Don't be proud dudes...........you might have symptoms that turn out to be masking as heart problems but actually are something else, and learning about that is NEVER a bad thing. I had weird stuff going on years ago.....fluttering, what I thought were missed heartbeats, chest pains......turns out I had a bad hiatal hernia. The symptoms are very very close but why add to your stress in the "what the hell is wrong with me" category? I know what I have, I control it with less caffeine (you'll never see me grabbing a coffee after 11 AM), less spicy food (okay, thai and Indian food are addictions I have learned to live with ).

A good bud was just having identical symptoms and he was diagosed with work-related panic attacks. He knows what they are now. Why live in fear when the worst thing you can learn is you have stress that you need to control as much as possible?

the only thing that matters in life is.....life. Ego has to go out the window. As I write this, my dad and mom will be returning from a dream vacation to the Meditteranean that was cut short by a serious bout of his atrial fibrillation. He got to see almost none of what he dreamed of (although, thank god, he saw the Vatican before this happened, a lifelong dream of that militant catholic dad of mine...... ) and his vacations must now all be close to home.

If you dream of travel, do it before you get so old you are tied to a fistful of meds and a doctor's care.

great post Vince...........probably the single best one ever done on this board.

VHawk...yes seams crazy, but it was a heart attack...he is convenced he will be working again soon...he thinks shortly after thanksgiving...WRONG ANSWER....he has had a stint...i guess is what you call it put in, and thinks he is just fine..there is also some kind of talk about 30 percent blockage, but they cant do anything till its 70 percent blocked..im not sure, its word from my boss...im going to bug him sometime this weekend...let him settle in a little...plus i sent him my cookies from my Mexico trip...why i say wrong answer is...his doc might clear him, but i garuntee...the fedex docs wont let him work till after christmas...there is no way he will be working after thanksgiving....it only becomes hell after that...but i will say...all the crazy hours i work after thanksgiving are sooooooo very worth it...after Thanksgiving, those kids are the happiest kids in the world when they find out they are getting thier presents "FROM GRANDMA!!!"....i just love to see thier faces light up....our buddie at work is going to miss this one...but not miss the hours.....when i had my life stopped by surgury...my doc told me....chill...how many times in life will you have a break from work...he was right...now if i could just figure out my knee surgury around Coho season...hahahahah....thanks guys...i printed this fourm out to help him...he may have some time to read it....c

VHAWK "I need to add this in...if your a stubborn SOB and don't want to call the ambulance to take you to the ER when your chest pain gets real bad, that's ok. You're an adult and it's your privilege to do stupid things. But don't drive yourself in, you put other peoples lives at risk. Call family, or a taxi. And take that aspirin. "
What do you think about stories of folks driving themselves to an ER and getting there because they breathed a certain way.. Is there any validity to this information?

But, I am sure you are aware that if Aspirin were just put on the market today, it would never be okayed by the FDA. Personally, I take 81mgs a day of the stuff.








personaly

The only breathing technique that helps a person having a heart attack, is the technique using the nasal cannula the medics put on your face before they rush you in with sirens roaring. Anything else is urban myth, a.k.a. BS.

The aspirin though is not BS. It's as effective for thinning the blood as drugs that cost $200 a month.




I roll my eyes without even trying to hide it. I'd beat my head against the wall if it would help. I'll openly tell my clients that waiting was a stupid move. What I NEVER do, is give anyone a hard time for coming in when it turned out to be really just an ulcer flaring up, or "gas pain".
No nurse or MD I've ever worked with will give a person any trouble for coming in with chest pain.

In fact you get bumped ahead of everybody else in the waiting room if you come in by private vehicle with chest pain. If the ER I work at has absolutely none of their 32 beds available, your EKG will be done in a special room in the waiting area, usually within 10 minutes of arrival, and shown immediately to one of our ER physicians. If I'm working, then in that same waiting/holding area your IV will be placed, your bloodwork drawn and sent to the lab, chest xrays will be ordered, you'll be given aspirin and nitro if you meet criteria, and you'll be placed on a cardiac monitor. Once I get started, all that can be done within about 20 minutes. After which you get sent to the nearest available ER bed for an MD evaluation.

All the interventions and diagnostic tests are tracked for timeliness. The team at St Peters constantly makes adjustments to shave minutes off the process. It reminds me of a racing pit team. Its the contrast between the pressured rush of the medical team, where minutes are measured, against the fact that someone waited extra hours, days, weeks, with their symptoms, that's part of what fuels the eye rolling.

We prefer that people with chest pain call 911, but even a call to your doctors office is preferable to waiting at home for the pain to go away.

Here's a bit of truth...all pain and all bleeding eventually stop. Dying is 100% effective at stopping both.

About five years ago I was at my annual physical when the Doc asked about my family history of heart disease. After hearing about my Dad's two bypasses she suggested that I get a scan of my coronary arteries done. I agreed and made the appointment. The scan only took a couple of minutes, but I knew something was up when the technician asked if I was here because of chest pains. The next day I got a call from my Doc who said I had one of the highest scores she had ever seen on that test. I had a lot of crap on my arteries.

I get referred to a Cardiologist who does a nuclear stress test. No problems showed up, but he put me on a bunch of cholesterol lowering meds. He advised me to repeat that nuclear stress test every year. In January of 2006 I experienced some severe pain at the top of my stomach. I was pretty sure it was just acid reflux, but I decided to go to the ER. The Doc there heard about my history and kept me in there for six hours doing blood work etc. At the end the ER Doc was sure I was not having a heart attack, but said it would be a good idea for me to followup with the Cardiologist.

I see my cardiologist who also doesn't believe the pain is heart related, but he asks me if I wanted to have an angiogram done just to see how blocked up I was. I said no to that, but he got me to agree to another nuclear stress test. I had my annual one just five months prior and everything was fine. So I was sure this one would be too. I show up for the test, but the Doc gets called out before he could read my results. The next morning I am at work, having just run six miles, when the Doc calls and says my EKG looked great, my tolerance for excercise was over the top, but, I had a blocked artery.
They fixed me up with a stent two weeks later.

If you got a history of heart disease in your family don't mess around. Talk about it with your Doctor. I am fairly certain that if I had not been checked five years ago and followed through with everything as the Doc had suggested I would have had a major heart attack.

I have one last thing to add. Dr. Vince correct me if I am wrong. I have been told that the #1 indicator for an upcoming heart event ( I'm choosing my words carefully) Is excessive fatigue for no apparent reason. I think about that all the time. I had an experience with a guy who worked for me, we knew his family history was not good. I sent him to the doctors on 2 occasions when he experienced some symptoms that concerned me. The only reason he went was I threatened to call his wife. He was more afraid of her then he was of me. Both turned out to be non events. At the end of the day he went to work for another Superintendent. Died on the way home from work one day of a massive heart attack. He had complained to his family and his Superintendent that he was really tired.... for no apparent reason..

Well, this thread resulted in an interesting weekend for me. I read it quickly it last week when Vhawk put it up, something about numbness, shortness of breath, call emergency, and fatigue or something like that was what I remembered from it. I consider myself fairly healthy, you know, eat about 75% clean, workout hard and often, don't smoke, sleep hard, and never have had any real health complications.

We took our oldest daughter down to Disneyland on Thursday, and stayed with family in Irvine while we were there. We went to Disneyland on Friday, and California Adventure on Sunday. Well, I woke up Sunday feeling a little nauseous, with pain in my back so I was like "Damn, I'm getting the flu." We wandered into Disneyland and my condition deteriorated (a little dizzy, and I think I might barf), we went on Peter Pan's Flight, and coming off I'm a little more dizzy. We were waiting in line for the Circus Train and right when we get to go on, I go straight throught the exit and into the nearest bathroom for a liquified aft media discharge. So now in my head I know I have the flu. I get a Sprite and we go to Calif. Adventure. I feel good for about 5 minutes in there. We are sitting in the "Muppets in 3-d" and I have to run out during the show and blow chunks in the nearest bathroom. The fever has hit me by now, and I got the shakes, my head is pounding, the usual, except I'm at the happiest place on earth not home in bed. I find my wife in a line and get some Tylenol from her (for the fever) before I take it I run to a Monster's Inc garbage can and spew chunder in front of about 100 people waiting in line for JoJo's Circus.

Now this is where the article in this thread makes things weird. I tell the old lady, I am going to go back to the car and drive back to Irvine and call me when they are done. So I start walking back, what I don't realize is that by trying to keep from being nauseous I am taking really shallow breaths. Sitting on the Tram back to the parking garage I basically have my head between my knees to keep concentration on not blowing chunks which further exacerbates the issues. Then I have a long walk through the happiest parking garage on earth, and about halfway down I realize that I can't feel my arms below my elbows, my nose, and that I am going numb right below my rib cage. I'm dizzy, my head is pounding and for the first time ever I started to get freaked out about something being wrong with me.

I get to the car and wait for 15 minutes to see if anything changes. I think I feel better so I start to drive off, I make it about 100 yards, and with the nausea and numbness I feel like a real-life Mr Toad, so I just pull off and sit there in the garage. I'm staring at Daisy Duck on the pillar in the parking garage, through tunnel vision and this article starts flashing through my head. I can't remember what I'm supposed to be looking out for but I start to convince myself that I'm in a tough state. Things just kept getting worse from that point on, so I called my wife "Honey, I'm f*cked up, I can't drive, I can barely walk, I can't feel my nose or arms, and I might call 911." She freaks out. So . . . for the first time ever, I called 9-1-1.

The operator was nice, I turned on my hazard lights and the Disney Security drove past me 5 times in about 20 minutes while I waited, they were looking for me, apparently. Then, when I felt like I was about to black out the Disney nurses showed up, I explained the situation, she took my BP, and then basically called me a pu$$y for calling 9-1-1 and took me to the Disney infirmary where I stumbled to the cot, and slept for 3 hours. Then I got up and went on the Tower of Terror, held my cookies in too, but decided that I shouldn't try any more rides either.

So . . . by all means I would advise anyone in the same situation to still call it an emergency if they are by themselves. There was absolutely no way I could drive, but I could have just slept in the vehicle if I would have read this article a little closer. I guess it was just a combination of the flu making me nauseous and the shortness of breath, that made me feel like I was drunk and having a stroke. The whole thing was pretty embarassing, but I submit it here before everyone to laugh at because now that it is over it just goes into the funny story bin.

Vince,
Thanks for getting this conversation started with your great post. As one of the dough-balls who ended up visiting you because I chose to ignore the early symptoms, I'll second your advice to anyone who'll listen.

Halibutguy,

Good to hear from you. I'm holding you to that offer to do some fishing. Glad you didn't croak over dead.


RR,

"Then, when I felt like I was about to black out the Disney nurses showed up"

Anyone who is alone, driving, and feeling like that are going to black out shouldn't feel like a puss for calling 911. Think about it, the nurses who take care of Dumbo gave you attitude. Not exactly a plethora of previous coronary care experience is my guess. Does a person go from working on a heart transplant team to working the first aid station at an amusement park? Did they show up in mouse ears?

I"ve worked as an EMT at St Bernadines ER in San Berdoo for several years, trained as a 91-A with the NG, worked as a critical care nurse with St Lukes for a couple of years, worked ER's in Boise, Meridian, and Olympia for a total of 8 years. I've got my Certification in Emergency Nursing, Trauma Nurse Core Course, Advanced cardiac life support, and Advanced Pediatric Life Support certifications. The only freakin thing I'm missing is the Disneyland Parking Lot Nursing Badge.

The job requirements listed on their employment website are: Calif RN license, basic CPR card...and a drivers license. Extra credit if the clown shoes fit.

Click here for RN job

You did the right thing...

One other point, your symptoms are not those of influenza. Common symptoms of real flu infection are fever, sore throat, muscle pains, severe headache, coughing, weakness and general discomfort. Influenza also can lead to pneumonia. Influenza is a much more severe disease than the common cold and is caused by a different type of virus.

The real FLU kills. I mention this because I don't want people to assume that if they had stomach cramps and the craps, that they had the flu...and so they don't need their vaccination. If you had a cough, shortness of breath, and a high fever, with a headache that brought you to tears, ok well then you might have really had the flu. On the misery index, the flu falls just barely below a kidney stone, or having a baby stuck in your vagina.

Although nausea and vomiting can be produced,these symptoms are more typical of gastroenteritis. Severe gastroenteritis can lead to dehydration and produce the symptoms you described, including loss of consciousness. It can be serious if left untreated. It is the leading cause of death for children in third world countries.

A good rule of thumb is that if your not able to drink water because of the nausea, you should seek some medical attention.


VHawk

After sittin in the ER for a number of hours and finding out I was most likely not having a heart attack I felt bad. I told the ER doc I was sorry for taking up space. The ER doc got this "WTF are you talking about look on her face". This was followed by a mini lecture of how I did the right thing.

That pain never came back after I was released. But, if not for the fact that I went, I would never have followed up with my cardiologist as the doc told me to do and I would have had the Jim Fix experience on one of my subsequent runs.

Thanks for posting the topic Vince. A lot of people have read this thread and who knows whether you may have saved someone's life - I believe you probably will if you have not already.

The one real positive about my experience, besides not dying, was Morphine. It'd be real easy to get used to that stuff. Add fresh oxygen and I'm not sure I cared if I was going to die.
All kidding aside. When they are wheeling you in for an Angiogram and telling you if you need stents they'll do up to two and any more than that they transfer you for bypass or open heart surgery it's a real sobering experience. I was lucky in that I only had 25% blockage which the Cardiologist say's can be rectified with diet and exercise. The nurse told me I was one of the few lucky ones who get to walk out of critical care.

Hey you guys - They're talking about fishing over on the heart attack web-site.

That's what cardiac cripples do, they talk about all the stuff they use to like to do but can't anymore.

Just pokin' a little fun atcha. My Dad had one 2 yrs ago, so I know I need to pay attention.

WOW......Thanks V-Hawk and to you for thinking so fast and doing the correct thing, makes me think too. Although I will probably be the one with the symptoms, I and every one of us need to take this seriously.

I just found out last week that my little brother "Jerry" aka FishNgKing on the board has failing kidneys and is going to need a transplant very soon. All of his brothers and sisters are awaiting donar news, IE compatability and such. He is only in his early Forties.


Steve

Blue Water, your welcome. You can also thank whatever Mod decided to make it a sticky a while back. Otherwise this thread would have probably faded away a while back. Good job taking care of your old man. You picking up those subtle clues saved him. I'm pretty jazzed to hear that something I wrote was useful to somebody in a meaningful way. Cool.

Steve,

All the luck to your brother on finding a match. He's way too young to be dealing with something like that.
I've met a couple of guys who gave their kidneys to basically strangers. I thought it the most amazing heroic acts of charity. Hopefully it doesn't come down to that for your bro. Best wishes for him. Someone will show up with a kidney, and give him many more seasons of water.


VHawk

Here's my little story to tell. This summer we went to Howard Prairie Lake to do some tubing and fishing. On the way up into the mountains I started getting "pressure" at the top of my chest and my jaw was killing me. I shook it off and the feeling subsided after 3-5 minutes. This feeling continued the entire 4 days we were up there at random, and I just attributed it to being at high altitude and TMJ (I grind my teeth badly and my jaw hurts sometimes).

Fast forward a week with these feelings coming and going the whole time. On 7/12/07 I was woke up in the morning with my neck and jaw hurting quite badly. The symptoms kept repeating every 15 minutes or so and got longer in duration. At @ 1000 hours I started getting pain radiating down both arms and my fingers started tingling. I knew at this point that it was not TMJ. The feeling was lasting about 10-15 minutes before I finally dialed 911. Approximately 10 minutes later the ambulance arrived and they took me to the hospital. On the way they gave me 3 shots of morphine that did absolutely nothing to diminish the pain. At this point my chest, neck, jaw and arms were in excruciating pain. They gave me another shot of morphine when I got to the hospital and still no relief. They finally had me sign a release for a new clot busting med that just came out. I threw my X down and they loaded me up with K&T (whatever that stands for I dunno). 14 minutes later...Bam! The pain disappeared.

They stabilized me here in Crescent City and put me on a Life Flight over to RVMC in Medford. The doc told me that I suffered a major heart attack due to a blockage in my heart and since they had me stabilized, they were going to do a cath the next day. They put me in the CCCU and did an angioplasty first thing the next morning. They found that the right coronary artery was 99% blocked, and my left was 97% blocked. The doc explained that the "feelings" I was getting for the whole week prior were mini Myocardial Infarctions (MIs), and my body was able to break down the clots and process them. The clot that did me in was way too big for my body to break down, and completely blocked off flow to the bottom portion of my heart.

The doctor placed 2 Texxus Stents in the blocked arteries and opened up the flow. He told me that if I didn't follow his directions, he would just open me up right there and do a bypass. My wife and I assured him that I would follow his instructions, and he put in stents. My cholesterol levels were excellant..."For someone that doesn't have Heart Disease." (Doctor's quote). I just had a stress test done in March and an ECG. Both of those tests never indicated blockages in my heart. I have a family history of HD, but never felt that I was at risk. After all, I am only 43 years old!

Moral of the story. Don't EVER take chest pains lightly. Always have them checked out. I didn't listen to my wife when we got back from boating and I damn near died in front of my 17 y/o daughter that day, because I was hard-headed. The doc said the three things that saved my life were:

1. I quit smoking over 11 years ago.
2. I had the sense to dial 911 when I did.
3. I have a very strong heart.

Please, don't ever mess around with chest pains. Seek attention immediately.