I either had a heart attack or pulled a pec

Unfortunately, the doctor wasn’t very sure.

Saturday night, returning from dinner out at the beach in South Haven (45 minutes from Kalamazoo), I started having chest pains in the car. Every time my heart beat, it hurt. My girlfriend, who has had to drive her mother to the hospital three times for heart attacks, asked me if I was all right. I told her what was going on, and she got me to the hospital. During the drive (only about 30 minutes with the way she was driving) my throat and jaw began to go numb on the left side. She was wondering how she managed to go 95 MPH without getting pulled over in a 55 MPH area. We wanted to get pulled over; our cell phones didn’t work in the area we were in.

When we got into decent cellphone range, I called the Target store we both work at, since she was supposed to go in at 10. The manager had the audacity to ask me how late Wendy was going to be. Here I am, possibly having a heart attack, and being asked if she’s going to be late to work.

We got to the hospital at 9:45. My BP was at 174/92. My EKG was decent, so my heart was working just fine by then. I was relieved to have a hallway bed, since I figured that they would put a dying person in a room so everyone couldn’t see. A few hours later, my BP was still at the same level. The doctor did release me early Sunday morning, and said I probably didn’t have a heart attack. I have to go see a cardiologist, and I’m not looking forward to that.

I’m still sore. The left side of my chest is very sore right now.

I’m only 22! And I’m athletic! I run, I play tennis, I play lacrosse, I bike, I lift weights, so why would this happen to me? Of course, my grandfather was only 41 when he died of a heart attack, so age doesn’t really matter.

What a horrible call Wendy had to make to my parents, especially on the eve of Father’s Day. I feel terrible for putting all of them through this.

Wendy’s at work right now, and getting the cold shoulder from all of the managers. FTR, she’s the highest ranking hourly worker in the store, and can perform all of the duties of a salaried manager. In effect, her peers are ignoring her because she missed an overnight ad set shift (that’s when we put up the sale signs for Sunday morning). I understand that it was inconvenient, but Jesus, one of their employees was in the freaking hospital.

Thanks for reading, and sorry this was so long.

Fuckers. I hope you’re feeling better. My husband thought he was having a heart attack one time…turned out he took too much speed. But it was too scary.

Your girlfriend works with some real jerkoffs.

Correction: we both work with some real jerkoffs. I work there too. (And I No Call/No Showed Sunday. Ya know, I was at the hospital till just a couple hours before my shift, can’t see any reason to not go to work.)

I had something similar a while back. Initially diagnosed as pericarditis, then the infinitely more disappointingly generic “chest wall pain.” A week on anti-inflammatories and all was well.

If they are giving you a choice I’d pick the pulled pec.

Thanks for the laugh, Loach. I needed that. :smiley:

Glad you are feeling better…but I can imagine how terrifying that must have been. I had an anxiety attack like you were describing back when I was about 22 years old and living in Germany. The doctors checked me out and told me it was a fairly common problem with young men at that age. They told me this was one of the major illnesses in WWII among German soldiers - I believe the name was Kriegsangst (War Fear) and it was a real, physiological problem that needed to be treated. At that time, I didn’t have any particular reason for stress or anxiety, and they told me it really didn’t need to be caused by any particular event. At any rate, I got some sedatives and a few days rest and it never happened again.

Slightly off-subject, my SO works for Target (night shift) and they are nowhere near the assholes you are describing at your store. Might be more of your local store management problem.

What’s your BP normally? It seems to me that it would be unusual for an athletic 22 year-old to have a BP of 174 over 92. Of course, if I thought I might be having a heart attack, my BP would probably jump to “Oh shit” over “holy crap!”

Hope you feel better and everything goes well with the cardiologist.

You’re not left-handed, are you?

A couple months ago I was having chest pains, went to the cardio, and it was a strained muscle. My computer desk has a curve on the right, but left-handers get nothin’- you have to reach your hand aaaalllll the way back there.
Quite painful.

Building on what DMark said, did the doctor mention panic attack at all? Chest pains, numbness and elevated heart rate are all possible symptoms of a panic attack. I’ve only had a few, but I know that my chest hurt hours after every one of them, even though the other symptoms (like dizziness, shortness of breath-felt like my chest was in a vice- feeling like I was disconnecting from reality etc) were over. A lot of people get these things for the first time in their twenties, too.

Maybe I’m being overly optimistic, but it could be something that simple. If it is, avoiding the trigger- in my case it’s nearly always driving in bad weather- if you can determine what it is, goes far towards preventing them from reoccuring. In any case, feel better soon!

Well, I have an appointment with a cardiologist next week. I’ll definately ask about the possibility of panic attacks, especially since I have been diagnosed with GAD (heh. I had forgotten about that until y’all mentioned panic attacks). I’ve never had one that bad before if that’s what it was.

Re: My BP. It’s normally borderline high, like 139/78. It’s a hereditary thing, and also the reason I’m trying to be so damn athletic.

Re: Left handedness. I never thought of that, and I’m sorta left handed. I’m one of those weirdos who is left handed at things that require both hands (golf, hockey, baseball) but right handed at those that only require one (writing, tennis).

Thanks for the input, everyone.

So… did your appointment go okay?!

i hope your appointment went well.

i gotta say reading your op reminded me of sergei and ekatarina, the pair skaters. with a family history like yours, i would really hound the cardio. sometimes blockages can be stealth.

fingers and toes crossed for good results.