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Cymbalta, anyone?
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<blockquote data-quote="flutterbee" data-source="post: 64327"><p>WW - </p><p></p><p>I don't mind sharing. Heart disease is the number one killer of women and knowledge is power, although our risk doesn't match men's risk until the age off 55 whereas men start hitting the risky age at 45. Everyone's symptoms are unique, but there are some common symptoms of heart attack. Heart attacks for women often feel different than for men. Not all women have chest pain. A lot of women have no symptoms at all prior to having a heart attack and, even though heart disease is the number one killer of women, A LOT of doctor's blow the symptoms off as GERD or anxiety; even with women that have a history of heart attacks.</p><p></p><p>MI is myocardial (sp) infarction - heart attack. Prior to that I had progressively worsening health, including: severe muscle weakness (couldn't hold the brake in the car and would have to put car in park at traffic lights), body pain and burning - severe, crushing fatigue - severe, brain fog - severe, shortness of breath, a bubble in my throat that I thought was heartburn even though antacids didn't help - I now know that was angina, headaches everyday to varying degrees, tightness in my shoulders - angina, inability to get warm - i had goosebumps most of the time, I was so cold. I also had pain in my teeth. Looking back I really don't know how I functioned at all. I was diagnosed 6 weeks before the heart attack with chronic fatigue. I don't have chronic fatigue, we now know.</p><p></p><p>After typing this I realize that a lot of these symptoms are the symptoms of fibro, too. My doctor did tell me today that she thinks that the untreated heart disease would have made the fibro more pronounced. I still have most of those symptoms - except for being cold - but to a much, much lesser degree. </p><p></p><p>The heart attack didn't feel anything like I would expect a heart attack to feel. Nothing like what you see on tv. In fact, they gave me morphine in the ER and I told them I didn't need it. I found out later that morphine also works as a vaso-dilator (sp). My heart attack symptoms started out as severe body pain all day. Then the bubble in my throat and an all over feeling of malaise. My abdomen bloated, too. That happened most of the time when I had that bubble - I could actually watch my abdomen bloat. I was told I had IBS. I haven't had any IBS symptoms since the heart attack. Anyway...then it all kind of dissipated. The next day, I got the bubble again and just felt bad all over. Then my shoulders started to hurt and I felt pain in the upper part of my chest. Not severe at all, just uncomfortable. Then had shortness of breath. That went on for 2 days. By the 4th day, it was mostly in my upper back and shoulders and felt like a pinched nerve and it went down the back of my left arm - just a line right down my arm that felt like a pinched nerve, too. It also went up the back of my neck. With exertion, i.e., walking across the room, I had pain in my upper chest and shortness of breath. It was so non-dramatic. In fact, I took my daughter to the doctor - 30 minutes away - for an ear infection on the 4th day. I almost didn't go to the ER. Finally decided to after being nagged by a friend and really thought I would be sent home with a prescription for nexium or an anxiety medication or something. EKG was normal. Only had one of the enzymes come back elevated. I had 4 blockages: 2 at 99%, 1 at 50% and 1 at 40%, plus many small arteries - too small to stent - blocked at 30-40%.</p><p></p><p>I've never had high blood pressure. My cholesterol was barely high. I was a smoker. No strong family history...barely any family history at all and none at a young age.</p><p></p><p>As far as what the body aches were like - there wasn't a part of my body that didn't hurt. All the time. I really don't know how else to explain it. There was just no way to get comfortable and advil didn't do much to help with it.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="flutterbee, post: 64327"] WW - I don't mind sharing. Heart disease is the number one killer of women and knowledge is power, although our risk doesn't match men's risk until the age off 55 whereas men start hitting the risky age at 45. Everyone's symptoms are unique, but there are some common symptoms of heart attack. Heart attacks for women often feel different than for men. Not all women have chest pain. A lot of women have no symptoms at all prior to having a heart attack and, even though heart disease is the number one killer of women, A LOT of doctor's blow the symptoms off as GERD or anxiety; even with women that have a history of heart attacks. MI is myocardial (sp) infarction - heart attack. Prior to that I had progressively worsening health, including: severe muscle weakness (couldn't hold the brake in the car and would have to put car in park at traffic lights), body pain and burning - severe, crushing fatigue - severe, brain fog - severe, shortness of breath, a bubble in my throat that I thought was heartburn even though antacids didn't help - I now know that was angina, headaches everyday to varying degrees, tightness in my shoulders - angina, inability to get warm - i had goosebumps most of the time, I was so cold. I also had pain in my teeth. Looking back I really don't know how I functioned at all. I was diagnosed 6 weeks before the heart attack with chronic fatigue. I don't have chronic fatigue, we now know. After typing this I realize that a lot of these symptoms are the symptoms of fibro, too. My doctor did tell me today that she thinks that the untreated heart disease would have made the fibro more pronounced. I still have most of those symptoms - except for being cold - but to a much, much lesser degree. The heart attack didn't feel anything like I would expect a heart attack to feel. Nothing like what you see on tv. In fact, they gave me morphine in the ER and I told them I didn't need it. I found out later that morphine also works as a vaso-dilator (sp). My heart attack symptoms started out as severe body pain all day. Then the bubble in my throat and an all over feeling of malaise. My abdomen bloated, too. That happened most of the time when I had that bubble - I could actually watch my abdomen bloat. I was told I had IBS. I haven't had any IBS symptoms since the heart attack. Anyway...then it all kind of dissipated. The next day, I got the bubble again and just felt bad all over. Then my shoulders started to hurt and I felt pain in the upper part of my chest. Not severe at all, just uncomfortable. Then had shortness of breath. That went on for 2 days. By the 4th day, it was mostly in my upper back and shoulders and felt like a pinched nerve and it went down the back of my left arm - just a line right down my arm that felt like a pinched nerve, too. It also went up the back of my neck. With exertion, i.e., walking across the room, I had pain in my upper chest and shortness of breath. It was so non-dramatic. In fact, I took my daughter to the doctor - 30 minutes away - for an ear infection on the 4th day. I almost didn't go to the ER. Finally decided to after being nagged by a friend and really thought I would be sent home with a prescription for nexium or an anxiety medication or something. EKG was normal. Only had one of the enzymes come back elevated. I had 4 blockages: 2 at 99%, 1 at 50% and 1 at 40%, plus many small arteries - too small to stent - blocked at 30-40%. I've never had high blood pressure. My cholesterol was barely high. I was a smoker. No strong family history...barely any family history at all and none at a young age. As far as what the body aches were like - there wasn't a part of my body that didn't hurt. All the time. I really don't know how else to explain it. There was just no way to get comfortable and advil didn't do much to help with it. [/QUOTE]
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