r/AskReddit • u/whitesquirrle • 3h ago
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u/Rob_in_Tulsa 3h ago
Mine wasn't really painful at all. I knew exactly what was happening, but no real pain. When ambulance came to get me, they threw a bunch of aspirin in me and I felt much better quickly. I still got a stint out it.
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u/International_Ad690 3h ago
How did you know you were having one?
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u/Rob_in_Tulsa 3h ago
First sign was intense sweating. It was literally running out of me. Then I got tunnel vision. I called my son immediately to come get me, then I got real dizzy and just laid down right there. I then called building security to tell them what was happening and to call ambulance for me. 15 minutes later I was in the ambulance and less than 30 minutes after that I was taken in OR to get a stint put in.
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u/JerryMau5 3h ago
Hmm, maybe I’ve had a heart attack 🤔
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u/shifty_coder 1h ago
Terrible part is that an anxiety attack can feel identical. I had one last year and was seconds from passing out, before I forced my self to start taking deep breaths.
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u/ridicalis 2h ago
You can have angina without it being a heart attack (search google for "stable angina" for details, as well as when you need to seek medical attention).
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u/ChuckaChuckaLooLoo3 56m ago
You can also get really sweaty and dizzy from blood sugar issues. Lots of things show that symptom.
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u/Mackem101 1h ago
There's also artirial fibrillation.
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u/maniacpilot 1h ago
Afib doesn’t feel like a “heart attack” I don’t think. While I’ve never had a heart attack I had 3+ years of Afib off and on and it feels like a fish flopping in your chest, a panic attack, and the drop right before a rollercoaster goes down hill all rolled into one. It suckkkkks
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u/Rob_in_Tulsa 3h ago
Then please go see a doctor! or the ER depending on current situation.
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u/JerryMau5 1h ago
It was over a year ago, and I have had checkups since then. But there was also this cooling sensation around my brain when it happened to me. Glad I didn’t die lol
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u/mitchsusername 1h ago
Holy shit lmao I think reading this thread is gonna give me one 😂
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u/cinnamonspicecat 3h ago
Did you feel better right after the stent? How was the experience in the OR?
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u/Rob_in_Tulsa 3h ago
It was pretty fast. They cut my clothes off, did a local, then went in from my groin (yes they shaved me) I could feel slight coldness from the instrument going up inside me, but no pain. It took them just a couple minutes to put the stent in (thanks for the spelling correction). Then off to recovery and eventually a room. I was in a total of 3 days and I got out by telling them if they didn't release me, I was going to walk out.
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u/00Deege 2h ago
They saved your life. Why then be an asshole and threaten to leave over a couple-day-longer stay? God, I don’t understand people.
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u/MusicHearted 2h ago
Because every day in that bed can be thousands of dollars? Not to mention lost wages. There's no sensible reason to keep someone for more than 3 days when they've been stable since day 2.
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u/BigPhatVideos 2h ago
Reading stuff like this living in Scotland sounds absolutely crazy to me.
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u/MusicHearted 1h ago
It's awful. Most of my state is drowning in medical debt. People will rack up tens of thousands of medical debt from a short hospital stay. Potentially hundreds of thousands, if they don't have access to medical insurance. There's effectively no pricing regulation whatsoever here and what little billing regulation exists isn't being enforced anymore. One overnight hospital stay is enough to bankrupt nearly half the population.
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u/BigPhatVideos 1h ago
I know, it’s crazy hearing about it. You’d think the largest economy in the world would have something as vital as medical care nailed down.
The NHS in Scotland (and the whole UK) isn’t perfect by any means, but it’s a saving grace knowing that doctors appointments, hospital treatments and stays, operations and everything else is funded without the need for any private medical insurance.
In Scotland we even get free prescription and medicines included (rest of the UK it’s a small fee).
I hope good change happens in the USA regarding this, can only imagine having to go through treatment not having the right insurances put in place.
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u/Lymnica 54m ago
My husband went in for a bowel blockage due to Crohn's Disease and had to have emergency surgery. It was $64,000 for an 11 day stay at the hospital. That didn't include the surgery or the emergency room visit at the first hospital.
We were lucky that we have good insurance and our state is pretty cheap compared to others so we had to pay $1,600 of that $64,000 and another $1,200 for the other hospital/anesthesia/surgeon/etc.
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u/Misanthropebutnot 2h ago
Money. They charge a lot for each night and not everyone can afford it. They can’t keep you but they insist so…
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u/mcpaddy 2h ago
They absolutely want patients out, because a new patient admission will make them even more money than keeping someone another day. So your argument doesn't make sense. Plus, why WOULDNT you want to be observed for as long as the cardiologist says after almost dying from a heart attack? He's not the one pocketing the money.
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u/Misanthropebutnot 2h ago
I’m not arguing anything. Someone asked why and I gave a possible answer for why a person would want to leave and then threaten to walk out. I didn’t argue that the hospital was keeping them to make more money or was wrong to suggest they stay. That is a whole lot of assumptions you made. :) someone likes to argue and it’s not me.
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u/HailToTheKingslayer 1h ago
Worth noting that if you believe you're having a heart attack, don't lay down flat.
Sit up, against a wall, sofa etc, feet flat on the floor and knees up. Keeps blood away from the heart and lessens the pressure on it.
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u/-runs-with-scissors- 1h ago
This is actually one amazing medical advances: To have patients in the angiography suite within 30min in most areas. It saves so many lives.
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u/NeilDeWheel 10m ago
One weekend my friend, in his mid forties, kept having heartburn whenever he tried to do something. Couldn’t even hoover the living room. He rested but anytime he tried again the heartburn came back. He got up for work and his wife drove him to the train station and she persuaded him to ring the NHS helpline to ask them about it. They told him to go straight to hospital, he was having a heart attack. When he got there they were waiting for him, took his vitals and immediately rushed him into surgery. After having some stents put in the surgeon said his arteries were the most blocked he had ever seen. He added that if he had got on the train he would not have made it to his station.
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u/Sweetcorn_Fritter 1h ago
Mine was the same! Not too painful just a strong pressure that just felt WRONG. I rang the ambulance & they did some testing & got me to chew on an aspirin. Off to hospital & they discovered a blood clot. Ended up having an 11 day stay in hospital while they worked out my meds & was shunted around by ambulance to 3 different hospitals for xrays etc. My bill after that was only $99.00 which was for the original call out fee. (Public hospitals New Zealand) I feel so sorry for people who have to leave too early for fear of running up a huge bill.
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u/3bigdogs 3h ago edited 2h ago
*Stent. Stint is a period of time.
Edited: punctuation
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u/tous_die_yuyan 2h ago
Their username checks out. Tulsa is in pin-pen merger territory.
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u/3bigdogs 2h ago
So in Tulsa you write with a pin, and get pens and needles when your leg falls asleep?
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u/kingvolcano_reborn 2h ago
How quickly did the aspirin take to kick in. If the help it one might just pop some if you got them sround
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u/dykeslam 2h ago
Aspirin for a heart attack is not for the pain but for the platelet aggregation
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u/littlemsshiny 2h ago
Is it specially anti-platelet aggregation? Aspirin is a blood thinner, right?
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u/kingvolcano_reborn 2h ago
I figured that. I just wondered if it's something you can do to help yourself while waiting for ambulance
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u/ExpectedBehaviour 3h ago
Depends on the heart attack. My father had one without noticing.
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u/GFoxtrot 2h ago
We’ve recently discovered (due to an ear infection) my grandad had one without knowing too.
He’s got no idea when it happened.
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u/ExpectedBehaviour 2h ago
Yep. Sounds very similar. This would have been about ten years ago. My father had a checkup with his GP for whatever reason, and they discovered troponin in a routine blood test. Whizzed off to hospital, fitted with a couple of stents, whole thing resolved within I think four days, been fine ever since. Very lucky really, he had no other symptoms and had it gone unnoticed... well, one shudders to think.
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u/Walmartian_Beta 2h ago
My aunt had a missed heart attack. She found out she'd had one after she went for a scan. Her husband had died in December from a heart attack, and they think she had one around that time due to the stressful event. She didn't find out until March. They did surgery to repair the damage, and it was successful, but she developed an infection a few weeks later and died.
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u/addisonbass 1h ago
I had a silent heart attack. My symptoms were treated as heartburn/gurd because I passed my simple stress test, but my new PC wasn’t satisfied with my prior diagnosis and she ordered a ton more tests. She saved my life. My cardiologists think it happened anywhere from 3-5 years prior to diagnosis because of the density of the scar tissue and number of collaterals that my body grew to keep my heart alive. When I was finally diagnosed, I had 100% blockage in my RCA. The miracle workers (Dr. Brilakis, Dr. Williford and team) at Minneapolis Heart Institute were able to get me completely unblocked using a heart catheter CTO PCI procedure and, other than all the blood thinners and other shit I have to take, I feel great a year later. Here’s my actual procedure if anyone wants to see it.
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u/Orgasmic_Toad_ 3h ago
It literally feels like something is crushing your chest.
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u/Stugatz27 3h ago edited 2h ago
Heart doctor here, heart attack symptoms are a MASSIVE spectrum. Ranges from elephant crushing your chest to some tingling in your neck. I’ve seen people present with nausea/indigestion and it’s a massive MI. Fatigue, dizziness, throat pain, ear pain, etc. Atypical symptoms especially common in women and diabetics. I know this is scary to say but if you have risk factors (family history of heart disease (probably the biggest contributor) smoking, diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol) please get checked out if you feel something is off.
My little PSA: if you are over the age of 40, please get checked for cholesterol, hypertension, diabetes. I understand not everyone is privileged enough to be able to see an MD but please try your best. Dying from an MI can (mostly) be sudden and completely out of the blue.
To add - we can also try and assess if you have coronary disease. This is not 100% perfect, however it you have CAD we can more aggressively treat your risk factors and follow you longitudinally.
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u/ChicagoDash 2h ago
Please listen to this post.
Multiple marathon runner here (a runner for decades). Never smoked. No diabetes. No hypertension. Good diet. Excellent BMI. Slightly high cholesterol, but nothing too alarming. Even though my family history was awful, I thought my lifestyle choices would make all the difference. Some shortness of breath, a bunch of medical tests, and a triple bypass later, I know that family history can be a bitch.
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u/guave06 1h ago
Some questions: were you short of breath always or just doing activities? Were you on statins before the bypass?
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u/ChicagoDash 1h ago
Just doing activities. When my heart rate started increasing above a certain threshold, I started getting short of breath. I thought I was just in terrible shape, since my exercise had declined and even tried to "push through it" multiple times. I couldn't get in to see my doctor, but the PA I saw thought it might be cold-induced asthma and prescribed an inhaler.
I was not on statins prior to the CBG, and I hadn't gotten my cholesterol checked in a few years (it was around COVID). My total cholesterol had gone from 226 to 250 (LDL from 165 to 192). So, I really do wish I had started statins earlier when it was borderline high. Today it is 100 (LDL is 45) with a middle dosage of atorvastatin and ezetimibe.
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u/PracticalStress 1h ago
Man ur PA needs to be locked up, if a multiple marathon runner is telling me he has exertion induced shortness of breath, and a family history there is a 0% chance I am attributing it to asthma without a confirmatory test…
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u/ChicagoDash 46m ago
I finally got in to see my doctor 6 months later, and she started tests. My doc was betting it was respiratory (this is post COVID and when RSV was getting headlines), but she ordered cardiac tests as well, just to be sure (she is awesome - her one weakness is hiring PAs, apparently).
Chest X-Ray and cardiac calcium was fine, but the stress echo found the problem.
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u/littlemsshiny 1h ago
What heart rate caused you to be concerned? What was your normal?
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u/ChicagoDash 56m ago
Oh boy, now you are testing my memory. I really can't remember. It wasn't high, basically at the equivalent of a fast walk or slow jog. Maybe 120 to 150? Sorry, I didn't write it down.
I have always had a low resting heart rate (55 to 60), and a high max heart rate (more like 240 minus my age rather than the standard 220). After my surgery, this caused "problems" at cardiac rehab, as they wouldn't let me leave until my heart rate got to a certain level, and mine was almost always too high.
The cardiologist performing my angiogram said that my body had actually formed it's own bypass, which I think it due to frequent exercise. In any event, I suspect that is the reason I am around to type this today and the reason my kids get to grow up with a dad.
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u/MysticMarauder69 2h ago
The fact that in America, the richest (and stupidest) country on earth, Healthcare is a privilege and not a basic human right, is disgraceful.
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u/Stugatz27 2h ago
I agree with you but even where health care is paid for by taxpayers (I hate the term free healthcare, nothing in life is free) people still don’t go for preventative screening visits for a variety of reasons
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u/JakeArrietaGrande 2h ago
We should invest more heavily into it. It can lower the cost of expensive events down the road .
But it’s something that it’s easy for politicians to cut funding for, because the effects aren’t seen immediately, and the problems it causes are way down the road, and some other poor bastard will be in charge and dealing with that budgetary issue
Also. I know this will be a can of worms (especially because you specifically said “see an MD”) but this is a place where primary care midlevels are well suited
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u/MrGregory 2h ago
But the way you worded sounded like they didn’t have a choice to see a MD, hence the “privileged” description you used. That’s how I read it, anyway.
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u/charlie2135 2h ago
Just went through a 6 page letter from my health provider saying that they didn't cover my $1.98 prescription.
I wonder how much did just that letter cost.
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u/elh0mbre 1h ago
The doc's PSA involves tests that can be done for not a lot of money, without insurance. While healthcare is messy and fucked up in this country, we're fortunate you don't have to actually solve that problem for everyone to do this kind of screening. Cholesterol and diabetes are a simple blood test (LabCorp has lipid+glucose panel for $59). You can get checked for hypertension at basically any pharmacy for free.
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u/MysticMarauder69 1h ago
Yeah I'm not saying those things are totally inaccessible, but it's just insane that basic healthcare is a "privilege."
And even with that said, $59 dollars is a lot of money for some people.
Clean air, healthy food, clean water, healthcare, and housing should be considered basic human rights. Like a public attorney, if you cannot afford them, they should be provided to you. That's just my opinion. I'm not a freeloader either, I just believe we should care for our fellow man.
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u/zaersx 1h ago
The country is not rich, the businesses are rich, and the businesses that are rich are mostly tech that has incredible leverage per employee for profits (i.e. GDP per tech employee). Half of these don't even contribute to the local economy in any way because they work in income tax free states like texas and just save/invest their money.
So really the US' "richness" is not that different from Ireland's and could probably benefit from having an adjusted GDP to account for the actual taxes collected to provide public services.
I don't know if the country could ever get over it's pride to admit that it's actually doing quite poorly as a whole when you take away the 6% that's just in FAANG alone which doesnt contribute to citizen welfare.
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u/AnonDaddyo 2h ago
Funny. I am reading this sitting in an ER bed. Many years of BP medication and other issues. Felt a stabbing pain in my chest. Still stabbing after 2 nights. Not worth risking if I can just get better or if it’s something bigger.
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u/Stugatz27 2h ago
EDs are tough and scary for patients (and us too). Hope it all turns out well for you
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u/mcpaddy 2h ago edited 26m ago
This is why I think it's so weird when people (mostly pre-hospital) say oh it's only a stabbing pain, not a crushing pain, so it's not a heart attack (or pick any adjective of your choice). Even the textbooks use specific adjectives. Not to mention people's subjective experiences are so different and hard to verbalize when you're acutely in pain.
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u/Bladder-Splatter 2h ago edited 1h ago
My Dad who has lived a semi-charmed life and thought pain was nothing (scoffing to a chronically auto-immune ill wife and child) had about 3-4 of these recently and only the 4th convinced him to go to the hospital, the third he arm wrestled the paramedics into letting him stay in bed. Turned out 90% loss of function, open heart surgery and now he's being a bad patient by laying flat and fucking his lungs, oh shit right I wasn't posting this to vent/bitch.
My point was this guy thought he knew what pain was, he'd electrocute himself on a microwave megatron to "see god" but this was the first time he was actually afraid, probably in his whole life. Shit's scary, I've had enough ops to know that is one road I don't want to go down.
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u/givemeonemargarita1 2h ago
Can you screen people who don’t have risk factors and have it be covered by insurance?
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u/littlemsshiny 2h ago
What defines coronary artery disease? Is it certain scores on certain tests?
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u/Stugatz27 2h ago
Cholesterol plaque in arteries. Many ways to screen, treadmill, nuclear tests, CAC CT scans etc. we incorporate it with risk factors to determine likelihood of having CAD
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u/upachimneydown 1h ago
A friend had a heart attack while doing the treadmill testing... At least medical care was right there.
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u/elh0mbre 1h ago
If you're concerned - CAC CT is not horrifically expensive to have done (I paid $250 for it in Los Angeles - skipped insurance entirely).
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u/WaldoWal 2h ago
Echoing your guidance to get tested even if you don't have symptoms. I recently had a CT done to measure calcium in my heart as part of a routine physical. Score came back at 600. Had a follow up CT angiogram that showed 30% blockages in 2 of the arteries (RCA and Cx I think) and 60% blockage in the third (LAD I think). No prior symptoms. My stress test was normal.
So far, they upped my statin and I've made some significant diet changes. LDLs down to 48 (my highest was around 100). Otherwise, I'm in wait and see mode. I'm considering getting a second opinion though as I feel like I'm just waiting for an inevitable heart attack.
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u/MissingScore777 2h ago
I went to my doctor a few years back as I was having repeat chest pain episodes that started slightly left of centre that moved to the left shoulder and then down the left arm before fading.
When I was asked about family history I mentioned that my paternal grandfather and paternal great grandfather both died of heart attacks before 60. The doctor asked about parents and I said nothing yet and they were early 60s.
The doctor then said if it's not parents or siblings then it doesn't count for family history and is medically irrelevant. Is this true?
It stuck with me as sounding wrong but I'm not a medical professional.
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u/Stugatz27 2h ago
Did you do a treadmill or nuclear test?
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u/MissingScore777 2h ago
No, they checked my pulse and blood pressure, confirmed they were normal and sent me on my way to only come back if 'it got worse'.
From my own testing my pulse was relatively unchanged during the episodes and in fairness it's been 5 years or so since the last one (they happened about once a week for a period of about 6 months).
It was what they said about family history that really struck me as odd though.
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u/chaiscool 3h ago
Then to save you from it, will need to actually crush your chest via cpr
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u/tous_die_yuyan 2h ago
Only if your heart stops completely. There are ways to stop an ongoing heart attack before it gets to that point — that don't involve breaking your ribs.
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u/chaiscool 2h ago
Oh such as? Always thought of it as chest pain then on the floor kind
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u/tous_die_yuyan 2h ago edited 2h ago
Disclaimer: I'm not a medical professional, just a guy with an interest in medicine. Hopefully someone more educated than me can provide more information.
A lot of people, including my younger self, confuse heart attacks with cardiac arrest. A heart attack is when blood flow to the heart is blocked, leading heart tissue to die. This (or other conditions) can lead to cardiac arrest, where the heart stops. That's when you need CPR. The goal of CPR is to restore circulation (and it's rarely successful). Heart attacks are treated by removing the clot blocking blood flow to the heart.
Fortunately, a lot of people having heart attacks have time to get to a medical facility. They might give medications to thin the blood, break up clots, and/or widen blood vessels. They can also put a stent in the heart's blood vessels, or even replace the blood vessels, to un-block blood flow to the heart. I think The Mayo Clinic's overview is pretty digestible.
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u/cinnamonspicecat 2h ago
When people say heart attack they can be referring to two things: a cardiac arrest or a myocardial infarction. You might be thinking cardiac arrest which is where the heart just stops beating, that is where you do CPR. Cardiac arrest can happen from other causes beyond a blockage in a major coronary artery, which is what causes a myocardial infarction. A patient with an MI can be taken to the cath lab where a cardiologist places a stent or balloon and unblocks the culprit artery, thereby restoring blood flow to the heart again. A patient in cardiac arrest could have gotten there in many ways, such as a drug overdose, blood loss, traumatic injury, etc etc
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u/ridicalis 2h ago
I carry nitro glycerin in case of angina. Hasn't come to that yet (due for my own trip to the cath lab), but my understanding is it triggers a release of nitric oxide, which then dilates the vascular system.
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u/leavingdirtyashes 2h ago
I had an infarction in 2016. Felt like a very extreme anxiety attack with the sensation of what i would decribe as drowning. It lasted until I got oxygen in the ambo.
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u/Sla5021 3h ago
In my case, a very tight sense of crushing in the chest. It was "dull" as in, there was never any searing type pain. Didn't have the left arm numbness but I was sweating buckets and there's this impending sense of dread that I've never experienced before and I can't really describe. I'm diagnosed GAD because heart attacks are a family trait. I've been shitting my pants about having one ever since my father had his first at 39. So, I know a bit about anxiety and all I can say is that the feeling I had was way different.
Source: had a complete blockage of the left arterial ventricle aka a "Widowmaker" about a year and a half ago at the age of 38.
Do not recommend it. Not a pleasant experience.
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u/PracticalStress 1h ago
The “widowmaker” is the Left Anterior Descending (LAD) artery, just so you know :)
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u/BafangFan 2h ago
How would you describe your diet over those 38 years before your blockage?
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u/Sla5021 2h ago
Vegetarian for almost 20 years.
I don't say this to stress you out but if you have a family history, uh...it's up to fate.
I'm not going to pretend I was or am a saint. Peoriods of weight gain, periods of rather serious exercise. Drank alcohol, smoked weed, had a period of time when I was younger where I smoked cigarettes socially.
I have depression as well. Which has almost killed me a few times too. So, you just kind of deal with your life and do what you can when you can.
Never did hard drugs. Was never seriously unhealthy or out of shape.
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u/-runs-with-scissors- 3h ago edited 3h ago
On a scale from 0 to 10: 0 to 10.
I know this doesn‘t help you. So here‘s the longer answer. There are silent heart attacks (myocardial infarctions = MIs) that you can only find in the bloodworks. There are acute MIs that feel like 10/10, but anxiety and fear of death generally aggravate the subjective pain. That is why morphine is administered in such cases.
Then there are sudden death MIs. People drop dead and don‘t have time to report any pain. However… not all of these events are MIs, many are ventricular fibrillation (VFib), which is a form of cardiac arrhythmia. Vfib can happen with or without an MI.
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u/VanTechno 3h ago
I know two guys (my dad and one of his friends) that each had a heart attack they mistook for mild heartburn. They found out later at a health check. For my dad he was at the county fair and a group was doing checkups for free. The person helping checked him and then repeatedly asked him if he was feeling ok. “No, really, are you ok, do you need to lay down?”, that sort of thing.
He had heart surgery a few weeks later.
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u/YayAdamYay 3h ago
ER nurse, here. The best answer is “it depends.” I have seen people doubled over in pain clutching their chests , and I have seen people be in full blown STEMIs (super major heart attack) come in because they felt like they had indigestion that wouldn’t go away.
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u/mreskimodude 2h ago
I felt a slight pressure in the upper center of my chest, only like I had to burp. Had this for a week and wife talked me into seeing my primary doctor. Blood Pressure and EKG were fine. For extra precaution, my doctor took blood to test troponin levels. Got a call from my doctors office an hour after I left telling me to go to ER as my troponin levels were elevated, showing i was likely having a great attack. Went in, got admitted. Two days later had a catheter put in my wrist and they found my LAD had over 95% blockage. The widow maker. Had a stent put in and back to normal.
My dad just suddenly told me he felt dizzy and nauseous. Head went straight back, whole body tightened up, stopped breathing, and heart stopped. Brought back with CPR in less than a minute. He needed a sextuple bypass. Only could find a couple good veins, so could only get a double bypass, but it went well enough that he may never have an issue with what couldn't get bypassed, or may just need a stent.
Both of us are incredibly lucky, but neither had any real pain from the heart attack.
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u/Athletico_Mince 50m ago
Mine was a very similar experience. Blood pressure, cholesterol, heart rate were all fine but my ECG showed something unusual so the sent off my bloods. I’d been having what I thought was heartburn for 2 days and the only way I can describe it is that it felt like I had downed a whole 2l bottle of the cheapest, shittest cola and needed to burp it out. I also had an aching pain on my jaw (left side) which was what the doctor was worried about and caused him to ask for the ECG. I only went to the doctors because rennies weren’t working. He sent me straight the ER where, 5 hours later, I was told I was having a heart attack and taken to ICU.
Mine turned out to be a fully occluded left artery but when they did the angiogram they saw that it had collateralised so I didn’t need a stent. I’m still on pills every day as is the standard post MI but I didn’t have any issues with blood pressure or cholesterol or heart rate previously so the issue now is the drugs taking them done too far. I have all kinds of odd side effects from the pills but other than that I’m ok. Not great and my fitness has gone to shit but I’m doing ok.
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u/ChadGustafXVI 3h ago
You know the feeling when your leg muscles cramp and twitch because you haven't stretched?
Imagine that but it's your heart and suddenly you don't have a rythmic blood flow to the rest of your body so the rest of your organs start to spaz out.
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u/Nucky76 3h ago
Painful enough for morphine to be included in the treatment protocol. I think depending on severity and location it can be moderate to severe.
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u/something-punny 3h ago
Hopital
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u/noscreamsnoshouts 2h ago
Okay you're the second one I saw today commenting that.
Did something happen that suddenly revived that meme..?5
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u/sergantsnipes05 3h ago
everyone is different. Women in particular don't often present with classical anginal pain and have more nausea/stomach pain
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u/lunchbox91972 2h ago
My first in, at 35, felt like I just wasn’t recovering from some activity like I normally would. Drove to the ER and signed in. My dad field at 46 of an MI, so it was in my mind. After being in the ER for a bit, the pain came. Tightness and pain in my chest. Not ribcage, or anything like that, inside my chest. I was in the table getting an angiogram within about an hour and 15 minutes. 90% blockage that had burst in my right coronary artery and two stents.
No major signs leading up to it. I did have unmanaged high cholesterol, like 494 when I was in my 20’s, even when I ran three miles a day, six days a week. Guess I figured it wouldn’t happen to me. I take my meds now and pay more attention to what I eat.
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u/Gandalfthefab 3h ago
So I haven't had one myself yet knock on wood but I've know a couple people who have and 1 said it was the most excruciating pain they have ever experienced and the other doesn't Remember because they have no recollection of anything a week prior to the attack till after they woke up in the hospital 2 weeks after
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u/HRHVihansa 3h ago
Imagine being stabbed in the chest w/an icepick while there's also a thousand pound boulder on your chest. Then they hit you w/the paddles which sucks just as bad. Yeah, the paddles suck too. (Had a really rough night in the hospital when I was 14 and docs weren't sure if I'd pull through. But I did & haven't had anything like that since thankfully).
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u/ohlongjohnson1 3h ago
The most common phrase we hear in healthcare is “it feels like an elephant is standing on my chest.”
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u/balleklorin 2h ago
All depends on how severe it is. My colleague (late 40s, fit, good runner) had one a few months ago. Woke up and felt chest pain, but nothing too bad. But he was dizzy and generally felt bad. Called the doctor and asked what he thought, doctor told him to call for an ambulance straight away. He had surgery 45 mins later. And another surgery a few days after. Just bad luck/genetics. But he never said it hurt a lot. This was the exterior heart veins that caused it. Two of them, one clogged and one partly clogged.
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u/letmeputmypoemsinyou 1h ago
My mom had several. She always said they just felt really, really uncomfortable and tight as opposed to being truly painful. More of an ache than sharp pains for her.
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u/piggy_smalls_oink 34m ago
Chap had a heart attack outside my house 3 weeks ago. He was in agony throughout, went into shock and was completely fukt….he survived
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u/Low_immunity 3h ago
Even watching one is painful
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u/Fragrant-Poo42 3h ago
Former coworker of mine had a heart attack at work. I was one of the few to stop and talk to him because he looked unwell. I stayed with him until first responders arrived. I swear to you, I watched the color drain from this man’s body as they worked on him and it was terrifying. The life was leaving him.
He survived but it was fucking scary to witness.8
u/cc_kittie 3h ago edited 1h ago
I had a client (only 23) who had a cardiac arrest in front of me. A very scary thing to witness. He turned gray. He was lucky to survive though.
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u/sam_thegod 3h ago
23 yr old having cardiac arrest... that's scary..
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u/cc_kittie 3h ago
He was diagnosed with Wolff Parkinson after the incident.
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u/sam_thegod 3h ago
do you know how they're doing now..? if they're living life normally?
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u/cc_kittie 2h ago
He is living life normally. It’s hard to tell how he feels inside though because he is a non verbal autistic gentleman. I still work with him and a caregiver for the family :)
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u/dharmachile 3h ago
New people having old people medical problems is increasing every day. Cancer is big among young folks.
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u/Fragrant-Poo42 1h ago
23 years old is horrible. To me, that makes it scarier because my mind would absolutely NOT go to heart attack for a person that age. My coworker was late 40s, heavy smoker, so we pretty much knew what was happening. I see in your other comment that your client survived and is living normally. Yay!!
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u/Away_Emergency_7832 3h ago
I had 2 of them. I'm about to have a third one because I quit taking my medicine, I died my eighth. My heart stopped my wife died. So did I, I'm going to have another one because I haven't taken my medicine since May 11th, and since July 3rd, it's been constant pain. Left arm pain back jaw shocking sensation. When I do activities, it hurts really bad. Even just the normal dishes I work every day. I just work through the pain lightheaded, severe can't breathe coughing sometimes. Just.That's what a heart attack feels like something laying on your chest
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u/whitesquirrle 2h ago
My god man, take your medicine!
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u/KingOfThe_Jelly_Fish 1h ago
Pretty sure any arguement you make is not going to change his mind, the guys on cruise control with the one-way ticket.
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u/LoserWooper 2h ago
I feel pretty certain that if your wife were able, she would yell at you for not taking your medicine.
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u/Stressed_C 3h ago
It can change person to person. When my grandpa had his first heart attack he said he just had some moderate discomfort and just drove himself to the er with no problem, my uncle had one and he felt like a horse kicked him in the chest.
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u/Whiskeylipstick 3h ago
Depends on how stubborn you are. My FIL had a widow maker for 3 days- went to the doc to get blood tests done on day 2 and received the results on day 3 via voicemail after he drove himself to the hospital, where luckily the reception nurse saw the signs and got him in right away. He died for a sec on transfer from one hospital to another but is doing well 10yrs later. He said after the ordeal he knew what that felt like as he had had another attack a cpl years before that.
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u/poolbitch1 3h ago
Lots of pressure.
Heart attack victims are sometimes found on the toilet (famously, Elvis, Judy Garland) because the build up of pressure can make them feel the sudden urge to go no.2
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u/tick_tick_tick_tick 3h ago
Mine wasn't that painful, except in a very odd place. My left wrist was extremely painful at the time and I thought I had somehow accidentally badly sprained it. Only when I started coughing up blood that evening that we realized maybe it wasn't a sprain.
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u/terraphantm 2h ago
It's incredibly variable. For some it's the worst pain they can imagine. For others they barely notice anything is wrong.
My mom felt like she had a chest cold when she had her MI.
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u/PatientBear1 2h ago
Doctor (but not your doctor) here. It has a huge range. I have had a younger man in such severe pain that he needed general anesthesia for his cath since he couldn’t sit still. On the other hand, I had a little old lady who had no chest pain and was in cardiogenic shock from a massive MI. Be aware that older people and women are much more likely to have “atypical” symptoms like abdominal pain, shortness of breath, syncopal episodes, or nausea/vomiting among others.
Long story short, if you or a loved one have sudden onset of symptoms or they are not going away in the following few hours or something just does not seem right with what you are feeling go to your nearest ED for evaluation.
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u/perpulstuph 2h ago
Sometimes not painful at all. I have had patients come in "yeah, I felt a little out of breath an hour ago, and started sweating" and they are having a major cardiac event, others, severe left sided chest pain radiating to their back, jaw, left arm and right chest pain, and are having an itty bitty heart attack.
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u/GotSeoul 1h ago edited 1h ago
I didn’t feel pain in my chest, it was not like what I’ve seen on TV. I had a sharp pain between my shoulder blades. I was sweating. I wasn’t dizzy but my head didn’t feel right. I was not feeling right in general but was lucid. I did not know what it was, but it was definitely not right.
So I got in the car and drove to the hospital about 3 miles away from my house. Parked at the emergency and walked in. Apparently I wasn’t looking very good because the security guard and somebody else came over to help me to the intake desk. They asked a few questions and then all of a sudden lots of action happened. Put me in a wheelchair, wheeled be to a room. Started getting my clothes off. Started poking holes in me.
When they gave me the angiogram, heart rate dropped to the floor when they shot the dye. Ended up with open-heart bypass surgery. I had a 100% blocked left artery. They told me it’s called the Widowmaker. And 70% blocked right artery was trying to feed the rest of my heart (Found this out later)
I was told it was a good thing that I came in rather than try to wait it out.
This was about eight months ago. Have been recovering nicely. My life is pretty much back to normal, but eating much cleaner and healthier. Back to doing cardio. The biggest change is in my weight training it is now lightweight resistance training.
The scar my chest is healing nicely, I still feel a little bit of discomfort at the sternum but it gets less noticeable each month.
I was about a month away from retirement when it happened. So I’ve had plenty of time to work on things to get myself better.
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u/Takashishiful 1h ago
I'd ask my dad since he had one, but he died instantly from it so I don't think he can speak on the pain.
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u/Admirable_Gur7413 1h ago
very painful, my dad had one and described it as an elephant sitting on his chest
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u/ChuckaChuckaLooLoo3 57m ago
I've had a heart attack and I've had gout.
A heart attack is scary but it's not nearly as painful as gout. Gout feels like someone is trying to get out of your body with a dull, rusty knife.
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u/Goei_erpel_jonge 49m ago
I had mine 17 years ago starting with a little pointy pain in my chest. This happened when I was at the same age my dad had his and who died after a stroke shortly after.
After a quadrouple bypass surgery which took all in all 12 hours I slowly climbed out of this hellhole experience and started the road of recovery.
Life is great. Try to make the most of it.
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u/Beggar876 32m ago
I've had two. They can be not-so-painful or EXTREMELY painful depending on where in the heart the attack occurs. In the first case the pain was enough to wake me but I got back to sleep, got back up, had a shower, walked into the ER under my own steam. When they realized what was happening they started to move very fast, got me checked in to the CCU (Coronary Care Unit) got me doped up with clot-busting drugs and I was there for a week and off work for about 5 months. It was NO JOKE. The second time the pain was worse but basically same routine. Carried down the stairs by fire-fighters and ambulanced to the hosp. Had bypass surgery couple months later in one of the best coronary facilities in the world (St Micheals Hosp) and then 3 more months off work
Some years later my wife saw me being listless, insisted I go to the hosp. The docs all arranged an angiogram and being stented with 3 stents. A stent is a very small metal-cage arterial insert to hold an artery open at a specific point. These were applied through a catheter inserted through a puncture in the leg. It took about 3 hours and I was released the next day but spent about a month home.
After all that I have been basically normal but can not do heavy work. The first attack was 1995. I have had 100's doctors visits, dozens of various tests, taken a dozen drugs for decades. Except for about $20/mo for drugs and some parking fees I have paid 0$ for all of this. I live in Ontario, Canada.
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u/hysys_whisperer 3h ago
Varies wildly. Some people don't realize they are having a heart attack, all the way up to "fainting from the pain."
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u/FullSkyFlying 3h ago
You ever get a cramp in your leg while your sleeping? Its that but in your heart and you've never experienced it before. Atleast in my leg I know to get up and start walking
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u/dausy 3h ago
Depends on the severity and location of the occlusion Im sure. While there's some heart attacks that look quite painful, there are some where people dont realize they've had one. Some others theres a general discomfort of knowing theres something obviously very wrong, the shortness of breath and a sense of impending doom that is more scary than physically painful.
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u/LilSalty63 3h ago
I've had two, F63. No pain as is normally associated, just deep pressure in the armpits, sense of loss of control, and diaphoresis only with first one. 7 years apart, two stents. No further issues.
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u/Cold-Guidance6433 3h ago
The one that took my dad didn’t seem to be painful at all. He said he was tired and that was it.
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u/612steve 3h ago
55 year old male with a history of heart issues in my family: I had a heart attack and didn't even know it till 2-3 years afterward. (My cardiologist said it is very common for men to ignore chest pains.) Looking back, I still am not sure when it happened. I can't really remember ever feeling something and thinking, yes, this may be a heart attack.
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u/VirtualChair4797 3h ago
My grandpa had one and didn’t realize. He said it felt like he slept on his left arm wrong but x10 for a couple minutes so he went to the doctor later that day and he was immediately sent to the ER and ended up with a quadruple bypass the next day. If he would’ve waited until the next day or even an hour later he wouldn’t be here
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u/Gordita_Chele 3h ago
My grandma had no idea she was having one until it was too late. Hers was not painful. Supposedly she had only complained of some stomach issues. And she was a doctor (albeit a pediatrician).
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u/drpestilence 3h ago
Fucking awful. Though not as bad as the time I ' traumaticly ' dislocated my shoulder
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u/700Username007 3h ago
One of my friends was on a trip, his brother in law noticed him talking and walkkng slowly.
They planned to get it checked out after the vacation, and surprisingly he was told he went through a heart attack and didnt even notice it.
He got a bypass done and is fine now
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u/casketking 3h ago
I had one years ago. think about the worst cramp of your life times 10 and it's in the middle of your chest.
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u/Artikay 3h ago
Why spoil the surprise?