Heart Attack Survivors, What Early Signs Did You Have, If Any?

[arakboss]

I am wanting to know what symptoms you may have had months or years prior to having a heart attack.

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[jackrv]

I had a burning in my chest after walking a couple of blocks and they told me I had a heart attack.

Got all upset that I rode my bike to the ER on doctors orders, the ER not riding the bike.

 

[arakboss]

Ray Romano could have suffered ‘widowmaker’ heart attack before undergoing heart procedure

Actor Ray Romano revealed that he had to have a stent placed in an artery after his doctor found that 90% of his main artery was blocked.

www.foxnews.com

 

[Rickenbacher39]

Up until the day of the heart attack I had no symptoms.
The day before I felt very good and was out trimming the lawn etc.
The morning of the attack I felt "off". Nothing specific, just "off".
Breathing became difficult in the afternoon and then almost impossible
very quickly. I had no pain of any kind.
Called 911 and off I went.
Fell unconscious on the way to the hospital and woke up 4 days later
in the ICU. They told me they didn't think I was going to make it.
Had a quintuple bypass with 100, 100, 90, 75 and 70% blockages if I
remember correctly. 3 months later they implanted an ICD.
I will always be short of breath now due to scarring on 30% of the
left ventricle but I am doing well.
It was an interesting adventure to say the least.

 

[ilostmypswrd]

Up until the day of the heart attack I had no symptoms.
The day before I felt very good and was out trimming the lawn etc.
The morning of the attack I felt "off". Nothing specific, just "off".
Breathing became difficult in the afternoon and then almost impossible
very quickly. I had no pain of any kind.
Called 911 and off I went.
Fell unconscious on the way to the hospital and woke up 4 days later
in the ICU. They told me they didn't think I was going to make it.
Had a quintuple bypass with 100, 100, 90, 75 and 70% blockages if I
remember correctly. 3 months later they implanted an ICD.
I will always be short of breath now due to scarring on 30% of the
left ventricle but I am doing well.
It was an interesting adventure to say the least.

Damn dude, hang in there, hope you have a long a healthy life(lay off that tasty bacon from now on lololol)

 

[Flopsweat]

Fatigue. I felt tired for about two years prior. The doctors couldn't find anything. I even passed a treadmill test. A few days before, I experienced a very short, somewhat sharp pain in my chest after climbing a steep trail about 100 feet. I recovered quicky, made a note to call my doctor about it, and then forgot. The incident itself came on very quickly - extremely sharp chest pain which wouldn't go away, a few minutes later (on the way to the hospital) extreme pressure on the chest. When the pain suddenly disappeared, I fell over dead, fortunately in front of some highly trained medical professionals.

 

[Mike_M57]

First one, May 2010:

I was out at Cascade Shooting Facilities with my sister and BIL. We'd gone out early to set up for the monthly trap shooting that morning. What I first felt was heartburn and a slight ache in my spine just below my shoulders. Then I started sweating.

My sister asked, "Are you ok?" at about the same time I started feeling slight pains in both sides of my neck just behind my ears and radiating down.

"No. I think I'm having a heart attack."

Never really felt a great deal of pain or discomfort (not even when they shoved that big@$$ needle into my femoral artery)... until they inflated that [many, many expletives deleted] balloon in my LAD which was 99% blocked. Oh, goody, I had a Widowmaker heart attack. Well, go big or go home, I guess. Damn near did both.

Out of the hospital 4 days later with a stent, a bill for $63K+ and a bruise on my groin that looked like an elephant had stomped my nutsack.

The bruise went away. So did the $63K bill (No job, no insurance, so: Charity). Still got the stent.



2nd one: December 2019.

Same symptoms as the first one, but to a milder, almost-but-not-quite-unnoticeable degree. So much so that I stupidly ignored them until the next day at work when they started to demand more attention.

Had my coworker call an ambulance for me about halfway through my shift. Took me to the nearest hospital, which had no rooms available (but they hooked me up to an IV), so we went to the next nearest hospital, about 30 miles away, where I got a stent on the BACK side of my heart.

I was in the hospital for the next 2 days, which were my normal days off. I called out for the next day because I needed to do the laundry/shopping/etc. I didn't get to do from the hospital bed. Went back to work the next day.

Bills from the ambulance co. and TWO hospitals. Yay. Had a job and insurance this time which covered most of the bills. I've been living paycheck to paycheck ever since, paying off my share, but I should have the last bill paid off this August, and can start paying down some of my other debt.


With my luck, I'll drop dead while writing that final check to the hospital.