Ok, so i'm not in case you are worried, but reading some threads got me thinking...
We as humans, and especially when we get older, dont like to "bother" people like GPs/111 and A&E, at what point did you think 'something is wrong here' or did you end up waking up in post op recovery?
My (short) story is I went to work in the morning (in a gym!) and checked my own pulse, I unknowingly was in AF and none of our machines could give me a proper reading! I went to my boss to complain that something was either wrong with our equipment or me... Ambulance called and straight to hospital for open heart surgery - turns out it was me!
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Smarticus
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Couldn’t make it up the stairs went to the doctor she sent for an ambulance in hospital for a total of 8 weeks last week recovery from Aortic valve and bypass! Kept telling myself it would get better obviously it didn’t 😉
We try to convince ourselves that it’s something that we can get over! Can’t believe our bodies are letting us down. I was drowning in my own fluid but just thought I would be ok and I could cope. I really was a complete idiot I nearly crossed that line where there is no coming back from. Now very aware 😊
I am so glad that you didn’t cross that line. I still sometimes think that all I need to do is to get on with life, back to the gym, back to work, busy, busy, busy. Then I have to go back upstairs and need to take a few minutes to recover or I stand up and go very dizzy. I don’t know if I’ll ever really accept my heart failure and SDS.
Maybe the idea is we don’t accept we have heart issues but we work with them and round them, I know I can’t do what I used to takes me longer but that could be me getting older😉 There I go again making excuses!
Before my ICD was fitted I was prescribed nadalol. My heart rate was dropping and I did feel ill. It was dipping below 40 and I passed out at which point my husband rang 999. When the paramedics arrived my heart rate was below 35bpm and when I came round in the ambulance they asked me at what point was I going to ring them?
"at what point was I going to ring them?" good grief, that is so funny. I know its not but... this explains what I was getting at. I asked my surgeon "what happens if I dont have the Op?", after 5 weeks with them trying to stabilise me and 3 heart attacks in hospital, he said "you have two weeks to decide, and then you're dead!"
I know. Not wanting to waste peoples’ time is such a strong feeling. And wow. 2 weeks and then you’re dead? That must have been hard to hear. Glad that you’re still here!
I felt I shouldn't bother the emergency teams, so after 2nd (unbeknownst to me) heart attack, I went to my GP. He said it was probably anxiety, but acknowledged alarmingly high BP, and added bisoprolol. Had an ECG which he said was 'reassuringly normal'. Had a whopper of a heart attack 2 days later and still didn't want to call 999. Husband did eventually, with me saying - 'well it might not be a heart attack, but something's just not right' as I crawled along the floor from the bathroom! I'm still loathe to 'bother' them, and next health alarm I rang 111 - and they rang 999 for me! Silly, as I've worked for NHS for 2 decades on and off.
I totally agree, I'm retired nurse, I should have realised my symptoms wasn't indigestion. 18 months later I had 2 attacks both on Sunday's, both at rest, once eating lunch and one just sitting. Reached for trusty Google, as it didn't seem right. Yes had all the symptoms of angina. The gp confirmed this. Again not wanting to bother the already stretched services , I kept quiet , where I could have had meds a long time ago.
Went to bed on 27/12/18, finished reading a book and turned light off. 10 minutes later felt like I had severe indigestion. Got up and sat on the edge of the bed for 15 mins, not going away and then I started coughing. After a few minutes of coughing I realised I was starting to have trouble breathing. At this point I had no idea it was a heart attack as it just didn't fit what I thought were the symptoms of a heart attack, but it had got me freaked out enough to ring 999 the dispatcher took my details and said an ambulance was on the way. I live alone, so somehow I was calm enough to get dressed and go downstairs and open the front door, all the time holding on to the phone with the dispatcher at the other end. My plan was to walk down the drive and sit on the wall so that the ambulance would quickly spot me, my body however had had enough and I ended up in a heap on the floor just outside the front door waiting for the ambulance. 2 paramedic cars and an ambulance turned up within 6 minutes of starting my call to 999. I vaguely realised I was moved from the ambulance to A&E in local hospital, then back to ambulance to Heart and Chest Hospital (think it was the cold night air hitting me) beyond that the next thing I remember was coming around from an induced coma having had a heart attack/cardiac arrest and 1 stent fitted.
Frightening to think I could have just lay in bed and tried to ignore the "indigestion"
I certainly wasn't - my idea of a heart attack was someone lying on the floor clutching their chest. I now know that the "unable to breathe" was pulmonary edema caused by the heart being unable to pump properly and the lungs filling with fluid
My husband gets angry and aggressive when he's having a heart attack, nothing like they show on TV. He's just out of hospital now after having a TIAs that caused his heart beats to slow down an alarming rate. Hoping he's going to be ok now. Our small bed room and three large paramedics is not ideal !
Some recent research suggests that women have the same symptoms as men however if they mention the other symptoms such as nausea, fatigue and breathlessness the chest pain is overlooked and they are misdiagnosed.
'Typical symptoms are more common and have greater predictive value in women than in men with myocardial infarction whether or not they are diagnosed using sex‐specific criteria.'
Is having a coughing fit for no apparent reason sign of further heart problems?
Had chest pain about year ago, called 111, they sent ambulance, eventualy myocardial scans said probs with LAD and scaring been on meds since xmas, now waiting for angiogram since march cough getting more intense.
I think the answer is maybe. A cough that doesn't go away maybe a sign of heart problems, possibly heart failure as when the heart starts to struggle to pump enough blood a frequent side effect of this is a build of fluid in the lungs that show as a persistent cough.
Some medicines also leave people with a tickly dry cough - Ramipril (or any other of the angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors) do this, see link to NHS page below:-
Thanks, I'm on Ramipril but had a cough before starting on them, i also have normal/low blood presure, only thing nurse suggested is if my sys is below 100 wait to take tablets.
Thanks for the link, think I'll call dr. on Monday see what they suggest
I'm on Rampril and get bizzare coughing fits in the middle of the night, seems to be one of the side effects. I would speak to your GP but I bet they put you down for a covid test! every symptom seems to be treated as covid these days...
Never had cough before chest pain last year, but definitely getting worse, I'll just start coughing with no warning, which often is in the night when I'm sleep 😁
After two years being told it was muscular. One night I thought the indigestion was a bit bad so I took some indigestion mixture, had a bowl of porridge ....and went back to sleep. Next morning I thought I had better contact someone so I drove myself to A&E waited two hours and that was the last time I saw my home for two months. Had a triple bypass. I did not have that dramatic chest clasping pain you see in films but they say women have different symptoms to men. Now back to fitness and sport.
Women apparently have different experiences when having a heart attack. I had had menstrual bleeding for six months solid, and my Dr was investigating it. Luckily my Dr did an open access surgery ,where you went and just waited for a Dr who could see you. I saw the Dr and he said my blood pressure was through the roof, and asked if anyone could take me to the local gynaecology unit.
At the unit they did an ECG which I thought was weird and blood tests. They examined me and sent me home. I was at home when a nurse called me and asked how was I feeling, I said fine, but she said I needed to go to A and E because Id had a heart attack, my blood test had shown my heart attack levels were high.
I went back, and then transferred to a heart hospital. I was in hospital for five days, and had two stents fitted. It really was a silent heart attack, I felt nothing.
I presented at A&E (wife drove me in) after suffering chest pain (“it’s just trapped wind, I’ll be fine”) for around 16 hours and being up half the night. No way did I need to call an ambulance, that would be ridiculous wouldn’t it? The consultant in A&E was not best pleased and told me it would been far more ridiculous to die upside down on the couch trying to rid myself of the “trapped wind”. Apparently if I’d called 111 and described my symptoms I’d have been blue lighted to A&E. It’s one part of my story I tell people, particularly men, to try and get the point across that the emergency services are there for when we need them. With symptoms occurring, it’s is much better safe than sorry.
The experiences that folk have written about resonates with me. One of the other messages I keep telling anyone willing to hear is "keep aspirin in the house" as my wife was instructed by 999, whilst the ambulance was on the way, to make me chew 300mg of aspirin.
And when I was in the cath lab there was some consternation that my ambulance record was missing and they needed to know if was I given aspirin. I was, fortunately, able to tell them.
Like others have written I thought it was bad indigestion - I even took 2 Rennie's! Then I realised I was having a HA as a friend of mine had displayed similar symptoms to the ones I was experiencing: chest pain, nausea, clammy sweatyness, shortness of breath.
And I was not on the at risk radar of my surgery given my NHS MOT. Just goes to show the are no certainties. But if I hadn't have been so fit and 'young' (59 at the time) I might not have made the recovery I have.
Like others, I'm grateful for everyday and for the expertise and care of everyone in the NHS.
Had chest pain one morning that felt like bad indigestion, but something just didn’t feel right. Drove myself to A&E and waited 8 hours to be seen, pain had gone by the time I was seen by the nurse. ECG and blood test nothing found, you can go home, come back and see us if it happens again. Next day was a day off from work, went out shopping with the wife, nothing, no pains or symptoms. Day after pain again, back to A&E. This time they found something, kept in hospital for 10 days waiting for a bed in another hospital where I had one stent fitted.
Never understood why they didn’t spot it the first time, but there you go. 🤔
Like others I ignored the signs. At work in the morning I suffered pains down both arms, was clammy, felt nauseous, and had to quickly visit a toilet, a colleague said it wasnt a heart problem as you've pain in both arms and no chest pain, thought it was onset of flu being November. Finished work, picked up the wife from her work and went home, was still having pains in arms when I told her what had happened. She went ballistic and said to phone someone, me being me and not wanting to waste peoples time phoned 111 to shut her up. Result was a blue light trip to hospital for a 8 night stay and 4 stents followed by a further angiogram and stent, they couldnt unblock the right artery but said it was ok as collaterals had formed from the lad to give a blood supply.
This is a very interesting thread. My neighbour had HA in Feb and didn’t recognise the symptoms. Which has made me go round asking friends if they actually know the myriad of ways that a HA can present. Meanwhile as a 111 clinician don’t hesitate to call as you’re not wasting our time. People who waste our time are those who phone with a mouth ulcer or have achy knees which turns out they’ve had for 15 years and never bothered to see GP. We can get an ambulance out to you quickly if we are made aware of your situation. Never ever not call.
I felt like I was suffering from indigestion, with a funny feeling in my left arm. Went all day like this, being 35 I kept thinking it cant be my heart but I knew it was, I finally called an ambulance and they got to me just in time as I had a cardiac arrest, blue lighted to hospital and 1 stent. That was 2 years ago but the fear never goes away xxx
Whilst I totally agree with all your comments I do have a problem in that I do suffer with cronic indigestion and if I called an ambulence each time I had chest discomfort quite literally i would be calling them 2 or 3 times a day!. My history is that I had a heart attack in 2001 and Rotablation followed by 2 stents in 2018. Quite severe Heart Disease & Angina. Its such a difficult call as the symptoms mimic each other!.
Thank you all for your comments! There are some amazing stories and common themes. I do believe someone like the BHF should run a campaign similar to the stroke one (FAST) to educate the public?
Well I said in one of my posts . People with known hereditary heart disease like I have , should have an angiogram in the same way people can be tested for other serious diseases As a preventative measure. No good bolting the stable door after the horse has bolted🤕
Thanks, as so many others, i thought i would just get better! when I saw my boss to complain about our equipment (lol silly now) I even asked for half a day because I wasnt feeling well (i thought i had overdone it with the coffee that morning). I remind myself everyday how lucky I was and also how stuborn we can be!
Not just heart attacks - it took my dentist threatening he'd ring for an ambulance if I didn't agree to go straight over to the GP. It took her less than two minutes to discover I was on the verge of cardiac tamponade. I knew I was 'unwell' but despite having recurrent pericarditis for over 20 years I didn't realise how very unwell I was and so didn't even think about seeing a medic.
If my dentist hadn't twigged, I would have gone home that day thinking 'Whatever this is, I'll get over it without bothering the doctor...'and quite likely have died that night according to the cardiologist.
It was my husband who had the heart attack
and I called the ambulance. I took the decision when he said that the “indigestion” he’d had for about half an hour was getting worse.” I looked at his white face and said where exactly is the pain and he put a clenched fist to the centre of his sternum. I just knew.
The ambulance took about 35 minutes to get to him. The pain had already gone into his neck and was going down his arm by the time they arrived. And by then he was coughing. The paramedic knew as soon as he came in what was happening and made immediate plans to get him to a specialist cardiac centre. Apart from the pain, trouble breathing, clamminess one of the things I remember was squeezing his hand before he went to the ambulance and it was ice cold. I thought at the time, it’s the adrenaline, but no. He had a second heart attack in hospital and when the surgeon and one of his team came out to see him, they felt his hands and feet to check they were warm. Low tech but significant. Surgeon said when you’re having a heart attack your heart beats inefficiently.
I talked to one of the BHF nurses and she said, “We all have a classic image of what someone having a heart attack looks like, they’re ok one minute, clutching at their chest the next. It doesn’t usually happen like that”. She also said that when people don’t “expect” to be having a heart problem they’re much more likely to attribute it to something else.
The tough macho masculine man I thought I was didnt want to concern my wife because we had the grand kids staying the weekend and she was loving every minute. Being the gent I can be, we'd been out for a family meal, was one space left in her sons car after our evening out obviously it was hers and I'd happily walk the 20 minutes home. After 10 minutes I was feeling pretty rough, breathless, sweaty, pain in jaw/ear then the sudden bolt of agonising pain with left me motionless for what seemed like a while but probably only 5 minutes, eventually I pulled myself together and got home. Didnt say a word as I didnt want the weekend ruined for my wife. As the next couple of days went by I felt a bit better until the Thursday and yes another heart attack at work, still i stayed quiet and drove home to a concerned wife, saying I looked very poorly. Was at this point I explained everything and she hit the roof, was in the ambulance being carted off to hospital before she calmed down
Lesson:- dont suffer and pretend it's nothing, the nhs are the greatest organisation ever and are there to save lives
Hi. It’s not only people having heart attacks or angina but any odd symptoms that should call for help really. My husband had a chest infection and then what had the appearances of a panic or anxiety attack. He wouldn’t call 111 even though he said to me “what if it’s my heart” because it was Saturday night and he was seeing the GP first thing on Monday morning.
Well, the GP thought it might be a clot on his lung. But it turned out to be Dilated Cardiomyopathy and his Ejection Fraction (amount of blood pumped out of the left side of the heart to the body each beat, normally 55-60% or so) was just 10-15%. He was at very high risk of an irregular rhythm and a “sudden cardiac event” ie arresting.
I was abroad had different illnesses over two months only 49 ate healthy walked then one day back shoulder pain went three dr said muscular so everytime I felt better didn’t want go bk in end ended up ha so scary ha sometimes no warnings and symptons can easily be diagnosed to something else which is why most of us don’t want to go to the a and e
Another scenario is question the unexpected! My husband always brought me a cuppa before he went to work. I waited 10 minutes and he didn't appear. I went downstairs and found him on the garden bench clutching his chest. 999 immediately. Doctors said that prompt reaction saved his life. When it was my turn my husband was having his after lunch sleep when I felt like someone was sitting on my chest. I did a 111 but they sent an ambulance. I put my head round the bedroom door and sweetly said " there is an ambulance coming but its not for you its for me." I had tachycardia and other heart problems which are still an issue but prompt action saved me too. Don't hesitate. Act!
Talking about sending for an ambulance for other things apart from heart attack, we had just finished our breakfast and husband said he was going for a shave I was 5 weeks after my surgery don’t know why I thought something was wrong but went up the stairs and he was standing at a funny angle asked if he was ok said not and promptly went down dialled 999 they were here within a couple of minutes , he was in our local hospital within 15 minutes of having his stroke within 40 minutes having a brain scan no bleed on the brain so was able to have the thrombosis drug within those first couple of hours after the stroke. They call it the golden period this drug brakes up any other clots that are about his body but it is a dangerous drug it can cause brain bleed so they have to monitor you very carefully for 48 hours. So it’s a consultant that says wither you should have it and you have to sign we had a consultation via a video link I have posted to let everyone know that dialling for an ambulance can be vital for stroke as well as heart attack. Being aware is vital,
It’s great reading all your stories and being able to relate to your many experiences. Here is my pathetic tale of a man (Myself) who never seeks help from dentists and doctors when he knows he should! Because he can’t be bothered, doesn’t want to bother anyone else or wants to keep thinking it’s nothing and that he is superhuman!
I walked around for a couple of days with a tight chest and a gland-like sore throat, thinking I had hay fever. Walked the dog, worked remotely, did house chores, cycled, drove about. I am in my late forties and think I am much younger than what I am (another delusional man thing).
Sunday evening came and I had a load of burping and a feeling of indigestion and my right arm had an annoying dull ache to it.
I thought why hassle anyone by calling for advice and took a gaviscon indigestion chewable pill. Instead I looked up hay fever symptoms on Dr Google. Sure enough, there it was, you can get arm and throat aches from hay fever, so I took a piriton tablet.
By midnight I began to get anxious and clammy and knew something really wasn’t right.
Called the ambulance who checked my ecg and said I should go to a and e just to be sure as it seemed there was something not quite right with my sinus rhythm. I convinced them that I didn’t need to go with them and I would drive as I needed to get back for work early in the morning. So I drove and sat in a and e for a few hours. When I saw the doctor on duty I said it was probably nothing and I felt a bit better. She put me in a bed to rest anyway whilst they they did a blood test.
After a couple of hours I became highly anxious with an impending sense of doom.
Eventually a junior doctor came and told me that I had/was suffering a heart attack as my Troponin levels were high. I was kept in at North Middlesex hospital overnight in resus on Some pretty trippy painkillers, probably to calm my sense of doom. It also helped me to calmly watch a man wheeled in with gun shot wounds and another limp in with stab wounds.
The next morning I was suddenly rushed in an ambulance to St Barts where I signed some papers about the many ways I might die or suffer whilst in heart surgery. Just over an hour later I was in a hospital ward bed after having a stent to my LCx wondering what the hell had just gone on.
The NHS were amazing and I can’t thank them enough. Though I did take offence to the cardiologist who In his uninformed wisdom told me to stop smoking, stop eating a diet of saturated fat and to do more exercise (I’ve never smoked, have a mostly vegan diet and walk and cycle every day). There is a history of CAD issues on my mother’s side of the family.
Thanks if you bothered reading this to the end, though you were probably better off enjoying your new found life of surviving each wonderful day rather than wasting time reading this reply. You are all a great bunch and I have read so many helpful bits of advice on this forum.
Wow what a humorously well written description of your cardiac event, wow! I did laugh out loud at the part about signing papers about the many ways you might die or suffer whilst in ohs - but the whole post really gets the point across, thank-you!
The biggest mistake that we make is to constantly think of ourselves as of completely healthy humans and to skip medical check-ups. So this is what happened to my friend's father. He isn't even that old, he's 55 if the memory serves me well. Yet, he never visited a doctor (except for the dentist). They went to their family farm and John decided to help clearing the stable. He lifted and carried all kinds of stuff and in the evening he felt so bad, that they had to call Air Ambulance airambulance1.com/ because the nearest hospital was 170 miles away. Even though you feel good, your body might be lacking something. John had a mini heart attack, because he wasn't in shape for that job.
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Aortic Valve Replacement - The Call Up
Phone call from hospital 
