home after heart attack [View all]

[Hermit-The-Prog]

Last edited Wed Feb 6, 2019, 12:17 PM - Edit history (2)

Don't know if this is the right forum for this.

Just got home from the hospital last night. Thought I had gallbladder troubles, next thing I know the clinic calls for an ambulance, I'm taken to a nearby hospital, people swarm all over me and they're telling me I had / am having a major heart attack. Stripped on the table, thin blanket, wheeled into 'cath lab' or 'cardiac lab' and a doctor runs something partway up my right arm, stops, then runs something up from the groin area while I'm shivering and equipment and people surround me at the edge of my vision. Got a stent for an artery that had 100% blockage.

I was told it didn't take very long at all, but it felt like a long time while I was shivering. Spent Sat., Sun., and most of Mon. laying around tethered by cables to a monitor thingy that didn't like me. It had an evil streak -- it would let me start to doze and then beep about one of the leads losing a signal. Found out on the last afternoon that it was the lead that measured respiration. It had pulled loose sometime Sunday and I had just stuck it back on one of the stick-on pegs that were scattered all over my torso. It was trying to read my respiration from a peg on my hip.

The folks at the hospital kept telling me to take it easy for a while, no matter how I felt, to avoid popping open either of the arteries the doc ran his wire (or whatever) through, so I'll post this and go fall over for a while. Have to take some stupid medicine twice a day for forever now. Still can't wrap my head around the fact I had a heart attack.

Might be a while before getting back to this.

*****

EDIT TO ADD:

Wow, folks! I am overwhelmed by your response! Thank you, thank you, thank you.

I don't get emotional, usually, but I'm typing through tears right now. Never expected such a response. Thank you, every one! Will try to answer individually as I can sit and type more.

I posted just in case someone else out there has symptoms that do not match television and movies, you know, the scene where the old person clutches the chest, grimaces and falls over. Nothing like that happened to me.

Shortly after breakfast Friday morning, I felt queasy around the abdomen. This was followed by a pinching sensation under each arm at the bundle of muscle at the front of each armpit, extending a little into the pectoral muscles. Think of how your arm feels if you hang it over a car window that's not quite all the way down. That came and went over several hours. Late Friday afternoon, my son tried to convince me to go to a clinic, urgent care facility or hospital E.R. I'm stubborn.

By late Friday night, I was miserable, but still convinced it was gallbladder problems. It was the most miserable night I've ever had. The queasiness (never so much as I would call nausea) stayed about the same, the pain in the front of the armpits came and went, then there was a feeling sort of like indigestion that appeared. At one point, my sternum was sensitive from top to bottom. I squirmed and moaned and tried various positions to get some relief, and started taking aspirin -- 81mg tablets at the rate of 1 per hour. That didn't do much so I doubled it to 2 per hour. This allowed me to cat-nap a few times through the night, for 15 to 30 minutes at a time. Each dosage of the little aspirins was taken with a glass of water, which meant a lot of trips to the bathroom.

Both dogs stayed close by the couch I was writhing on. At one point I tried lying face down on my bed to get some relief. When I got up, the little dog (65 lb) was staring at me from his bed across the hall. The big one (250 lb) was at the other end of the hall, aimed my way.

Here's a gross detail that may or may not be significant. I had to defecate 4 times Friday, the last time felt like fire. I've been as regular and often as sunrise for as many years as I can remember.

Saturday morning took forever to arrive. I called my son as soon as I thought he might be awake, to ask if that urgent care place would be open yet. I was convinced by this time that my gallbladder was dead from a stone cutting off circulation. When my son started presenting me with choices of facilities, I just asked him, "Will you take over?" He did, and hauled me to a reputable clinic about 30 miles away. Because of symptoms and family history, we were both still convinced it was a bad gallbladder.

After waiting about half an hour, I was called back. A lady took all my info and I sat waiting for a doctor. An old cotton-top fellow about my age or a little more came in and asked more questions, some of them the same as the lady had asked, so I asked him if he'd talked to her. He said, "Yes, but there are things here that worry me." He then ordered an EKG. Lady came in and stuck on those cold adhesive-backed electrodes and ran the wire leads to them. She tore off the printed paper, went out of the room and came back with the doctor on her heels. As she unhooked me, he said, "We've called an ambulance. You're having a heart attack."

They pretty much ignored any argument I tried to make from that point. They did ask my son which hospital he preferred. He asked the lady with the EKG and followed her recommendation.

Everybody tried to make a big deal out of how many of those 81mg tablets I took -- 25 in a little over 12 hours -- but I was within the maximum recommended dosage for the time period.

At 11:31 am, the ambulance headed out from the clinic. At 11:44, they were checking for blockages at the hospital. At about 1 pm, they wheeled me to my room.

( Right arm and hand aching some. Going to stop a while. Thanks again, folks, for sympathetic ears and support! )

*****
EDIT 2: I can't answer 'em all! Thanks again for the encouragement!

I have been smoking for 50 years. Quitting is NOT easy. All the time I was tied to that monitoring equipment, 15 cigarettes and my lighter were in a pocket in my jeans just 10 feet from my bed, in a plastic "patient belongings" bag. My typical intake of coffee per day is around a gallon (not an exaggeration), with 25 to 35 home-rolled cigarettes. Before breakfast, I would usually smoke 5 cigarettes and drink 4 cups of coffee. That would also finish off each day before bed. Each meal would be followed by 2 to 4 cigarettes and 4 cups of coffee. In between it would drop to 1 or 2 cigs and 1 or 2 cups of coffee per hour.

I did not drink any coffee in the hospital for fear it would make the cigarette cravings worse. I've tried to quit "cold turkey" many times in the past and always failed, smoking more on the rebound. This time, I have goals (that I'm exceeding) and some strong incentives. My wife drinks more coffee and smokes more, but has said she will quit if I do. We will get there.

One of the worst emotional aspects of this comes from the knowledge that my son had to travel from the clinic to the hospital while wondering if I was going to still be alive when he got there. He wasn't allowed to ride in the ambulance, because time was "critical".