Ladies...."Just a little heart attack"

flutterby

Fly away!
That really is what a heart attack looks like, too, ladies. Notice her reaching for the Tums? I used to wonder aloud if you could overdose on those things.
 

Hound dog

Nana's are Beautiful
Women often have neck pain too. I did, and when that pain went to my jaw it sent up a red flag......I was too stupid to pay attention to the crushing pain in my chest. The pain in my arm, which felt like a burning steel rod going right through my armpit.....well, I'd had that pain in a similar fashion as nerve pain after the accident.

I went shopping with mine. How brilliant is that?

Age doesn't matter. And no one in the ER will fault you for a second for coming and getting checked for such symptoms, even if it turns out to be something else. They'd much prefer you to be wrong and get to send you home.
 

flutterby

Fly away!
Lisa, if I remember correctly, you and I both handled our heart attacks in the same way: we went to dinner and then shopping at Walmart!

The bulk of my discomfort - which is how it started out - was in the hollow of my throat. So you automatically think heartburn. And my left arm didn't go numb or even really hurt too badly. It was this thin line that ran down the back of my arm, so I also thought nerve pain - thought I must have pinched a nerve. And it doesn't all happen together, necessarily, either. I started with the discomfort - later, pain - in the hollow of my throat, and it progressed over a period of days to shoulders, neck, jaw, upper back, then arm. Oh, and the belching. And the bloating.
 

susiestar

Roll With It
I am glad you both got help and the right diagnosis when you finally got that help. Thanks for sharing the video. It is good info to know.
 

TerryJ2

Well-Known Member
Lisa and Heather, I think your descriptions are better than the ones in the article. It sounds like a panic attack and it's confusing. Thank you! I'm so glad you two are doiing better, too. Scary.
 

flutterby

Fly away!
I think that's the point, as only 1 in 4 women know the signs of a heart attack. What they showed is a very typical presentation of a heart attack in women.
 

Hound dog

Nana's are Beautiful
Women don't usually present the same symptoms or in the same way as men. I know someone who only had pain in the middle of her upper back that wouldn't go away and a throbbing headache. Some women never get the chest pain at all, just the arm, jaw and maybe a heartburn type thing going on. Some never get the arm pain. Sometimes the symptoms will seem to get better and then get worse again. Mine did that, it's what threw me. I had this misconception that it was a constant thing, but it doesn't have to be.

So when it doubt, go to the ER.
 

flutterby

Fly away!
I never had pain in my chest. The doctors always ask you if you are having chest pain. I didn't know that what I was experiencing for months was angina because I didn't have chest pain. I really wish they would ask more direct questions instead of simply "are you having pain in your chest". I got into an argument about that with this one really condescending nurse one time about that. I told him that the question is misleading as a lot of people don't have chest pain and he said, "Well, where is your heart? It's in your chest." He's just lucky that I was hooked up to an IV and on morphine.
 
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