Apparently, driving your car to the emergency room instead of calling an ambulance is on that list. We were doing our weekly grocery run on Saturday morning when I started to feel a crushing pain in my chest, arm and jaw. I dithered while I waited for my husband and his brother to finish the shopping, but my husband saw something was wrong (I was visibly sweating and pale) and asked if I was okay. I told him that I didn’t think I was, so we drove to the hospital (not THAT far) and entered the ER.
Hubby told them my symptoms as I sat in the waiting room and they took me back almost immediately to do a prelim EKG, which led to a more thorough one, which led to me being prepped for catheterization. They sedated me to Nirvana and back (thank goodness!) and found a 100% blockage in my right coronary artery. They blew through it and stented it and put me in ICU for a night, then into a regular room until this afternoon, when they discharged me.
So now I have a lot to think about…diet changes, activity changes, med changes. It’s a little overwhelming and kind of surreal…I’m still dealing with the whole “Wait…I had a freaking HEART ATTACK!?” thing. Not that I wasn’t a classic candidate, but you just don’t THINK it’s possible until it happens, no matter who you are.
I’m glad it turned out ok. Have they referred you to the post-attack classes and exercise/therapy? If not, you might ask if your doctor or the hospital has anything along those lines that you could participate in.
I am also glad that you are NOT jay_jay (9/11 truther roaming the board).
They did give me info about cardiac therapy. I’ve been downloading all kinds of tracking apps: meds, cholesterol, calories, nutrition, activity, etc. I need those to make it work because I’m so disorganized normally.
Just think, a couple of decades ago none of this would’ve been done, you may not even have survived through the weekend. What an amazing thing that you could be “fixed up” and discharged so quickly.
The thread title reminding me of my first kidney stone. At the time I didn’t know it was a kidney stone, I was going back and forth between UTI and dislocated rib. In any case, I drove myself to the hospital. I was in so much pain I must have looked like I was drunk. In fact I just about stopped and called someone for a ride because of that, but pulled myself together since I had ready gone about 10 miles and had just a few blocks to go.
In light of what the OP was about, I left it alone until this post. This always amazes me. I went in, they draw some blood/urine and within minutes they know it’s a stone. They do some imagining to get a feel for the size (to see if it’s passable). But not that long ago (in relative terms), I have to assume you’d report the pain and it the doc would say 'well, it’s consistent with a stone, if it still hurts in a few days, we’ll go in and get it (surgery, I assume, scope it out or break it up like they do now).
But think, even further back, before medical journals being widely spread. A PT going in and reporting pain ‘here’. All the doc and to rely on was (possibly outdated) schooling and what he’s seen in other patients. Like what you said, they must have sent a lot of people home with a big fat ‘I just don’t know’ and ‘try this’ or ‘go see my colleague in the next town over’.
It’s so nice now that so many ailments can go from “kill me now” to “what…what if I don’t die” to “phew, glad that’s over” in less than 12 hours.
Twenty years ago, I was 35 years old - and I drove myself to the hospital while having a heart attack, at about 3 a.m.
My daughter had kicked me in the chest the night before while we were roughhousing, and I thought she had broken one of my ribs. I woke up my wife, and told her I was driving myself to the hospital. Her famous words to me were, “You know, the insurance won’t cover it if it’s not an emergency.”
This was on a Wednesday morning. On Thursday I was catheterized, the following Monday I had CABG x4 surgery, and Friday I went home. The surgery was on my middle daughter’s 4th birthday, and she was having a party at camp that day. The hardest thing I ever had to do in my life was call her that morning before the surgery and with her a happy birthday without crying.
I thought you were going to say you did what my father in law did. He went for a day and a half dithering about whether he should go to the doctor about his shortness of breath and chest and arm pain then eventually drove himself there!
I used to live in Princeton, NJ, where several side roads went straight into US rte 1. About once a year, there would be a newspaper article about a car that drive straight into rte 1 traffic, and the autopsy retort would say the driver has suffered a stroke or heart attack before being struck by traffic. Often, they took someone with them. They always totaled a couple of cars.
Please, please, don’t drive yourself to the emergency room if you think you have a heart attack. Not only do ambulance patients get admitted faster, their drivers are much less likely to pass out en route.
Glad to hear you’re okay! You mention being an unlikely candidate. How unlikely? I always imagined you, (for no good reason), as quite young. If you wouldn’t mind sharing, how old are you? Did you have any other risk factors? Just HOW unlikely a candidate were you?
It’s frightening and unsettling to think this could happen to you out of no where! Sharing may help alert someone else who assumes they’re not at risk too!
Again, very happy you got good and timely care, be sure to take it easy for a while now! Good Luck!
elbows, I actually indicated that I was a CLASSIC candidate, not an unlikely one. I’m 46 (not quite into prime age territory, but not too terribly far off), I’m obese, I’m sedentary, I’m diabetic, I have sleep apnea (controlled with a CPAP), I’m hypertensive, and I don’t really watch what I eat too closely. Overall, it shouldn’t have been a surprise, although it was.
Sorry I misread that! Doh! I thought you were younger, but 46 is still too young! So glad to hear you got help in time, there’s a lesson in that anyway!
Get healthy, jayjay! I’ve got a bit of a heart issue I’ve been dealing with-- not as bad as yours, but enough to make me change some lifestyle issues. Please try and lose weight. That’s probably the biggest single thing you can do, and from what I know about you, you should have the ability to do it. Go on a low carb diet, and start eating mostly vegetables. Please.
Best wishes and best of luck in your journey back to good health!!
There was a story of a guy who drove himself to the hospital, and passed out in the hospital parking lot, ramming his car into a beam, and banging his head pretty well. When an emergency crew got to him, they assumed he was unconscious from the head injury, and had no clue that his heart was involved. He died.
Not to mention that ambulances have stuff to treat you ON BOARD. When my son at age four had a croup attack, we called an ambulance. He was gasping so hard for breath he had pinpoint hemorrhages all over his chest. His pulse ox as soo as we were on board was 79. The gave him inhaled steroids and oxygen, and immediately he stopped gasping, and his pulse ox shot up to 98.
If we’d tried to drive him to the hospital about 15 minutes away, and he hadn’t died, he might have suffered brain damage. As it is, he is fine.
