This is my second post now, since my heart attack and my stent being fitted on November 30th.
In my last post I mentioned the various pains I'd been experiencing, all of which seemed quite common and other people were very reassuring.
Call me in denial but when I had my "heart attack", I was never convinced that it was actually a heart attack. I was in A&E all day, backwards and forwards for various tests and they didn't seem to know what was wrong and then right at the end of the day they said I had slightly raised levels of troponin in my blood, so they think I'd had a heart attack, although multiple ECGs etc didn't show anything. The day after they found a narrowing in one of my arteries and the stent was fitted. I don't dispute they found a problem that needed fixing, but I'm not convinced I had a heart attack that day...
Fast forward to today and I'm still regularly experiencing a similar pain but it's concentrated to the right hand side of my belly, under the rib cage. It's like I've been punched and my stomach seems very hard and uncomfortable in general. My blood pressure and everything is perfect.
The pain is normally brought on when I sit for too long, like driving.
I know I need to book an appointment with my GP to discuss it, but wondered if anyone else had experienced similar issues?
Obviously you start thinking all kinds of things......
Thanks in advance
Lee
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LJS40
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I you are falling to bits then I am with you as it seems one thing after another sometimes
I had 3 heart attacks the first one I knew the second 2 I was never sure and always my ecg's were fine even after the first one which was a big one but was always those blood tests that showed up I had a heart attack so I wonder if for some ecg's don't show them up as they never did mine
As for the pain you have that might be nothing to do with your heart and as you said you need to see the Doctor to find out the cause don't ignore it get it looked at it possibly will be nothing to worry about but always best to be safe with these things
Hi there After my quadruple heart bypass 15 months ago after a while I suffered from pain under ribs when sloching in chair or sitting to long I think it may have been costochondritis but I'm not medically trained ,I found when I got up walked went to work or exercise the burning sensation went away all ways best to speak to gp
Thanks, this is exactly the same with me. It normally eases after walking. Although it sounds like you had much more of a major procedure.
I hope all is well.
Thank you
Hi Lee,
Heart attacks are weird. That how I sum mine up which happened on the 21 Nov 2023.
No huge pain, just felt like an odd sprain which I attributed to over doing it on the weights the Saturday morning.
I did have a heart attack, even though I asked the cardiologist if he had got it wrong.
If your cardiologist has said you had a heart attack then you did and now it will sink in, sometimes you'll not think about then others when you get pain or discomfort in the chest, upper body area it will come back at you.
I've felt tingly pains around my chest area, but they seem to be subsiding as the weeks move on.
If you've been given a cocktail of medication and your getting any pain, discomfort in a part of your body you never did before then definitely call your GP.
After my HA and stents I ended up having some of the drugs they put me on changed due to side effects. One of them was ticagrelor that was playing havoc with my digestive system. As soon as they switched me from that to something else and put me on lansoprazole the pain I was getting under my right hand rib cage calmed down and has now gone.
At one point I thought I was passing a gall stone the pain was so bad!
Always worth talking this sort of thing through with your doc as soon as poss. No need to go through stuff if you don't have to.
Ticagrelor did the same to me. I had to insist the GP took me off it and replaced it with Clopidogrel. I have the added complication that the Heart Attack triggered Pericarditis and I'm living with constant chest pain though it is now easing courtesy of Colchicine. May I add though, if you don't mind, anxiety plays a massive part in how you percieve pain. Every twinge i get, every funny feeling i get, i imagine the worst. I have been assured that the chest pains are not another Heart Attack and trying to get my head round that is taking time. A Heart Attack plays havoc with your system and it takes an awful long time to adjust to your new reality. Give it time Bud and try not to worry. Easier said than done as i'm all too well aware.
Cheers for the message. As a life long anxiety sufferer, I know exactly what you mean. There are pains which I question and then end up going down the "what if" route. However the pain I have now is very concentrated to the RHS of my belly, under the rib cage and sometimes it tracks across to the top centre of my belly.
Following an afternoon in A&E yesterday, they confirmed it was not heart related. I have an ultrasound next week on my gallbladder because they suspect I may have stones.
I am convinced that I didn't have a heart attack but they coincidentally found an issue with my heart.
I had a heart attack in September 2023, and had a stent fitted. I seem to still be getting left sided chest pains, I think we are all really aware of any pain we feel after having a heart attack. Your pain could be a side effect of the many medications we are on. Speak to your GP or do you have a number for your Cardiac Nurse. I have found them to be really helpful.
Not medical advice, suggestions and opinions only.
The term "heart attack" is a catch all term for so many cardiac events, is gets used all over the place.
The ECG only shows the electrical rhythm of the heart and even if you are having a "heart attack" if it can maintain enough oxygen to the heart signalling cells its going to maintain its electrical rhythm, whilst not enough oxygen to the muscle cells of the heart most likely on the left ventricle wall.
I only assume but I can't be sure from your message you suffered and NSTEMI, so the slow calcium stratifying process has been adding tiny layers foam cell by foam cell over decades, micro metre by micrometre , typical foam cell is 30 microns, then one day it builds up to one foam cell to far and it just squeezes that little less blood around by a tiny amount, enough to maintain rhythm, but not enough for those oxygen demanding heart wall muscle cells.
A tiny few of them start to get upset and emit pain signals, and they emit an enzyme (Troponin) signalling they are dying, but only by a small amount.
So when you say you are not convinced you had a "heart attack" the question is what type of "heart attack" are you thinking you didn't have. The one most people think of is large rupture of plaque from a lesion in the LAD, causing an almost complete blockage of the LAD, with almost zero blood, and oxygen reaching the signalling cells , and the muscle cells, Rhythm becomes out of phase and chaotic, and possibly completely stops, millions of heart muscles cells die, and troponin is release by the buckets.
The pain is normally brought on when I sit for too long, like driving.
Interesting indicative of a muscoskeletal condition, because of the movement and positioning having an affect on the pain, however every possibility needs to be considered.
Not medical advice, suggestions and opinions only.
Broadly speaking, a "heart attack" is caused by a mismatch between myocardial oxygen demand and myocardial oxygen delivery.
In a STEMI, the mismatch between myocardial oxygen demand and delivery is almost always caused by total occlusion of a coronary artery from atherosclerotic plaque rupture and subsequent thrombus formation. The severity is dependent on the size, location, and duration of the occlusion.
In NSTEMIs however, there are more varied causes of mismatch including partial coronary artery obstruction from a ruptured plaque (most common), partial occlusion from a stable plaque, coronary artery vasospasm (Prinzmetal’s angina) or coronary arteritis.
In some cases, myocardial supply and demand mismatch may be caused by conditions that only indirectly affect the coronary arteries (e.g. severe anaemia, hypotension, tachycardia, aortic stenosis, and pulmonary embolism).
I have a degree in Medical physics, my physics is actually much stronger than my biology, but I used to oversee a team of Biologists and some of their work rubbed off on me.
Hi Lee,Similar to you, wasn't convinced but had 2 stents fitted 3 months ago now. Feeling odd pains central chest mainly, bit of tightness. Waiting to start angina tablets prescribed before Xmas. This must be quite common.
Hi, I had an Nstemi heart attack in July. I was fit & strong and didn’t believe I was having a heart attack. I felt really funny after a yoga class , quite light headed, just felt strange . My wife thought it might be that I hadn’t eaten , I drive home and kept saying to her that I feel funny.. Git home had a decent brunch and then got what I thought was trapped wind ! It was painful but I did t even consider a heart attack , I just wanted to get a big burp to ease it 🤦🏼. My wife phoned 111 , they asked me all the questions about a heart attack, was the pain like an elephant sitting on my chest? No , it was like I had trapped wind , right in the middle of my chest . Was the pain radiating across to my left arm ? No it was like I was being stabbed in the centre of my chest . Did I feel feint ? No , I had pain in the centre of my chest like trapped wind. So it went on until they decided to send an ambulance crew to check me out. They hooked me up to the ECG and says that my heart was fine , whatever had hay had passed . They were insistent that that I should go into hospital with them to get my blood checked for troponin as that would confirm if I had a cardiac event. I thought it was sensible to get it chrcked once and for all. Arrived in hospital at 13:00 ,triaged inti A& E bed , blood test etc then told to sit in the corridor of A& E. was there waiting all day , still in best /shorts and sliders from yoga . By 6pm ideas getting done fed up that I told my wife we should go home. Then I was told that they wanted to do another blood test and a chest X-ray . Was waiting in A&E until 11pm . A doctor then explained that he thought he was sending me home on the result if my first trop count 74 but the second one came back at 402 confirming that I had a heart attack. We were all shocked ! The doc said “ look at you ! You’re so fit and strong, you’ve been fine walking around here , you just don’t look like a heart attack victim “ I had angiogram the following day and told I needed triple CABG! Another shock as I really thought it would be a stent or two … ended up having quadruple bypass surgery. Making an incredible recovery, back to weight training , yoga and running 5k plus the physical work round our small holding . When I was in hospital I compared notes with my ward mates , seems that we all had different symptoms with our heart attacks, some classic with pain and down the arm others no pain whatsoever just difficulty breathing, some had CPR and received broken ribs during .. so many different ways to have a heart attack and cardiac arrest. I didn’t realise they were different, heart attack is more plumbing and cardiac arrest more electrical..🤣 Glad I had Nstemi.
I definitely had a "classic" heart attack...that aside, I did have pain in my right upper rib cage for months; could have been an effect of the CPR, but one other thing to consider is GI issues. I have suffered horribly from reflux since going on aspirin and the usual cocktail of medications 2 years ago. Reflux can trigger the vagus nerve and mimic cardiac symptoms, which has landed me in A&E several times. Not pleasant, and I've tried a lot of remedies.
As others have mentioned, you will probably be hypersensitive to any pains in your upper body, including muscular ones. I have a screw in my left shoulder where I dislocated it many years ago, and as you know, pain the left arm can be a heart attack symptom. Guess where I get pains when the screw acts up? Yep, left arm...anyway, definitely see your doctor about any pains that worry you. My cardiologist is probably sick of me by now, but you know what? My taxes pay her salary.
I went through similar in December. Stayed in hospital all day, had a variety of tests including ECGs (which were not showing signs of a heart attack) but my bloods showed high levels of troponin.
I was told I'd had an NSTEMI which doesn't always show on the ECG. Enzymes in the blood showed my heart was under extreme stress.
I also had a stent fitted. I don't have the pain now (just nausea from the cocktail of pills) but rest assured an NSTEMI is a minor heart attack (didn't feel minor) due to partial blockage of the arteries.
Not sure if I'm being too confident 😀. I start Cardiac Rehabilitation next week and still have this nausea which I read could hang around for months! Ah well, beats the alternative as they say.
I was in denial for along time because I never had any usual symptoms of a heart attack. I had horrific indigestion for 3 days then a tiny bit of tingling in my arm and neck. The paramedics saw something a bit suspicious on my ECG but when I got to A&E they didn't seem to care and it was many hours before I saw anyone. It was 12 hours later before they did the troponoin test and I was admitted 4 hours later. They just seemed so unconcerned but I had to believe the test results.
Hiya, only tests will show whats happening to you, get in touch with the GP or A&E if needed or ring 111 for advice- The symptoms could be heart related or not, the one thing we know about, is heart related symtoms are not always easy to identify. So dont hang about, get profeesional help 😁
I've just come back from the doctors and I'm off for some more blood tests this afternoon.
However......
He has prescribed me with some IBS tablets for starters.
He then told me that the hospital had advised me incorrectly and I should be taking my lansoprazole half an hour to an hour before my other meds. Which won't help.
He thinks my symptoms are very similar to gallbladder issues, like stones, and that is what they are now testing for.....
Following a quick Google (stupid I know), apparently gallbladder issues can cause a spike in troponin levels. Surely not...
Not medical advice, suggestions and opinions only,
The gallbladder is connected to the heart via the right phrenic nerve, when the gallbladder is irritated it will grumble on the phrenic nerve which is attached to your heart, your heart becomes unsettled, typically if the gallbladder is very upset, bp raises and your heart will speed up often 100+ 160 could be possible, you feel pain in your shoulder where the phrenic nerve passes symptoms mimic heart issues.
If you exercise for long enough at a sustained rate, like (rough guide, everyone's different) 160 bpm for 3 hours your heart will secrete tiny amounts of troponin, therefore it is possible with the gallbladder the same issue occurs.
The gallbladder is typically irritated in a number of ways, the first is gallstones trapped, in the gallbladder or biliary ducts, typically stimulated by fatty meal, less common, no gallstones present but the walls of the gallbladder are severely degraded, and a whole host of other possibilities , more rare though.
Best way to tell is to initiate an attack by eating a large fatty meal, then have an echo doppler scan of the gallbladder, it can detect stones, and even if there are no stones, the thickness of the walls is important greater than 3mm is an indicator of issues.
If you can search my posts, I have previously spoken about the Gallbladder, as something to be kept in mind.
Your doctors sounds like a proactive guy, keep pushing for tests and answers as always.
Doc sent me to A&E because he wanted blood tests back quickly and an ultrasound of my gallbladder. They said the blood tests were fine and couldn't get me in for an ultrasound until next Thursday because of the strikes.
I'm now convinced it's a gallbladder issue. But we'll see...
Hello ☺️ I was intrigued reading your post. My HA was only diagnosed after a blood test too. I was in A&E for hours after advice from my gp on a 'sensation' I had while sitting at home. All tests, ecg etc. all came back clear, when they finally did blood test for troponin even the doctor at A&E was convinced it wasn't my heart. Only when it came back with raised troponin was told they believed I'd had a heart attack. Like you, I was in complete denial, I hadn't felt unwell before or after. I'd had no more 'sensations' whilst in A&E which was hours later when I was admitted. I was in several wards before being moved to another hospital for an angioplasty, I was there for 3 days even before that (feeling well the whole time) I needed a stent and am on usual cocktail of drugs, one year ago on 17th of this month, I'm still confused about it all so I understand completely how you feel. I think, on reading up on things, we've both had an NSTEMI which thankfully doesn't seem to do as much damage as a STEMI, all I can say is keep well, try not to overthink things, and good luck. I still keep very well so hopefully you will be the same 😊
Thanks for your message. Have a read of my latest update, you may find it interesting.
I'm now 1 month free from cigarettes which was the likely cause of my heart condition and I've always been relatively active but my focus now is diet and exercise.
I'll have a read, I had no obvious reasons for my HA, not smoked for over 10 years, healthy weight, no bad diet and no family history ... guess we'll never know 🤷
That pain you are describing is exactly what my pain was like. I was tested and scanned for liver. Sure enough it is inflamed and all my liver enzymes are terribly high, with the exception of one enzyme. APS can cause mini clots that can cut off blood supply temporarily to anywhere in the body and that can cause severe pain. I get mini clots in my kidneys, liver and brain quit often.. They do not cause me major problems, but I do get severe pain in my back where the kidney area is, and under right rib cage where the liver is. I also have dizziness, cognitive, vision and balance issues if the clots are plugging areas of the brain.
Hi, thanks for posting this, it's really interesting and something I've never heard of. I actually ended up being sent to A&E today and they are now exploring gallbladder issues. I'm back next week for an ultrasound.How long have you had this issue?
For most of my life I have had quite bad unexplained back pain and stabbing pains in my kidney areas. The doctors have never given me any kind of explanation and I've always felt like they thought I was making it up.
Do you have APS? I’ve had it 40-45 years. That includes the years I was never diagnosed. It took years before diagnosis. As with most eventual diagnoses, the person usually has had the illness, (whatever it may be) for many, many years prior. You should read all about how APS can cause all kinds of things from those sneaky little clots that are floating around. There are some very good articles on APS and how it affects the kidneys. You can google any of the organs and APS. Make sure you read info from pubmeds, big universities that do studies etc. Not some Joe Blow, trying to sell supplements. Good Luck.
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