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I am a 51 year old male, don’t smoke or drink, live an active work life, healthy and not a “typical” candidate for a heart attack. I decided that I would benefit from some regular exercise this year so chose to get back into recreational hockey. I had missed 2 years for family reasons. After playing for several short shifts I went to change and found myself extremely hot, sweating like I had never experienced before. I was so short of breath and exhausted that I could not change into street clothes. Half an hour later my son offered to get me a Coke, thinking perhaps I was on a sugar low. A small sip immediately brought on violent vomiting. This led to a beginning of chest pain which I assumed was just from the severe pressure of throwing up. I forced myself to change at this point and half crawled up the flight of stairs and out to my son’s car so he could take me home. I still thought I was just tired from playing too hard. By the time all the equipment was loaded I was beginning to get pain down my left arm. This is when I thought, “this might be a heart attack”. At this point I asked my son to drive me to the hospital which was thankfully only a few blocks away. Hunched over with pain, I slowly walked to the admitting desk. Seeing me white as a ghost, I was immediately guided into emergency and treatment was started. The Dr. ruled out an Angina attack when the nitrates had no effect on the chest pain. A clot buster drug was administered, causing the pain to subside almost immediately. I asked the doctor what was going on and she said as she looked me in the eye, “You are having a heart attack.” At this point, I wondered if I would make it, or die. For me the outcome looked like a win-win situation. If I survived that would be great for the sake of my family and for me, if I would die and go to heaven, I was ready for that as well. The care I received from doctors, nurses and staff was incredible and the love and prayer support from friends and family has been overwhelming. I plan to continue this story and provide more links to helpful resources as soon as my health and time allow. After my heart attack I decided to help others by sharing my experiences and research. Had I been aware of some of the common signals of a heart attack, I could have received help earlier, possibly decreasing the amount of damage to my heart.
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OTHER RANDOM INFORMATION If you are diagnosed with or experience a heart problem (hypertension, heart failure, or heart attack that reduced how well the heart pumps), it is extremely important that you treat it fully and properly. Check out my health supplements links for some help with that. Hypertension or high blood pressure, for instance, is often referred to as a "silent killer" it occurs when the pressure of the blood flowing through your arteries is too high. This increased pressure puts extra stress on vital organs such as the heart, the kidneys, and blood vessels. The increased pressure can lead to kidney failure, stroke, eye problems, heart attack, or heart failure if it is not treated. In heart failure, the heart pumps weakly and the body becomes starved for oxygen. In many cases, heart failure develops gradually over many years and may not be noticeable at first. But heart failure will progress, and if not treated, will continue to get worse and you will get sicker. Heart failure is a leading cause of cardiovascular mortality. A "coronary" or heart attack occurs when the blood flow to a part of the heart is blocked. This blockage often results from a clot because the arteries that supply the heart are affected by fat, cholesterol, and other substances called plaque. If the plaque breaks open and a blood clot forms, it can block the flow of blood to the heart. Without blood to nourish the muscle in the heart, it begins to die. The longer the artery remains blocked, the more damage is done until the muscle supplied by that artery is completely dead. Talk to your doctor if you have questions about your cardiovascular condition. |