February is
Women’s Heart Health Month.
Many of you
know about my weight loss journey. Of
course living between two and three hundred pounds for the better part of a
decade and hovering around two hundred pounds for a decade or two before then
took its toll on my body. I was
diabetic, had a lot of aches and pains and I could barely walk three few feet
without getting short of breath and having chest pains. The times I went into the Emergency Room the
doctors said it was angina, not a heart attack.
I had numerous stress tests, echocardiograms and even an angioplasty in
which they found some plaque in one coronary artery, but not enough to require
a stent.
I
was lucky—especially the day I nearly blacked out while singing on the ward at
the VA. I finished the song (clinging to
my cane) and then sat down next to my music therapist. Another patient in the program was playing
the piano.
Paula leaned
over and whispered, “Rochelle, are you alright?”
I shook my
head, which was clearing slightly.
“What’s
wrong?”
“Short…of…breath. Chest…pain.”
“Do you think
you need to go to the ER?”
I
nodded. “Let…Jim…finish.”
Paula got the
ward nurse while Jim finished his piano piece and they got me a wheel
chair. That day in the ER they gave me
four baby aspirin and three nitroglycerine tabs, but still called what happened
angina. I passed both stress and
echocardiograms, so they kept me for a day or two and sent me home, telling me
I needed to lose weight—like I hadn’t figured that out thirty years and several
failed diets ago.
That was when
I asked the difference between angina and a heart attack. When the arteries to the heart muscle are
blocked and oxygen can’t get through, you get chest pain. That’s angina. If the heart muscle is deprived of oxygen
long enough to actually die, it’s a myocardial infarction or heart attack. You can tell you’ve actually damaged your
heart muscle because it will show up on your electrocardiogram and because when
heart muscle dies it releases certain enzymes into the blood stream. You can have cardiac chest pain and even a
funky EKG but if those enzymes are not present, you’ve had angina or a “cardiac
event,” but not a “heart attack.”
At some point
a doctor ran a test and asked when my heart attack was. There were times when I had chest pain but
did not go to the hospital. I can think
of two off the top of my head. If you
have chest pain that lasts more than twenty (20) minutes Get Thee to the Hospital FAST to paraphrase
Shakespeare. And whatever you do, DON’T
DRIVE YOURSELF! Here’s a good rule of
thumb for us women caretakers who don’t want to disturb anyone. Ask yourself this question: If this was happening to my husband or my
child, would I call 911? Treat yourself
you the way you would treat the people you love. And don’t ask anyone to drive you. If you code in the car, they can’t treat
you. Do you want that on their
conscience? If you want to be around for
your family, you have to turn the Golden Rule back onto yourself. I know it’s difficult. We want to take care of everyone else and we
don’t want to bother anyone.
Don’t
necessarily look for chest pains if you’re a woman. We have the strangest symptoms when it comes
to heart attacks. I attended a seminar
conducted by a group called Women Health at the VA where they talked about many
of the ways heart attacks can be different for women than for men. Neither of the ladies there had typical heart
attacks. Neither knew she was having a
heart attack when hers occurred. They
also told us that heart attack is now the number one killer of women. That’s partly because we have such atypical
symptoms we don’t always go to the ER and often when we do, we get left sitting
in the waiting room with heart muscle dying while patients with less
life-threatening problems get seen before us.
One of the
times I did not go to the hospital, I had chest pains, but they were radiating
to my right shoulder instead of my left.
Every book I read and movie I saw showed the person clutching his left
arm. I was a guest in the home of a
bunch of smokers and it was late at night after having inhaled a bunch of
second-hand smoke and about coughed up a lung or two that the pain
started. I bundled up and sat on the
porch for three hours trying to catch my breath with pain in my chest and right
shoulder, thinking maybe I tore a muscle coughing. When I finally went inside and went to bed, I
dreamed I was in pain and woke up because of it later that night. I’m probably lucky I woke up at all. Most fatal heart attacks occur between three
and five a.m.
So, what the
heck does any of this have to do with science fiction conventions? I’m getting there.
Two weeks ago
after a busy day, I came out of Wal-Mart, got into my car and my head
exploded. I dialed 911 thinking I was
having a stroke. My blood pressure was
198/80-something and my pulse was down around 50. A C-T scan of my brain showed no sign of a clot
or bleed so it wasn’t a stroke. I told
the doc I was having an anxiety attack because I had some chest pain. Guess what?
My cardiac enzymes were slightly elevated. I had a mild heart attack. If I hadn’t asked for something for anxiety,
chances are the docs would never have looked at my cardiac enzymes. They would have treated me for a migraine or
sinus problems and sent me home.
I should have
realized something was wrong. Leading up
to the incident I’d been tired and unable to walk or work out as I did
before. I would do my morning walk
wondering, “Why do I feel tired? Why do
things seem a bubble or so off plumb?
Where are my endorphins?” Other signs
of a heart attack can be pain in your back, jaw, neck, throat or shoulder. Women often have an upset stomach. Many people mistake chest pain for
heartburn. I’ll post links at the end
for more resources. Before they let me
go home, I passed a stress test/echocardiogram, but since I’m still feeling all
of the above symptoms, I’m taking it easy and planning to ask for more tests at
the VA where I’m normally seen. The
paramedics took me to a civilian hospital that night, and I’ve not yet been
able to see my Primary Care Provider at the VA.
Okay—I’m not
sure what the deal is with the headache.
It’s never quite completely gone away.
During the day, I can sort of feel it lurking around the edges. By night, it comes back if I don’t keep ahead
of it with some sort of medication like Tylenol or nsaids. I’ve gone back to my
volunteer work at the VA and even done one or two abbreviated work-outs. This past Friday (Feburary 8, 2013), I had an
appointment at the VA and from there I went to CapriCon a science fiction
convention. My intention was to just
attend Friday, but I checked my purse with my coat and left my meds in it. The headache caught up with me fairly early
in the evening and I didn’t feel up to driving home. Some friends allowed me to crash in their
hotel room.
One of those
friends is an RN. I quit using my CPAP a
couple of years ago. It was
uncomfortable and my sinuses are so badly congested, I felt as though I couldn’t
breathe at all with the CPAP on.
Besides, I figured I didn’t need it anymore since I’d lost 145
pounds. I was wrong. My friend said my snoring woke her and I
stopped breathing several times in the hour or so I kept her awake that night. Sleep apnea can cause heart damage, which
could be one explanation to why I had this heart attack now that I’m thin. I dug the thing out of the closet last night
and used it with mist. I still felt
congested, but I soldiered through and woke up an hour before my alarm went off
feeling more refreshed than I have in awhile.
I plan to follow up with the sinus problems as well as cardiology when I
see my Primary Care person.
Since I woke
up at the hotel yesterday morning, I decided to pay for the full con and stick
around. I’m so glad I did. Gene Wolfe, one of the few remaining classic
sci-fi writers was there. It turns out
he lives in a Chicago suburb. He’s being
honored this year by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association with a
Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master award for "lifetime achievement in science fiction and/or
fantasy," so they had a special interview with him. The room wasn’t nearly as full as I expected,
which made the interview very intimate and cozy.
Later in the
day they had a panel that was right up my alley entitled “Girl Cooties! Someone put Romance in my Sci-Fi!” Who should show up and ask if the seat next
to me was taken? Mr. Wolfe! What a lovely, gracious man. He’s a Korea veteran, so we compared a few
notes on military experiences and talked about writing sci-fi romance. He was there because that’s what he’s working
on right now. I gave him my cards and he
says he’s looking forward to reading my books!
Wow! Instant silver lining! I’m so glad I was too sick to drive home
Friday. Still, I can’t wait to see my
PCP. She’ll be out all next week so I
can’t get in to see her until the week after.
Meanwhile, I’m taking it easy.
For more
information on women and heart attacks:
The American
Heart Association: http://www.aha.org/
Women
Heart: http://www.womenheart.org/
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