A “REAL” heart attack can happen to you!

Marilyn

My words: "I don't know for sure all the symptoms of a heart attack for women, but I think I might be having one."

We walked into the ER. In pain, holding my chest and rubbing my arms, we waited for my turn calmly answering questions before going back for an EKG. The EKG tech ripped off the paper strip and left. Suddenly a crowd entered; a doctor leaned over and said "You are having an acute heart attack". MY MIND DID NOT AGREE. It can't be that serious. I am awake. I can talk. I walked in here! It couldn't be a REAL heart attack. I am only 55 years old!

In came two men in blue flight suits, and soon I was in a helicopter. In flight I realized I was about to lose consciousness as my eyes closed. Time passed, and I felt them drying my forehead. They were trying to get an accurate temperature, respiration count and trying to get my blood pressure stable. We landed, and I was about to learn the meaning of suffering a REAL Heart attack.

The CATH lab was filled: people working simultaneously, using needles, tubes, and monitors. I heard conversations with new terminology. Doctors studied monitors to figure out where to begin and what size this or that to use.

My body was shaking uncontrollably from pain radiating like ricocheting bullets through my nerves. My jaw clenched so tight my teeth hurt. My shoulders and neck cramped from the clenching of my jaw. I learned morphine and I are not good buddies as I kept giving it back involuntarily.

I heard “we’re losing her, she's dipping again, get the pressure stabilized.” An aborted attempt to put a sheath and catheter in my right wrist. Then on to the femoral artery in my right groin area. I felt it moving all the way as they progressed inside my artery toward my heart.

Cardiologists kept telling me what they were doing, and one of them leaned up to my head and said “this is a very complicated set of issues you have with all the blockages in your heart”. They pivoted the monitors to show me the multiple blockages. They announced as each balloon was inflated or withdrawn. Doctors debated how to get another stent in past the first stent. The surgeon was not happy and said "she can't have surgery tonight; the right side is too weak." My jaw still clenched after two hours.

Hour three: try to take deep breaths. I couldn’t. After three hours they said now try. OMG! I could breathe! I felt my lungs filling with air. The intense train wreck in my chest began to subside, and my jaw began to relax. I hurt, but I could breathe. I still had a 75% blockage in the main artery requiring heart bypass surgery soon. But I truly learned about having a REAL heart attack, and I survived.