Retrospect: I am a Heart Attack Survivor

If you follow the news closely, and by closely I mean in a timely manner, you are aware of former President Bill Clinton's stent procedure that took place following "chest discomfort" today.  I can't help but feel heart-sick.

After reading my own post titled, 'It Hurts and It Hurts', I feel I haven't followed my own advice.  Had someone told me they were feeling the way I described in my post, I would have urged them to seek medical care.  Of course, I considered going to the hospital.  So, what held me back?  My $100 co-pay for the emergency room and the fact that the emergency room doctors never do anything.  It is a vicious cycle. Unless you are literally on your death bed (and they are able to determine so), the emergency room doctors seldom are proactive for patients.  I know I sound ungrateful.  I'm not ungrateful, however, this is my experience in the emergency room, time after time.  

When I had my heart attack, one of the responding Emergency Medical Technician's (EMT) tried to persuade me that I was fine and probably just overworked (I told the EMT I had been at the gym prior to calling 911).  Add that knowledge to the fact that I was overweight and only in my early thirties and it's plausible that the EMT felt I was someone older (in his opinion!), who was out of shape and had overexerted herself at the gym. I told the EMT (along with the 911 operator) that I felt I was having a heart attack.  

When I arrived at the emergency room by ambulance at the local hospital I was left on the gurney in the hallway.  The pain in my shoulder blades (a heart attack symptom in females) increased and I began yelling at any personnel who passed by, that I needed help and thought I was having a heart attack.  They looked at me like I was crazy.  I kept yelling (truly, this only went on for a few minutes, but situations like that feel like hours).  I was not about to be quiet.  They moved me into a room where they tried to calm me.  Finally they hooked me up to an electrocardiogram (EKG).  I kept asking if I was having a heart attack.  Suddenly the small room filled with people.  A man walked in, dressed in golfing attire (it was a Saturday afternoon).  When I saw him I immediately knew I was having a heart attack.  He took my hand and confirmed that I was having a heart attack; he was the cardiologist who saved my life and I will forever be thankful for him.  

I have never had any ill feelings towards the medical personnel who originally lacked reaction when I said I thought I was having a heart attack.  Heart attack in women is consistently misdiagnosed.  It is the numero uno killer of women.  Number 1!  Both medical personnel and we as patients have to be diligent about heart disease education; knowing the symptoms and better diagnosis on the part of medical professionals, to change the way that heart attack is overlooked in women.  I am a heart attack survivor, and it needs to remain that way, as it does with other women.
  
February is American Heart Month.  Please familiarize yourself with the differences between male and female warning signs of stroke and heart attack.  Second, make lifestyle changes if you haven't already done so.  Lastly, find out as much as you can about your family medical history:  there should be no question so uncomfortable as compared to saying goodbye too early to a loved one.