Advice ?

[Hayleypal]

Hello. A few weeks ago I had all the symptoms of a heart attack after being unwell for a few weeks.. at the time although it was scary I passed it off because it wasnt as dramatic as i thought and my 5 year old daughter was with me .. it lasted around 5 minutes .. a few days later my mum made me ring 111 who told me to go to a and e so i did .. which i was told off for

. Ecg and bloods came back fine does that mean it wasnt a heart attack would it show up on bloods 2 -3 days later.. I have a family history of heart attacks my nan died at 50. I dont know if it's worth going to the drs at this point being weeks later etc any info would be appreciated. thank you x

[NorthantsSteve]

Hi Hayleypal. I had a heart attack aged 55 from nowhere. No warning and I’m not someone who fits with the usual characteristics. I can confirm that it’s not always dramatic but it is scary. Definitely go to your doctor and talk to him/her about your experience. It might have been a heart attack or it could have been angina or something similar. At the very least you should be monitored given your family history and you need to know your cholesterol etc. Please don’t ignore this episode.

[Hayleypal in reply to NorthantsSteve]

Thank you for the reply I will go to the drs then. I'm mad at myself for not calling when it happened .. its probably nothing anyways but suppose best to get checked. Thank you

[NorthantsSteve in reply to Hayleypal]

That’s brilliant. Troponin (proteins that are release when you have a heart attack) can stay in the blood for a couple of weeks so it might be possible to rule that out. Good luck. If it is something serious then it’s best to know about it so you can try to avoid it happening in future. The very worst thing is not to know. But - as you say - it’s probably nothing.

[Kristin1812 Heart Star]

Like you, I failed to get help at the time, with one of my HAs. It was because I was in the middle row in our film club, and didn’t want to disturb people.

Reading this again, I can’t believe how silly I was!

[Calliope153 in reply to Kristin1812]

I waited 4 hours to get help because I didn;t realise it was a heart attack and I didn;t want to inconvenience my husband who was actually at the hospital with his 90 year old aunt who had had a fall...... as it was 100% blockage I was lucky in the care I received and I survived. I don;t think you are at all silly; we're all equally bad at looking after ourselves!!

[Hayleypal in reply to Calliope153]

Thank you everyone I was nervous posting about it, I dont know about you all but personally if my someone told me the symptoms I had I would be ringing an ambulance straight away but I didnt for myself how silly. Thank you all xx

[NorthantsSteve in reply to Hayleypal]

Hi Hayleypal. It’s actually not that silly. Most people are psychologically predisposed to think that catastrophes (including dying) apply to other people and not themselves. It’s a psychological trick that helps us to cope with life. For those people who do catastrophise it can be very crippling. This is an interesting article. google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theg...

[Kristin1812 Heart Star in reply to NorthantsSteve]

Hi, Steve. Thanks for pointing out your ref. How fascinating! Their interpretation of the study is a bit of an interpretive leap.... but I have been sure there was some way we protect ourselves, all our lives, from the terrifying thought of just not being here. Interestingly, I’ve recently noticed that death is becoming a much more comforting thought to me!

I have a theory that eventually the benefits of dying are going to be higher than the costs of a weary and restricted life.

But not yet!

[Sillyfroggy in reply to Calliope153]

Several hours waiting here too. It felt too mild to be anything desperate. Dr google kept telling me cardiac, and eventually I found my way here. I posted the afternoon prior to my midnight heart attack, querying the ‘weird ache’ I’d been having on and off for 4 days.

By the time I got to read the responses I was on the ward the next day!

I’ve just hung around since!

[ThePlanter]

Please see your doctor and explain your family history as well. You may have been dealt a poor pack of cards (genes) but you can take control over most heart conditions once you have a diagnosis with your diet and exercise, and this will be good for you and your family as well. Try and eat lots of dark green leafy vegetables, other vegetables, fruit, beans and whole grains daily as this will help with heart health and reduce consumption of inflammatory animal proteins and processed food. If your GP cannot find anything, insist on a referral to a cardiologist based on your family history. There will be some explanation and then you can plan around it once you have all the information.

[DavidG1971]

I had a massive Angina attack while on work in America. Bad enough that I took an Uber straight to hospital. They did every test imaginable and sent me away with a clean bill of health.....told me it was muscular. I took that as a fact and was swimming around Hvar a month later - taking rests to stretch my tight back muscles when it got really painful. Turned out I was somehow swimming with a completely blocked LAD. Go to the GP - ASAP!

[Oldearkie_83 in reply to DavidG1971]

David, I can understand the confusion. Apparently it was due to the word "Angina" and geography. Angina is merely the Latin word for pain, so you could have had angina in the big toe or in the appendix. In America, some Doctors say Angina Pectoris is a heart attack, while the literal meaning is "pain in the chest" and nothing to do with the heart. Here in the good ole US, part of practicing medicine is to confuse the patient with "Doctor Speak". Good for you that you survived. I'll state the obvious: pick the doctor's brains and insist on a thorough explanation, wherever you are. Some years ago, I was having similar difficulty and took care of it with Intravenous Chelation with EDTA rather than having the bypass surgery the doctor was insisting on. While he was insisting, I was reading and saved myself bypass surgery and lengthy recovery (and a bucket of money).

[Kristin1812 Heart Star in reply to DavidG1971]

Ah! The old ‘tight back muscle’ symptom!

One of my most common angina symptom is back pain, central or just under the left shoulder blade.

We all seem to suffer very different heart signs and symptoms......

[Symba]

Hi i have the same thing now and then,was told by the doctor it was the muscle going into spasms and gave me table to soften the muscle,touch wood nothing since.