiny dimes your physician punts the issue. If he asks about strenuous activities (pulled muscle, dislocated rib) and new, very tight shoes (early Christmas present), and gets a "Yes" to both, he may suggest you come in for a checkup and EKG. But more likely, he'll urge immediate care. "To be on the safe side".

An ECG can show evidence of a previous heart attack or one that's in progress. The patterns on the ECG may indicate which part of your heart has been damaged, as well as the extent of the damage. Inadequate blood and oxygen supply to the heart.
https://www.mayoclinic.org/tes...g/about/pac-20384983

Time is muscle....

Most people know they are having an attack, and purposely choose to ignore, or deny it.

Often, it is muscular, or reflux, but better to find out as soon as possible.

Heart muscle needs oxygen, and dies rapidly without it.

Get in.

Time is muscle.

Time to go.

Time is muscle.

"Heart attack?" Go on SIGforum and post? Damn, what is wrong with you, my friend?

Get to the cardiologist ASAP! I’m wearing an external life vest (external defibrillator).
The cardio doc had an EKG and echocardiogram, only then was it revealed I have a weak heart.
I have no symptoms, outward appearance shows I’m in excellent health. The cardio machines caught what the docs could not see or hear.

I have SCD. Link.

https://my.clevelandclinic.org...udden-cardiac-arrest

Go to the ER immediately. I ignored similar symptoms and passed it off as too much hard work that day. The next night I coded in the ambulance still parked in front of the house. Go to the ER now!

-Jeff

Go to the ER. Even if the “event” is over, there will be hormones and enzymes that were released that will still be in your blood. They can track that and pretty well tell what went on.

Take care of yourself. Keep us posted after the fact.

Hopefully you are at the ER by now.

Do what everybody said, call 911 or get yourself to ER.

But take an aspirin RIGHT NOW.

When I was at the ER to rule out a heart attack (it turned out to be costochondritis), one of the first things they did, while they were doing EKG, was give me an orange-flavored aspirin and told me to chew it. I asked why I could not just swallow it, they said that chewing it made it absorb into the bloodstream faster.

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:
But take an aspirin RIGHT NOW.

This is horrible advice and why you need to be in an ER, not online, when you have something like this occur.

If the man is having a stroke or other event needing a blood thinner they'll give it to him. It's also possible he's having another event that may require vascular intervention, and a blood thinner will increase the odds of him bleeding to death. Of course they can correct for that with other drugs, but let's start with an MD and an actual diagnosis.

OP - let us know how you turn out!

quote:

Originally posted by Scott in NCal:
Time is muscle.

Great point. Unless it actually IS a stroke and then the saying is "time is brain." Both are non-good events to quote one of my docs.

I agree with the others to get it checked out asap. Unfortunately, men -all of us, like to think it won't happen to us and we like to deny what can happen to us. With any kind of cardiac event, men usually show the typical signs of the issue - chest pain: heaviness or sharp pain or etc., radiating or pain to left shoulder,nausea,shortness of breath without exertion or more with exertion,etc., while women can be atypical. It is always good to call 911 when this happens,NEVER wait to go to your doctor or call your doctor first. They are limited, usually, to what they can do in their office. Time = Muscle. Aspirin, in a cardiac event, is the first thing to be given. It prevents the formation of Thromboxane A2 which is created in the body due to a blockage,in cardiac setting, but makes the blockage much worse. Aspirin prevents this. There are better medications the hospital can give but for a front line over the counter, it works well.

One thing I had always wondered about being a stroker, my left side arm and hand are almost completely numb and I wondered if I ever had a heart attack I would feel the pain radiating down my already numb left side.

When the slight tightness started in my chest the pain that radiated down my left numb arm was unmistakable and the chest pain gets pretty brutal too. I was sitting in a chair in the dark at around 3:30am just hoping these symptoms would subside and go away. I really wasn't ready to call out to the wife and crank up the drama.

There's no mistaken about the tightness and pain..call out to the wife and make the 911. Never having a heart attack before the paramedics arrived and gave me something thru the confusion helped relieve some of the pain and off to transport.

If I were to make an analogy it was so routine at the hospital, I likened it to getting an oil change at one of those Jiffy Lube places. They're so professional, into the cath lab, x-rays, insert catheter, valve job and stent and out you go. A day or two and some meds and schedule a followup with cardiologist and back home again.

Though mine was just minor, a valve job and stent, they were unbelievably quick and professional.

In my case, although I tried to push through the pain hoping it was some minor discomfort of sorts, when the pain got intense and down the arm it was unmistakable...make the call!

Thanks, everyone. I did as you suggested and went to the ER.

They took blood, x-rays, a CAT scan and a urine sample.

Turns out the issue is

• Acute bilateral pain, unspecified back location
• Paresthesia of arm
• SOB (Shortness of Breath
• Pain of left calf
• Elevated blood pressure reading
• Cervical spondylosis
• Osteoarthritis of spine with radiculopathy, unspecified spinal region

The good news is that my heart is strong, I have no blood clots, my blood doesn't show any toxins, and I'm actually in pretty good shape.

Except that I still feel like my body has the flu.

I was given two prescriptions. One, for something I was told after taking, "Don't work, don't drive, don't drink alcohol." Uh, so *everything* gets anesthetized? No, thanks. The other is for Lidocaine patches, which I may apply.

So, I feel kind of sheepish for perhaps overreacting. But, I live alone, and my choices were to go to the ER, or try to ride it out. I think I did the right thing. And you guys were right, even if the initial "diagnosis" wasn't!