Working too hard can give you a Heart Attack Ack Ack Ack Ack Ack... My Heart Attack Story.

[Wizard509]

@BDWoody Best wishes.

 

[Martin]

Good post and glad you are still with us.

I had a similar experience about 10 years ago. I was sitting down one peaceful Saturday afternoon and suddenly got dizzy. My heart was racing and I was clammy. My wife immediately called 911 and the paramedics arrived within minutes. hooked me up to an EKG and immediately whisked me off to a local hospital. Upon arrival in the emergency room I was swarmed by medical staff who quickly determined it was not a heart attack but tachycardia.

They gave me medication to slow my heart and checked me in for observation. Over the next three days they ran numerous tests as I suffered several other bouts of tachycardia and brief periods of arrhythmia. The cardiac nurses were usually in the room before I even felt any affects.

Turns on the events were brought on by poorly controlled hypertension. I've been on metoprolol (Lopressor) ever since. I have recently begun a real attempt to lose weight - down 40lbs in 6 months - and have had the metoprolol dosage adjusted down. Working hard to lose the next 85lbs to get to my goal weight.

Good luck.

Martin

 

[Rick Sykora]

Pleased you are still with us!

Best wishes,

Rick

 

[sweetchaos]

Who else is going to keep these cats in a herd?

Glad to see you’re OK.

Best, Sweetchaos

 

[BDWoody]

Turns on the events were brought on by poorly controlled hypertension. I've been on metoprolol (Lopressor) ever since. I have recently begun a real attempt to lose weight - down 40lbs in 6 months - and have had the metoprolol dosage adjusted down. Working hard to lose the next 85lbs to get to my goal weight.

Good luck.

Definitely scary stuff, and glad you are making the effort to get to where your heart will be much happier.

Good luck to you as well, and let's both work hard at whatever changes need to be made!

 

[AudioJester]

@BDWoody Thanks for sharing your story. You have undoubtably helped others!

 

[tomtoo]

Hey @BDWoody have a good rekonvalesens. I mean take care. And remember cat herding can be dangerous to your health!

 

[BDWoody]

Hey @BDWoody have a good rekonvalesens. I mean take care. And remember cat herding can be dangerous to your health!

It can also be an awesome stress reducer.

 

[DonH56]

Wow, glad you are OK, @BDWoody ! Heart attacks can be hard to detect and like you I'd likely blow off the symptoms. Thanks for the reminder!

My long-ago EMT and less long-ago Red Cross training comes to mind. Cardiac arrest, a more severe condition than a heart attack but likely if you ignore a heart attack and carry on, is 90% fatal. 90%. That statistic always jolts me!

From the American Heart Association:

More than 350,000 Americans suffer out-of-hospital cardiac arrests each year.
And, it usually occurs at home – meaning it’s often someone you love who needs help.
Without immediate CPR, about 90% of victims will not survive.

Again, this is for full-blown cardiac arrest and not "just" a heart attack. But...

There's a new CPR method, quick to learn and apply, that we should all know: https://cpr.heart.org/en/cpr-course...oninact&source=ddr_e09a_apr24_eng3_2xconinact Just a few minutes to watch some videos, and a little more time if you want to download the material and dig deeper. Even better would be to sign up for a local CPR/AED class and spend a few hours to save a life.

 

[BDWoody]

Wow, glad you are OK, @BDWoody ! Heart attacks can be hard to detect and like you I'd likely blow off the symptoms. Thanks for the reminder!

My long-ago EMT and less long-ago Red Cross training comes to mind. Cardiac arrest, a more severe condition than a heart attack but likely if you ignore a heart attack and carry on, is 90% fatal. 90%. That statistic always jolts me!

Thanks Don. Yeah, the odds of surviving an out of hospital cardiac arrest are not very good are they. Based on this article, less than 1 in 12 survive 30 days.

New data reveals decrease in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest survival rates in England

Recent findings from the Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest Outcomes Registry, funded by Resuscitation Council UK and British Heart Foundation, reveal a decrease in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest survival rates in England.

www.resus.org.uk

Really emphasizes how important it is to act early.

There's a new CPR method, quick to learn and apply, that we should all know: https://cpr.heart.org/en/cpr-course...oninact&source=ddr_e09a_apr24_eng3_2xconinact Just a few minutes to watch some videos, and a little more time if you want to download the material and dig deeper. Even better would be to sign up for a local CPR/AED class and spend a few hours to save a life.

Great addition. Thanks for adding that. I'll be spending a little time going through it all.

 

[Vacceo]

You have to take good care of yourself for several reasons:

-Surviving is the best vengeance against those who loathe you and the best gift to those who love you.

-Who will give this mad circus a bit order? Adam and Amir need a hand and we love to have you here!

Just like you mention, elephants have bigger balls and that does not make them more manly. Stay well!

 

[AdamG]

Adam and Amir need a hand and we love to have you here!

Exactly. More so the latter.

 

[Ken Tajalli]

Thanks Dennis, and yes, the bills will all go directly to @amirm .

Don't!
You wanna give him a heart attack?
Don't he get enough stick already?

 

[Zgrado1970]

Thanks for sharing. I am approaching the one year anniversary of my grabber. I am close to your age, and have a bad family history, so not totally unexpected. When I experienced the classic symptoms, I went to the ER right away. I had had a small MI, so I got admitted and scheduled for angio the next day. Shortly after getting prepped for the angio, I had a STEMI (look it up - no fun), and it was fortunate that I was in the hospital.

A year later I am down about 45 pounds, have cut out the booze, the red meat, dairy and sugar, and feel way better than I did before the heart attack's. A special shout out to my AirPods Pro, Koss PortaPros, and Ety ER4s for accompanying me on long walks and on the treadmill.

 

[ErVikingo]

Godspeed Sir. Wise words. Thanks for sharing your lessons learned.

57, heavier than you but 100% per coronary scan 2 weeks ago.

 

[Count Arthur]

Glad to hear you're OK and hope you make a speedy recovery.

 

[BDWoody]

STEMI (look it up - no fun),

No need to look it up unfortunately. I've been seeing it on all my charts as that's what I was having. Once that was pretty much confirmed by the hospital as the most likely diagnosis from what was sent while I was in the ambulance, they put the first of a few nitrous tablets under my tongue, turned on the siren and put the hammer down. It got pretty exciting. Nobody was putzing around I can tell you that.

I'm glad you made it through!! Congratulations on the improvements in self-care, and keep it up! Very encouraging to hear others who have come through stronger and healthier.

Thank you for sharing your story, as someone who was there before me.

 

[Doodski]

It can be working too hard, it can be doing too little, it could be extremely bad luck or it could be a direct result of your life choices, but having a Heart Attack is one of those scary things that we've all seen in movies, and have all heard the handful of common symptoms for, but most will never experience. Well...lucky me...I got to go through this last week on Thursday when in the middle of what was quite the work call (my real work, not what I do here) I started to feel what was a mild pressure in my chest. Nothing crazy, nothing like what you see in the movies. I wasn't clutching my chest, I wasn't struggling to breathe, it just felt a little tight, like I had just run an extra wind sprint and expected it to just fade away. No big deal...

Well, a few minutes later it still wasn't feeling any better. Nothing extreme, and through the entire course of events, I never had what I would consider extreme pain anywhere. So, at this point I do a bunch of useless stuff, like pulling out my little portable Kardia Mobile EKG, my blood pressure cuff and my pulse oximeter, none of which showed me anything unusual. Another 5-10 minutes go by and nothing is getting better, so I go online and start looking up symptoms of a heart attack, because obviously who needs a cardiologist at a time like this, I'm perfectly capable of determining whether I am going to die in a few hours without treatment, right? hmmmm....

Another 10-15 minutes go by and I'm starting to imagine my left arm/shoulder is feeling...something. Well, of course I must be imagining that, since that's just one of the symptoms on every list you read, so it's likely just psychosomatic...just ignore that for a bit and see if it gets better. Wait, now I'm starting to feel a bit clammy and sweaty, and quite suddenly the words that came to my mind were

"Play Stupid Games, Win Stupid Prizes."

I was similar with the broken arm last September ~15th. It was nearly 4.5 hours before I got out of bed, dressed and then called the non-emergency line and politely requested a ambulance.

Paramedics got there within about 6 minutes where they got me loaded up and off we went. Hooked me up to an IV and a 12 lead EKG, which is where they were able to see indications of a heart attack. Got me to one of the better cardiac units in the State which was only another 7 minutes down the road where I was met by a full team who descended on me like a hive of bees, got me switched to their gurney and started sprinting me down the hall towards the Cath Lab. It was a pretty intense time, with a lot happening. A catheter was fed through the radial artery of my right wrist (yes, that hurts) and they had other stuff going into IVs on the other arm, and to make a long story short, found a 100% blockage of the Right Coronary Artery. That was then cleared and a stent was placed, and the part of my heart that had been starved of Oxygen was back online. Whew!

With this amount of personal attention I went into a WoWoWoW mindset and I was blown away with the response of so many professionals. When I was being sedated and orders where coming down the chain and back up the chain and down and chain etc I was intimidated in a major way and was making mental notes to distract my mind.

You are very fortunate to have dependable people around you! So fortunate indeed... I hope all this works out for the best for you and yours. Will you be staffing here @ ASR as per usual until the dates of surgery are on the near agenda?

 

[BDWoody]

I was similar with the broken arm last September ~15th. It was nearly 4.5 hours before I got out of bed, dressed and then called the non-emergency line and politely requested a ambulance.

That's so predictable and funny. When I did decide to call, I asked that they not use sirens and lights because I didn't want to disturb the neighborhood...

You are very fortunate to have dependable people around you! So fortunate indeed... I hope all this works out for the best for you and yours.

You couldn't be more spot on. It would be a very difficult thing to go through alone. There is nothing on this earth I would trade for the love of my family and friends. The rest is just details.

Will you be staffing here @ ASR as per usual until the dates of surgery are on the near agenda?

Of course! Can't let Adam have all the fun, even if he does handle everything so capably day in day out.

 

[MacClintock]

Good recovery! I hope there will be no excessive bill after all the surgery.
I don´t want to contaminate the thread, but I passed a similiar situtation. Felt strange, went to the hospital at midnight (just 3 minutes by car), got some CT and woke up 3 days later after emergency surgery of an aortic dissection. That was 25 years ago and after two more surgeries I am still alive and kicking. Hail to a good medical system.