The reports of my demise are highly exaggerated!

I am SO glad you are all right!!! Hope the rest of your visit to Florida is uneventful! Barbara in C "

So glad it wasn't a heart attack. But not so pleased about the stress symptoms. Prayers for a less stressful life and hope your furbaby gets well quickly.

Alice...similar happened to my mom Thursday night/all day Friday (about 5 days ago). I found out on my way home from work Friday and ended up sitting with her in the ER till 1 a.m. DS fed and took care of her dogs once he got home from school. Relieved to find out it was probably anxiety.

All that is to say, I'm glad it wasn't a heart attack. Take care of yourself!

Dragonfly (Pam)

Glad you are OK. Hope the rest of your Florida trip is uneventful! Barbara in SC

so glad they figured it out for you and its not the heart acting silly. after reading all that you went thru i've decided when it happens to me i wont bother calling for help. i dont want to go thru all that. my heart is not good, i know that. my father dragged it out for 8yrs and that was not good to see and he only got worse thru those yrs. i'd rather go fast and be done with it. fast is also easier for those left behind to deal with i think. j.

"AliceW" wrote ... I'm ok, really, but I now know what a heart attack feels like - but it wasn't one.

Two police cars, and EMT unit and an ambulance arrive within minutes. My life was no longer my own from then on. IV lines were started, cardiac monitors hooked up, nitroglycerine sprayed under my tongue. Pain diminishes.

Arrive at the ER and pushed to the head of the line. More IV lines, more monitors, chest x-rays, more nitro. Blood draws too. Have I ever told you I don't tolerate needles very well?

Shoulder pain returns full force - more nitro, pain diminished. They need to monitor my enzymes overnight so I am admitted to the cardiac care unit. Blood draws every 3 hours (felt like one of my pincushions in my quilting room - see and you thought it was going to be an OT post!); vitals every 2 hours since nitro lowers blood pressure big time and I am on the low side on a normal day. Blood draws can't be taken from one of my lines. Still no food since breakfast.

Enzymes keep coming up normal. I sleep some but scared about what is going on. I had several EKGs, an echo-cardiogram, a stress test with and without thallium. All tests are negative - no cardiac issues. Finally get to eat a light lunch at 4 pm - almost 32 hours since my last meal - boy was I famished!

So I used some of my root cause analysis skills from my job. The popular opinion is that I had a severe case of stress-induced gastritis. The stress built up until it focused itself in my shoulder. The meds taken to relieve that pain caused the gastritis. I was feeling pretty good by late afternoon and was discharged around 6:30 that night and was feeling good as new by the following morning and after a good nights sleep in my own bed. I had a follow up with my doctor the following day since I had a trip to my mom's in Florida planned and really felt well enough to go. He cleared me for travel. I was given some lidocaine patches just in case and was told to limit the meds - and the stress. I left with my DH and 5 yo grandson the following day for Florida and felt great - until..........I received some bad news from the vet about my sweet Kirby (found the cause of his unending itching and biting was ringworm). That set off the stress meter once again and knocked me off my feet for the next 30 hours. But now I knew how to treat it - a lidocaine patch, some light food in my stomach at all times and happy thoughts. So far (knock wood), that has worked. Of course, I go back to work tomorrow.......

I will continue to listen to my body but I am really glad it was not a heart attack - I would not wish that pain on my worst enemy! I think I need some quilting therapy!

Alice you must have been terrified! I'm so glad it wasn't a heart attack. Personal experience -- I had a similar experience. After all the heart tests, etc, they sent me to a gastro dr. who very quickly diagnosed severe Gastro Reflux. A steady "diet" of "the purple pill" and no more burritos made me a much more comfortable woman. I have to be careful and now I know the early symptoms and put myself on over the counter Prilosec for two weeks. That does the trick. Ask your doctor about reflux. It's brought on by stress and lots of other things.

Sunny

Alice, I don't want to worry you further, or worry you needlessly, but I want to tell you what happened to me eight years ago. I had severe jaw pain, then chest pain. Almost the same as your story. I had an electrocardiogram, thalium test, ultrasound, X-rays, perfect blood enzyme test. They pronounced my cardiac health fit as a fiddle, were ready to send me home. A different cardiolgost had my doc's office fax over my most recent electrocardiogram. There was a marked different in some T-wave or something, and this particular cardiologst was uneasy about it. The other docs thought it was just a gastrointestinal problem and TMJ. After all, I was 46 years old and looked pretty darn healthy.

He made the decision to do a heart cath. The heart cath showed severely blocked arteries and I had to have an emergency quadruple bypass.

Now, the reason I am telling you this, is that I was under the assumption that since all the above testing showed *great* results, it was all probably good. That isn't always true. The heart cath is the only definitive way for the docs to see exactly what's going on with your heart.

A heart cath is higher-risk than most tests, very expensive, and they don't like to perform them unless they deem it absolutely necessary.

Anyway, what I am saying (and saying it badly, I'm afraid -- honest, I don't want to come off as a doomsayer or nagger). Just listen to your body. If you have symptoms that don't seem to jive with the diagnosis you were given, don't hesitate to report them.

If it was not for that one persistent cardiologist who disagreed with all the other doctors, I would not be here today.

Best of luck to you! (And I had gastritis once, and it felt so much like a heart attack I called the Air Evac helicopter. I apologized at the hospital for all the drama, and they said, "Hey. It's better to be safe than sorry. Ulcers, gastrointestinal problems, esophogal abraisons, gastritis -- are all things that mimic heart attack symptoms, and there's no way to know unless you *do* go to the hospital.

Sherry

You do know that you're supposed to swallow it and not smoke it, right?

Reminds me of the guy who went to his doctor and the doctor gave him some suppositories. A week later, the guy came back and said, "Doc, these things aren't helping a bit." The doctor says, "Are you sure you've been taking them regularly?" The guys says, "What do you think, I've been shoving them up my... ?"

You must be tons of fun at parties...

Alice, I'm so glad you're feeling better. I realize it's not foolproof, but I'm really curious as to why the nitroglycerin helped.

--Heidi

I am currently waiting for an angioplasty after having a heart attack that didn't feel like one. I'd had much more severe pain from other causes before (interaction between cheese and MAOI antidepressants being the worst, abscess in the ear canal next, gall bladder attack a long way behind either of those) and this wasn't in that league. Pain in my chest and left armpit but really not all that bad.

I'd been having chest pain for a couple of months, brought on by exertion. So I figured I either had some oesophagus problem (reflux, scleroderma or hiatus hernia) or else angina. But this time, it wasn't exertion that did it. So I called the ambulance. Nothing immediately obvious on the ECG but they took me into hospital anyway; blood tests showed a mild heart attack.

Had a treadmill test a few days later, hooked up to an ECG. The ECG said I ought to have been in severe pain and I wasn't: just a vague feeling that something wasn't quite right and I couldn't push myself any harder.

Apparently this sort of heart attack that doesn't feel like one is more common in women and diabetics. It's why heart attacks are more likely to be fatal in women - they don't realize what's happening and leave it too late before getting help.

==== j a c k at c a m p i n . m e . u k === ==== Jack Campin, 11 Third St, Newtongrange EH22 4PU, Scotland == mob 07800 739 557 CD-ROMs and free stuff: Scottish music, food intolerance, and Mac logic fonts

You are 'waiting' for an angioplasty? For crying out loud you should have had one within 24 hours or less after they found out the situation you were in. I hate to say this but when dh was in the hospital an illegal alien here got an angioplasty in less than 8 hours. This is what scares me about nationalized health care. That is just flat out wrong and unacceptable. I hope you get the care you need before your heart is damaged more for the waiting. Please take care. I surely hope they did more than send you home with aspirin. Taria

I had an angiogram while I was in. They decided to defer a decision about what to do until they'd done more tests (their first impulse was do an immediate bypass, so I'm not sorry they went that route). If I'd been in immediate mortal danger, of course they'd have done more. I walked a few miles today with no angina pain at all, so I doubt I'm about to crack a camshaft any moment. I go back next week for a checkup, the angioplasty is the week after that.

What would scare an American would be "if this is going to mean paying for heart surgery, that's me bankrupted, I lose my house, and my kids could never afford to go to college" - so they'd tough it out, hope for the best and die.

Having experienced the American health system, it's the main reason I never intend to set foot in the place ever again. (I was left waiting in agony in a supposedly first-rate American hospital with that MAOI/ cheese interaction with no examination for any kind for five hours - not even a blood pressure check, despite being covered by insurance. I knew I could have had a stroke at any moment and that it could be prevented with simple medication, but think I could get anyone to listen? Once the pain stopped I simply walked out. I may or may not have said something to the effect of "thanks for nothing, you tossers").

Lots of different drugs when I was in; boxes of aspirin, clopidogrel, atorvastatin, and bisoprolol to take home, and a change of drug for another condition because it might have interacted with those. No charge for anything, no forms filled in except a consent form for the angioplasty, nobody asked me for any ID. And since I was 60 a few weeks ago, I get prescription medications free (that's the system in Scotland, it's different in England and different again in Wales).

Anyway to reiterate, this was the main point of that previous post:

==== j a c k at c a m p i n . m e . u k === ==== Jack Campin, 11 Third St, Newtongrange EH22 4PU, Scotland == mob 07800 739 557 CD-ROMs and free stuff: Scottish music, food intolerance, and Mac logic fonts

Oh gosh, Alice I can see why you thought it might be a heart attack. Yikes! So glad it wasn't! And you DEFINITELY need to spend more time quilting and less time worrying. I hereby prescribe quilting therapy. If your doctor had known about quilting therapy, he would have prescribed it too.

Best regards, Michelle > I'm ok, really, but I now know what a heart attack feels like - but it > wasn't one.

I am glad you are ok for now and happy with your care. Take care and good luck with recovery. I have learned that heart doctors are very unhappy when they are not successful. ; ) Lots of info online. This might be something women here might want to take a look at:

It really seemed odd that my shoulder pain produced severe stomach upset but reflux and excessive acid production sound like reasonable results of stress and/or anxiety. I now carry extra strength chewable Rolaids. I have only used them once but they worked very quickly. I am not a fan of spicy foods and with being on WW, I am careful of my diet but I know the acid production has a direct connection to stress. Lifestyle changes have already started. I put a sign up on my office wall that says "You CAN do it all, you just don't HAVE to do it all". I also have a lot of people coming to me for things they need that day for one reason or another and I have started to tell them I can't get to that today, but tomorrow is good. Saying "No" is a good thing when health is concerned.

Thanks, Sherry. I understand what you are saying and I totally agree. I had an EKG in February 08 and they compared that with the ones done in the hospital and there were no changes between then and now. All of those showed no abnormalities. I will certainly continue to follow up with my Primary doctor - and listen to my body!

The nitro is a vaso-dilator from what they told me. So it dropped my blood pressure and perhaps allowed extra oxygen to the parts in pain - or just allowed me to relax. It worked every time but because of the blood pressure drop, they can only use it when you have high enough blood pressure numbers.

I have so far been pain free. Stress reduction is in progress. I went through some of my stash yesterday and lined up some small projects to start. The DH and I also visited some friends yesterday to attend a local jazz festival in their town and as we walked around the town, I spotted a yarn shop. The girls went in of course and I bought some yarn to knit a little pumpkin cap for my new grand daughter. Knitting has always been very relaxing for me and it's something I can take with me in the car or to do at lunch time (I am no longer working through lunch!). I don't do a lot of hand quilting so a yarn project is a good alternative for a portable project.