**One day we shall die. but all the other days we shall be alive

[js27]

Wade
So glad your a survivor and here to tell your tale. I too went through the same thing. It will be one year on Nov,14. since I also survived a Widow Maker. We are the lucky 5 to 10% that live to tell about it. It got the name WIDOW MAKER for a reason. I have my one year check up this Thursday. It is a scary time and will change your outlook on life. People don't realize how lucky they are to get up every morning. Not sure of your age or condition but mine occurred 2 weeks after my 62 birthday. I was in excellent shape for my age. I put most 18 years old to shame here at work. I am 5'9" and weight 168 lbs. I have a complete physical once a year with a complete blood work up. I have been doing Martial Arts since 1979 and was exercising 1 hour a day 5 days a week. How many 62 year old do you know that could do 100 full push ups and 200 sit ups followed by 200 face high kicks 5 days a week ? I took ZERO medications-my Blood Pressure was 110 over 70 and my pulse was 64. I had NO high cholesterol and 2 months before my heart attack I had a stress test which I buried the treadmill to the point they just gave up trying to get my heart rate up as high as they wanted. Then one day at work at 9:00 am in I got this burning pain behind my left scapula. I got more intense to the point I couldn't move around so I sat down and broke out into a sweat. Then the pain started to come around the my left side and into my left arm. I kept blowing it off as some kind of muscle spasm. After about 10 minutes it wasn't going away so I called my doctor who of course said get to the hospital so my co worker drove me. They took me in immediately and did a EKG and within seconds there were 5 nurses and doctors in there taking off my clothes and hooking me up to IV and all kinds of machines. Pretty scary time. I ended up having a 95% blockage in my LAD so they put in a stent and I got a bit better. 3 days later I was still having problems breathing and low energy and just did not feel right so they went back in and put in a second stent right next to the other one. I then started to improve. So I am telling all this for 2 reasons--to let people know that no matter how good of shape you are in you can still have a heart attack. Also if you are not feeling right get checked out because you do not know what a heart attack feels like until you have one. I also found out through a friend of mine that a lot of people who are diabetics have heart attacks and do not know they have them because they do not get the symptoms for some reason. So here I am a year later gone form taking no pills at all to taking 7 pills a day. Unfortunately for me my heart was permanently damaged and I am only working on 40% output. I haven't worked out in a year but plan on starting back up in January and see who much I can get back. If you need to talk to anyone please feel free to Message me. I know the biggest part of this whole thing for me was not the physical aspect but the mental change that occurs. There are no pills or stents to fix that part. A year later and I am still very angry this happen to me and how my life had to change when it should not have-- but life has its own way of doing what it wants. It is hard  to explain to people who have not gone through this how it effect you mentally.
Take Care of Yourself
Best wishes for a complete recovery.
JS27

[Bullitt-]

Thanks for all the well wishes and encouragement...

   Nothing in my history had indicated any problems, always had good BP & lower HR.
Being a bit overweight hasn't helped, but I think the stress of work has had as much to do with this as anything.... Having recently retired it has been my intention to take better care of myself so this event will push that effort forward.
   The most damning part of this so far is that now I question every twinge of pain and wonder IF this may be another one coming.... LOL, after obviously dismissing probably several events in the past.
    I wish I could say there was a good way to know ahead of time that this may be in the offing yet other stories I'm familiar with as well as js27's experience tells me there's no sure indicator. 

   Best Wishes
     Wade   

 

[HP_Cuda]

JS27 all good input there.

I think having a base number of cholesterol broken down by LDL/HDL is still too high level to understand how Heart disease progresses. I come from a lineage of heart attacks and strokes. Recently my Uncle just had a stroke and hopefully they caught it fast enough so that he can recover as he is in recovery now.

There have been studies of 100 folks that have had heart attacks and tested them all for cholesterol and found that 25% of them had high cholesterol so that alone is not the gating factor. It seems there are two different types of cholesterol particles in our bodies (large and small). Apparently particle size is quite important and is a stronger predictor for heart attacks. The amount of small and dense particles provide a threefold increase in a heart attack event. The large and fluffy kind of particles may actually be protective!

Remember Jim Fix died of a heart attack at 52.

[js27]

Wade,
This is exactly what I was taking about-the mental aspect of survivors. We all know that one day we will die but for the most part it is floating around in the back of our heads but after you suffer a heart attack it is no longer in the back it is right smack dab in the front and as you said every little pain the first thing to pops up is--IS THIS THE BIG ONE ?
HP CUDA,
You are correct also. When I pushed my cardiologist for an answer of what the hell just happened he sat in the chair in my hospital room and shook his head side to side. He had no reason why except as the old bumper stickier says--"SHIT HAPPENS". Doing some of my own research I found that every adult human being has plaque in their arteries. It does not matter what you do or eat or don't eat--it is there... In my case for some reason a piece of this plaque broke off from the wall. The human body see this as an invasion so out come the white blood cell army to attack this invader. The white blood cells swarm this piece of plaque causing a blood clot-the blood clot formed the blockage and bam...game over.
So now a life time on medications that cause me many side effect but all in all it still beats the alternative !!! This past Saturday I took my Challenger out for a nice cruise to enjoy life a little bit-only the second time I had it out since my heart attack.
JS27

[blown motor]

JS27, thanks for your input although it scares me a little. I'm 5'11" and 152lb. I'm also in great shape although I could never come close to you in the push-up count. I've had a physical every year for ten years, low BP, low cholesterol, couldn't get my heart rate up on a stress test so they asked me to run. Very similar to your situation and my father died of a heart attack. I guess we just never know but maybe that's a good thing. Let's not take life for granted. Hug you family and friends and drive your car often. 

[bentpshrods]

 Does this hit close to home. I was out in the desert about 30 miles north of a small town (Emett Id.) collecting big boulders for a rock garden. After wrestling a pretty large rock into the truck I suddenly felt kinda crappy. Started having chest pains and feeling nausous. Thought I must of just strained myself trying to move that rock.  After a while I wasn't feeling any better so we drove into Emmett and found the local hospital. This was on Sunday--fathers day 2005. There was only the one doctor seeing patients so after sitting there for 45 minutes I was finally taken back. I had all the symptoms of having a heart attack. They hooked me up to a KGB ?? heart monitor and took blood sample. Then the quack came in and told me I did probably just strained something and to go see my regular doctor and sent me on my merry way. So I went home Sunday afternoon and laid down feeling horrible. Got up Monday and went to work. Made it to about 10:30 and told the boss I'm feeling really bad and went home. My wife had called my doc and made an appointment. They couldn't get me in till that Wed. On Tuesday I finally felt a lot better so I told the wife to cancel the appointment but she made me go anyways.  So on Wed. at the doctors I told them what had gone on and she got this concerned look and said that wasn't right so they hooked me back up to the heart monitor and got another print out and then left the room rather quickly. I was just sitting in the exam room when I heard someone call for an ambulance. I thought someone must be pretty sick. About 10 minutes later the door opened and 2 paramedics with a gurney were there and said get on. WTF. They rushed me to the hospital and into the emergency room, stripped my clothes off and straight up stairs and had 2 stents put in. Seems I did have a massive coronary. I rode out a Widow maker for 4  days. Was  in the ICU for  4 days. Because I had no blood flowing to my heart because of the blockage for so long I lost about 1/4 of my heart. The muscle just died and is gone. That changes your hole outlook on things real quick. I was only 48 at the time. I'm 61 now and haven't had another incident yet. Still tho when I get a chest pain I still wince and wonder if this is it again. It's a pain you don't forget. Found out later that heart problems were common on my mothers side of the family. So know the signs of a heart attack/and strokes and don't be afraid to get checked out if you think something is not right. I got lucky.        

[js27]

Bentpshrods,
Sounds very familiar. Yes Timing is everything when it comes to a Heart Attack. The longer you wait the more irreversible damage is done. When I went to the ER they were very interested in when and how long I felt the first symptoms. I was around  45 minutes from the time it started till they did the surgery and I still lost part of my heart muscle. They said it would have been much worse if I waited longer. After my stents were installed my EF--Ejection Fraction ( how much blood the heart pumps out )  was 30. A normal heart is between 55 and 75. Mind was 73 before my heart attack. If it stayed at 30 I would have had to have a pacemaker, Because I got there quick some of my heart did recover and I am now at a 40 EF. If you have symptoms and you can't get to your doctor get to a ER--better safe than sorry.
JS27

[Topcat]

Pure Fish Oil is what I just found out is the number one preventable way to help prevent Heart Attacks.

Prescription type is the best one to get.

https://baptisthealth.net/baptist-health-news/prescribed-pure-omega-3-fish-oil-lowers-heart-attack-stroke-risk-for-some-study-finds/

Researchers concluded that adults treated with statins to control cholesterol levels — but still had high levels of triglycerides — had a 25 percent reduction in their relative risk of heart attacks, strokes and other cardiac events after being prescribed high doses of the purified EPA, an omega-3 fatty acid. Their results were compared to a control group of patients who received a placebo, or pill with no medical or therapeutic effect. Both groups had good cholesterol control with statins.

[torredcuda]

Glad you made it thru that and are doing OK, we never know what will happen, most of us guys like to tough it out before going to a DR but sometimes we really need to listen to our bodies and go.

[RusTy/SE]

Dang Wade..... Happy to see you posting again and moving forward. Hope you get weller