Do you feel something that isn’t quite right, or does the heart attack just come out of the blue?
Need answer fast?:eek:
Having worked as a First Responder for 32+ years I’ve dealt with a slew of people having heart attacks. And there are different events for different people.
Many described a feeling of “impending doom”. Like they knew something wasn’t right but didn’t know what.
Others complained of the classic symptoms: horrible squeezing in the chest, radiating pain down the left arm, pain in the jaw, etc…
Women sometimes have different symptoms: stomach pain, pain in the back. Headache. This can be even more dangerous when men have these symptoms. Guy has a backache he isn’t thinking it’s his heart and he ignores it.
Sometimes these symptoms come and go over a course of a few days.
Many of the people I’ve seen having heart attacks get a grey, ashen color to their skin. It’s very unsettling. Looks like death is trying to set in.
It is worth keeping in mind tha there are two general types events people may call attacks. The first is the classic kind which is, classically, heralded by crushing substernal chest pain that radiates to the left jaw and arm, accompanied by shortness of breath, and can be preceded by a sense of impending doom (thought to be due to activation of the sympathetic nervous system). As said above, there are many variations on this. What I always tell the medical students is that the patients don’t read the same books we docs do so they don’t always know what symptoms they are supposed to have. The pathology typically underlying the classic heart attack is a blood clot suddenly forming in and blocking a coronary artery, depriving the downstream heart tissue of blood flow. The tissue starts to die, and that’s what causes the symptoms.
The second kind of “heart attack” is really an is chemically induced cardiac arrhythmia, whereby the heart starts to quiver or otherwise stop effectively pumping blood. This deprives the brain of oxygenated blood, and it shuts off. If this arrythmia iis not corrected, the brain, and the person in it, dies. These kind of heart attacks are often not preceded by any symptoms. Or the person might just feel a bit funny and th
en the lights go out. The pathology underlying these kind of heart attacks is usually not a complete blockage of an artery but just a severe narrowing.
Of course, the first kind of heart attack might rapidly convert to the second, where a blockage causes the symptoms, and then the ischemia causes an arrythmia.
Aaaach! Missed the edit window. What says “is chemically induced arrhythmia” should be “ischemically induced arrhythmia”. Apparently auto correct does not read the same books docs do either.
FYI: I thought this post was perfect.
Just needed a sound effect.
**what does the moment right before a massive heart attack feel like? **
In some cases, real good! 
Ha.
Oly great first post.
My Right coronary artery was occluded by 95%. I’d had a burning sensation in my lungs for several days, as if I had inhaled hydrochloric acid fumes (I’m a chemist, and am not unfamiliar with the sensation). Woke up at 3:00 a.m. feeling that ‘something ain’t right.’ No burning pain, just as if someone was sitting on my chest. My (now) ex-wife couldn’t be bothered, so I drove myself to the E.R.
The admitting nurse was classic old school, and sized things up right away: " soooooo…I see you drove yourself here alone." (Pregnant pause)…" “That was stupid”…AND, I see that you stopped for a cup of coffee on the way ( indicating my cup of Dunky’s)…that was stupid, too! Twice a year, we go into the ER parking lot, and find a car with a dead guy in it, just like you!"
Likely-split, the next thing I know, my pubes are shaved, I’m babbling incoherently, and someone is shoving a stent into me.
Bottom line…If you ever want to meet lots of new people, fast, just go to an ER at 3:00 am and tell them that you’re having chest pain.
Just for the record, if you’re 24 y/o and tell me you’ve been coughing for a week and now your chest hurts, I will not be shaving your pubes.
You have me intrigued. Can you elaborate on why?
Is coughing and chest pain a symptom of pubic lice in 24 year olds? Or is it someone else’s job to shave the pubic hair?
The symptoms have been described as Elizabethan by some.
Ditto
I think s/he means that this is not a symptom of heart disease, and you won’t need a cardiac catheterization.
The catheter, BTW, is introduced through a vein in the groin, hence the pube shaving.
This, I was responding to bizzwire’s post about his trip to the ER. There are about 900 things that can cause pain in the upper half of your torso, not all of them will buy you a cardiac work-up.
Me again. I was 48 at the time, and a smoker. No coughing, just a burning sensation.
“The Hangover IV”, coming soon to a theatre near you.
:eek: Glad you dumped her.
Unless you’re a woman. I’ve read that when women present with these symptoms, they aren’t always taken seriously. 