
The Other Half - myth_drannon
http://ascii.textfiles.com/archives/5139
======
jrwoodruff
First job out of high school was working in a department store. One of the
sales guys I worked with was Keith. He smoked, liked to drink and go to Disney
World.

After returning from a Disney World trip, he told me how he spent most of it
on the hotel room floor because he 'threw his back out' and had general chest
pain. Nothing excruciating, just annoying enough that he wasn't up for hours
of walking. His friends told him to go the doctor, but he blew it off and said
he was feeling better.

The next day he died in the store, behind the register, before we opened, from
a heart attack. He was 36.

Last year I went to an urgent care because of chest and back pain. They sent
me on to the ER after an EKG showed an abnormal rhythm. Turns out I hit the
rowing machine too hard the day before and had a massive case of indigestion
from Mexican food at lunch.

I felt silly, but really everyone that I dealt with was cool about it. I'm
lucky enough to have insurance that covered it all, and I'm happy that it
wasn't a heart attack.

I don't know if there's a moral to this story, just that... shit, you never
know when your day is coming, and I still have a lot to do before it happens.

~~~
komali2
Regarding insurance, I wonder if you would have gone in if you were Keith, who
at 35 is working sales at a department store. He might not even have been
insured.

~~~
ars
Want to disrupt the heart attack market?

Make a small home machine that can take an EKG and tell you if everything is
fine, or if you should go get checked.

Adjust it to give some false positives, but no false negatives.

Make it cost around $50, and make sure it's fully reusable (i.e. you can
borrow one from a friend for a quick check).

If machine learning is not up to the task, then send the EKG to a doctor, I
believe they can read them in just seconds (correct me if I'm wrong), so it
should not be expensive per-person.

To simplify it, have it connect via bluetooth to a phone, so you don't need to
worry about WiFi, or a display. For reliability have it store the last 10
readings, even if not connected, so it should have a start button and
indicator lights.

~~~
adrianN
Good luck with the lawsuits when your machine gives the wrong answer.

~~~
annnnd
Only two answers possible:

* go see a doctor

* urgently go see a doctor!

~~~
adrianN
Then you get sued to pay for unnecessary bills.

------
bleair
This part fascinated me :

"" I waited 5 anxious minutes, and then was bought into a room with two
doctors, one of whom turned out to be Dr. Sonny Palmer.

Sonny said Georg thought I needed some help, and I’d be checked within a day.
I asked if he’d seen the letter with his name on it. He hadn’t. He went and
got it.

He came back and said I was going to be operated on in an hour. "" You
obviously don't want to be rude when talking with doctors, but you absolutely
should be your own advocate. Any time you're dealing with medical choise ask
questions, such as "did you notice X" or "did you see the information from
other person Y" or "do I have other options here than the plan you outlines?"
or "your advice sounds good, but what are complications / side effects in
doing this?" In the United States it feels like our attitude is "I go to
doctor to get fix for aliment. He prescribes X. Done", and it's never that
simple.

~~~
shanusmagnus
Couldn't agree with this more. I'm from MN, we tend to be pretty polite and
understated, assume that doctors (and other authorities) know what they're
talking about. Had a friend who progressed to a heart attack in a waiting room
because he didn't want to make a fuss.

Make a fuss.

~~~
lancewiggs
This was in Australia. A senior cardiologist has no motivation other than
saving your life, and the symptoms were very clear. Meanwhile a stent
operation is relatively trivial - as was explained later in the piece. If he'd
asked for a second opinion it could very well have added enough time to make
things a lot worse.

~~~
martyvis
Interestingly this article on HN last week addressed the finding that while
stents are often prescribed for chest pain symptoms it is doubtful they have a
more favorable outcome than other treatments
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13713563#13716162](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13713563#13716162)

------
elorant
Last August I go to bed one night and I feel extremely nauseous with a burden
on my chest. After vomiting I feel relieved but the burden is still there. So
I decide to visit the ER afraid that I might have a heart attack. They give me
all the exams and it turns out it was a stomach problem, specifically GERD
which turned out to be a bitch because it took 6 months to cure and a very
strict diet.

While at the hospital the doctor informs me that quite a lot of people with
stomach issues misinterpret them for heart attacks and vice versa, which is
the really troubling thing because they think it's their stomach and they die
since they neglect to see a doctor. So I ask him, how do you tell whether it's
a stomach or a heart issue? You don't, he replies. If you feel anything funny
related to your chest go to a hospital.

~~~
aerique
_the doctor informs me that quite a lot of people with stomach issues
misinterpret them for heart attacks and vice versa_

Yeah, my dad died (11 years ago) of a heart attack while he was thinking he
had stomach issues.

------
Dangeranger
This story and the comments make me curious as to how many hard charging
project leaders have, or would, work through a heart attack.

These words stuck out to me:

> I was fucking annoyed – I felt like I was just super tired and needed some
> energy, and energy drinks and caffeine weren’t doing the trick.

He then went on to keynote a conference and live for what seems like at least
two more days without seeking medical attention.

I'm a mid 30's man, my family history includes heart disease, my father is
stubborn as am I. If some day I felt tired, and constricted, my first thought
would not be that maybe my heart is failing, but it probably shouldn't be my
last thought.

We cannot achieve our goals or lead projects if we are dead. This close call
woke me up to paying attention to my body, and maybe we all can benefit from
it.

~~~
matt4077
I'm not completely sold on the relationship of stress and heart disease. I
spend some time working in politics, and almost all principals worked 18h-days
with less than 5h of sleep during the week. Yet life expectancy is higher than
average.

There are obviously ots of competing factors at work: they have plenty of
opportunities to eat healthy, and the discipline that makes them get up at 5am
also makes them go for a run at 5:30. Then again two of my bosses had to
retire after run-ins with the crystal meth law they themselves passed...

Considering the limits of willpower, I'd rank it
Smoking/Exercise/Food/Sleep/Stress.

~~~
dzhiurgis
> bosses had to retire after run-ins with the crystal meth law they themselves
> passed...

Wait, what?

~~~
khedoros1
Sounds like his bosses were politicians who helped get stricter drug laws
passed, then were caught using those drugs.

~~~
codeisawesome
(Presumably to sustain the will power to work 18h days on 5h of sleep)

------
mikeash
"I’d now had been experiencing a heart attack for about a week."

Holy cow. I didn't realize this was possible. This is a good lesson to all of
us not to ignore weird, painful phenomena in our body.

~~~
JeremyMorgan
It's very possible. In EMS I meet folks that have been in having a heart
attack for quite some time, it's not always dropping down like a rag doll you
see on TV (though many times it is).

My dad did the same thing, one day he had some chest pain that he thought was
related to something he ate. Drove a semi truck around for about 6 hours,
decided to come home early. He came back to the shop, parked his truck and
called my mom and said he had indigestion like he'd never experienced, and
they went to the doctor. Turned out to be a full-on heart attack he'd been
feeling the last 8 hours.

I guess that's a long way of saying listen to your body. Generally, it's
trying to tell you something, and if feels just a little off, get checked out.
Could definitely save your life.

~~~
tgokh
I'm assuming you mean people can be having an MI, or experiencing angina for
quite some time, not actually in cardiac arrest

~~~
JeremyMorgan
Yes, I edited it for clarity, because by definition cardiac arrest is the
sudden stop of blood flow, where MI/AMI/Angina are more gradual. All are
commonly called "heart attacks" but are quite different. Thanks for keeping me
honest here.

------
rsmets
Interesting story. Having a skilled doctor is essential to making it out of
those situations unscathed. I was lucky enough to have one of those too.

I had an ischemic stroke at the age of 21 while studying abroad in Prague.
Rushed to ER and emergency cutting edge surgery, intra-arterial thrombolysis,
ensued. This is a 'test' procedure in many parts of the western world. They
went through my groin to get to the blot clot in my brain. Woke up that
evening in the ER with pretty much no clue what had happened.

While the quality of the care was pretty good, with the surgeon being
spectacular, the language barrier made things a bit difficult for my two weeks
stay there after! Not to mention I was hands down to everyone's junior in that
section of the hospital I was moved to after the ER ha.

Anyway that's the short version of a story I should probably write down
somewhere similar to yours. I'm 24 now and completely healthy =). For all the
'making the world a better place (at a macro level)' that us devs are doing it
is a nice reminder that making the world a better place on an individual level
is probably still the most impact any of us can have. I don't even know what
my doctor's name was! But thank you to all you MDs.

~~~
plaguuuuuu
>For all the 'making the world a better place (at a macro level)' that us devs
are doing

Speak for yourself... I'm just automating peoples jobs and subsequently making
them unemployed, lol.

------
scandox
In Ireland when you say "other half" you generally mean wife, husband,
boyfriend, girlfriend or partner. And the No. 1 thing I thought reading this
was that Rachel, whoever she is, must be a damn saint.

~~~
ars
They say that in the US as well.

~~~
textfiles
Everyone in Ireland and the US says Rachel is a damn saint.

~~~
tawayway
Hi Jason. I am wishing you well (Rachel too) from Ireland.

------
kozak
I sleep with my Fitbit Charge 2 on my wrist, and I found that the Resting
Heart Rate value is extremely sensitive to what happens with my body. Drank a
little alcohol? See a change on my Resting Heart Rate value for that night.
Got too much stress, or maybe spent a day at home without exercise? Yes, I see
it on the graph. So my question is whether such an event as the one that is
described would be clearly visible to the fitness tracker, maybe even clear
enough to alert the wearer.

~~~
brandon272
One reason I reduced my alcohol intake substantially is the effect that
alcohol had on my resting heart rate. It would go up around 90bpm (or higher
if I was dealing with a particularly bad hangover the next day). When I
abstain it stays around 60.

~~~
graeme
Interesting. Did heart rate monitoring change any other behaviours?

~~~
brandon272
Not that I can think of. Same schedule, diet, activity, sleep patterns, etc.

------
pmarreck
I sat on a "weird pain" in my chest for a few days. Basically it was
uncomfortable to sleep on my left side, and I felt a bit short of breath.
Turns out I was suffering from a _double pulmonary embolism_ , and that the
only reason I wasn't doubled over in pain is because by an odd fluke of
nature, the interior of the lungs do not have nerve endings (only the
exterior) and had I waited any longer _I could have died._ At that point, a
third of both of my lungs was basically gone already. And so, I ended up
having to stay for an entire week in the hospital while they dripped
anticoagulants into me. If my girlfriend hadn't strongly encouraged me to call
my doctor... Who knows.

Guys/gals... If there's any unusual pain in your chest cavity _at all,_ just
drop whatever it is you're doing and get it checked out. It might not even
seem that bad at the time... it didn't to me and it didn't to Jason Scott...
just do it.

~~~
ginko
>Guys/gals... If there's any unusual pain in your chest cavity at all, just
drop whatever it is you're doing and get it checked out. It might not even
seem that bad at the time... it didn't to me and it didn't to Jason Scott...
just do it.

Yeah, but where do you draw the line? I guess that will sound silly, but I'm
always afraid that people think of me as a hypochondriac if I ran to the
doctor for every little pain, most of them probably being some sprained muscle
or indigestion.

~~~
komali2
[https://www.ghc.org/healthAndWellness/?item=%2Fcommon%2Fheal...](https://www.ghc.org/healthAndWellness/?item=%2Fcommon%2FhealthAndWellness%2Fconditions%2FheartDisease%2FchestPain.html)

TLDR: It's probably not a heart attack if you can pinpoint the pain, if the
pain gets worse on a deep breath, the pain is related to movement of your
shoulder or arm, or if it only lasts a few second.

You should _call_ a doctor if the pain is mild but consistent and is
untreatable by pain killers, and remains regardless of if you're resting or
not.

You should call 911 or get to a hospital immediately if your chest pain is
"crushing" or "squeezing," and _especially_ if it is accompanied by ANY ONE of
the following: sweating, shortness of breath, nausea/vomiting, pain that
spreads from the chest to the neck, jaw, or one or both shoulders or arms,
dizziness or lightheadedness, fast or irregular pulse, severe weakness,
inability to walk.

So yea you don't go to the hospital for every pulled muscle, but do your best
to memorize the above symptoms of escalating seriousness, and you should be
ok.

~~~
gpawl
What do you do if you've had symptoms for weeks/months? Until you've been
diagnosed with a heart attack, the word "mild" does mean much. People over the
age of 35-40 have many chronic mild pains

~~~
komali2
If you've had symptoms for a few hours that are untreatable by medication
(like I said), then you call your doctor. Your doctor will tell you whether or
not to come in. If it's chronic old-person pain, your doctor will find that
out, and tell you next steps.

If you've had symptoms for weeks/months, well, I guess that's probably not a
heart attack, good job? Still should have gone in within the first day.

~~~
tgokh
You're spot on with your previous post, but just wanted to add a note to
anyone reading that if you've been having intermittent chest pain or
discomfort for weeks/months, it still could be a heart problem (or reflux or a
host of other things) that needs to be checked out. You could have a partial
blockage of a coronary blood vessels (the blood vessels that provide
blood/oxygen to the heart muscle itself) that provide insufficient blood flow,
either when you're active, or randomly.

(this is not medical advice!)

------
gtrubetskoy
I wonder if a finger blood oxygen meter ($20 on Amazon [1]) is a good tool to
diagnose that you might be having a heart attack. It's easy to carry one with
you. I am not a doctor, and Googling for it isn't turning up much useful, but
it'd seem logical that during a heart attack your blood oxygen would be
abnormally low? Perhaps someone in the know can comment?

[1] [https://www.amazon.com/Santamedical-Generation-
SM-165-Finger...](https://www.amazon.com/Santamedical-Generation-
SM-165-Fingertip-Saturation/dp/B00R59OTOC/)

~~~
Peradine
A pulse oximiter measures the oxygen content of arterial blood in the
peripheries. A heart attack is caused by a localised blockage of the arteries
to the heart, causing reduced oxygen and nutrient delivery to an area of heart
muscle. A heart attack alone would not affect peripheral oxygen content unless
it was severe enough for a complication such as heart failure to develop, but
by that stage it's much too late.

Indeed the vast majority of patients with an acute heart attack would have
completely normal pulse oximetry findings, the only way to properly diagnose a
heart attack is with an electrocardiogram (EKG) and/or blood tests to look for
markers of heart muscle damage

------
chrisper
This is why it is important that you monitor your stress level and eventually
just say "stop." Yes you may miss due dates, plans, and even make some people
angry, but at least you don't die. I realize this is not always possible, but
the "can do (everything)" attitude is not always the right one.

Also, having a surgery while being awake? Not sure how to think about that. I
mean just imagining that makes me feel weird.

~~~
athenot
For a stent, they only use conscious sedation, that's enough. It's not like
they open up your chest; they go in through your wrist or your goin.

~~~
chrisper
In the article he said he could see his heart on a monitor. Was he maybe
referring to the camera they use when they are in your body?

~~~
athenot
There is imaging but not from a camera in the body (blood is not exactly
transparent).

It's a form of x-ray video with a tracer in the blood, so they can observe
both the guide and the blood irrigation.

 _The doctor will use live x-ray pictures to carefully guide the catheter up
into your heart and arteries. Dye will be injected into your body to highlight
blood flow through the arteries. This helps the doctor see any blockages in
the blood vessels that lead to your heart._

 _A guide wire is moved into and across the blockage. A balloon catheter is
pushed over the guide wire and into the blockage. The balloon on the end is
blown up (inflated). This opens the blocked vessel and restores proper blood
flow to the heart._

Source:
[https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/007473.htm](https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/007473.htm)

~~~
textfiles
Verified - this is what I saw and what was used on me.

------
alistproducer2
Three years ago Jason was speaking at the vintage computer festival in
Atlanta. He gave a talk about emscipten and all the cool things they do with
it. I talked with him for a bit. Super cool and knowledgeable guy. I wish him
well.

~~~
pshc
I attended one of Jason's talks on taking control of your own data. Super
inspiring. I went up to ask him a question after (and I _never_ do that!) and
went away satisfied.

------
tnorthcutt
* Regardless, I personally would have been fine on the accomplishment/legacy scale, if not on the first-person/relationships/plans scale.*

Jason, I think it's an understatement to say that you've done incredible
things on the accomplishments/legacy/contributing-to-society front. Thanks for
your incredible work.

I hope the next however-many-years allow you to do all you wish to on the
person/relationships/plans front. Godspeed!

------
joebeetee
A (35ish y/o) family friend died 2 months ago from a heart attack, suspected
high cholesterol. He was seemingly healthy, active and not overweight.

Anyone else have experience with cholesterol in early 30's?

~~~
RandomInteger4
Last time I had my cholesterol checked about 6-7 years ago, it appeared
normal, though my HDL was low. I'm 31 now and have been having a weird heart
feeling. Not a pain though, but like beating issues. Depending on what I eat
and which supplements I take, my heart starts beating weird and my blood
pressure goes up.

The weird beating seems like my heart is either beating normally or weakly and
then there's a "hiccup" every minute or so. When I lay down with my ear
against the pillow when this happens, I can hear my blood flow, which seems
weird, like my blood containing tubes/pump is wider than the amount of liquid
in the chambers; like an echo-y water flow sound.

Part of me thinks this is the L-arginine I take (to get "swoll" as they say)
combined with the amount of caffeine I take in? Another part of me thinks this
is a valve issue from bacterial endocarditis, since I still have my wisdom
teeth, though I brush 3+x/day, but I've had 2 splinter hemorrhages without
trauma on my fingernails recently, though I like any signs of Osler nodes.

I'm 6'1", 184-ish, muscular build, so maybe it's all in my head and the above
paragraphs are the result of hypochondria exacerbated by a lack of health
insurance or the money to even pay for a routine doctor's visit. I mean, I eat
all healthy homemade food; currently cooking black beans + garbonzo beans to
make a hummus of sorts.

Hoping my anxiety stays tempered long enough for me to get back on my feet
while finishing my current project.

EDIT: I forgot to mention a frequent shortness of breath, though like in Jason
Scott's case, this doesn't seem to prevent me from physical activity, but it
bothers me that I can't take deep breathes all the time.

~~~
cableshaft
I used to get these skipped heart beats all the time (I even went to the
emergency room thinking I had a heart attack over it several years ago), along
with tightness in the chest.

I also went to a cardiologist about it, and he pretty much just said "your EKG
is normal and you're fat, work out 7 days a week, have a low fat diet, and
lose weight".

It stopped being anywhere near as frequent, along with a drop in resting heart
rate, lower blood pressure, less back pain (probably due to less inflammation)
once I went on a low carb diet (notice the low fat diet the cardiologist
suggested didn't help much) last year. I also lost 45 lbs in four months,
mostly just the diet. I certainly didn't work out 7 days a week.

I have periodically cheated since, and each time I get a reminder I shouldn't
because I get skipped heart beats, tightness in the chest, and an elevated
heart rate and blood pressure.

I'm not sure the mechanism behind this (anyone? local doctors have been
completely unhelpful), and I almost wish there was another cause, because
every once in awhile I really, really want to have those carbs, but I feel a
lot better overall when I don't.

Something to consider.

~~~
mwpmaybe
I am not a doctor. Here are some thoughts (addressed to both you and the GP):

I have a hietal hernia[0] that causes reflux and dyspepsia (trouble
swallowing) and mimics these heart symptoms: shortness of breath, arrhythmia,
chest pain, and tachycardia. A ketogenic diet helps, as does an OTC PPI[1]
(e.g. Prilosec, Nexium). You might consider getting scoped to see if you have
one as well (or just take a PPI for two weeks and see if it helps).

I've had arrhythmia since I was a teenager. Some of it is sinus (i.e. pressure
on my vascular system caused by breathing) and some of it is not[2]. I've
found that taking a daily multivitamin helps considerably, as does a diet rich
in magnesium and potassium (occasionally supplemented), so I must have some
deficiencies. I can't take too much pseudoephedrine (and try to avoid it
completely after a particularly scary episode). Regular exercise helps as
well. If I start to freak out about a particularly bad spell of arrhythmia
and/or palpitations, I tell myself to eat an apple or a banana and go for a
walk.

Alcohol and caffeine wreak havoc on all of the above, so I can't drink like I
did in my 20s, and I try to limit myself to one pot of coffee per day. ;-)

 _> "your EKG is normal and you're fat"_

If I had a nickel for every time I've heard that...

If you have bacterial endocarditis[3], that could explain why a low-carb diet
is helpful: lower blood sugar -> less fuel for bacteria -> reduced heart valve
inflammation. Maybe.

I have something else going on right now that I don't understand: waking up at
night with back pain under my right shoulder blade, anxiety, and arrhythmia. I
went to the hospital after the third incident and the EKG, blood work, chest
X-ray, CT scan, etc. didn't reveal anything. I suspect it's stress-related and
either an ulcer or bacterial endocarditis, so I need to get those looked at by
specialists. I also had a clot in my leg last year for which I needed six
months of blood thinners, so I wonder if that's related...

Getting old sucks.

0\.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiatus_hernia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiatus_hernia)

1\. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proton-
pump_inhibitor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proton-pump_inhibitor)

2\.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premature_ventricular_contract...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premature_ventricular_contraction)

3\.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infective_endocarditis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infective_endocarditis)

~~~
cableshaft
Thanks for that, I'll look into it. I wouldn't be surprised if I had something
similar to that hernia. I thought I had pancreatitis for awhile, but that
looks like it fits better.

I also just got an MRI and an ultrasound for a hard lump on my leg to make
sure it wasn't a clot (they thought it was cellulitis but antibiotics didn't
make it go away, now they think it was cellulitis and the remnants just might
just stick around for awhile).

Honestly I'm just tired of getting all this checked out all the time. I max
out my rather high deductible pretty quick these past couple of years, mostly
to get tests taken that (so far) have been negative, so I don't really know
what's actually wrong (although apparently the doctors don't ever think it's
too serious, but I'm worried they make some assumptions because of my weight
and something more serious might be hiding).

I agree, getting old sucks. And I'm still considered too 'young' for half the
things they're testing on me, from what they keep telling me.

------
bane
Wow, this is timely, I'm going to stay with my Dad while he goes in for heart
surgery on Monday. It's kind of terrifying since he's had no heart problems
his entire life until very recently, and unless he was taking his pulse for
another issue wouldn't have even known it as he's had no other symptoms or any
sort of discomfort.

I also used to work with an older guy who had known heart problems and a
defibrillator. He worked on a piece of equipment that required him to lean
over a big moving dangerous piece of mechanical moving death trap. One day we
noticed him leaning in in a weird way, jolting and then getting back into the
correct position as if nothing had happened, it happened three times during a
week. We talked to him and he just insisted he was tired. But the shift boss
took him off the equipment and told him to go see his doctor. They checked his
defibrillator and it had gone off something like a half-dozen times in that
week. His heart had stopped and he would have died a couple different ways if
he hadn't had that thing in his chest. He never even knew anything was
happening except feeling lethargic. But he wasn't passing out, he was dying.

Jason Scott on the other hand had lots of discomfort, but didn't realize it
was his heart at all. The signs of heart trouble are so many and this just
reminds me of how unclear they can be. We're a lot better off with a Jason
Scott than without, so I'm delighted to hear that they caught the trouble and
sorted it out with what sounds to be a miracle of modern science.

------
spinchange
I wonder all the time why we don't have more widely available, "consumer
grade" tech like handheld ECGs, etc., to help better detect stuff like this.
(There are products like this, but not in U.S. markets to my understanding -
at least not without a prescription)

If you're unfortunate enough to suffer from something like anxiety attacks and
also have heart trouble in your family's medical history it is very difficult
(and expensive) to ascertain if you're having a panic attack or an actual
cardiac episode.

~~~
geoyang
We are currently beta testing a device that can take your EKG and provide some
level of analysis on your phone. If you are interested, we have currently have
a private beta and have a few more openings! Of course we have much more
planning in our production version. Please feel free to take a look:
www.grektek.com. As the other reader mentions, cardiologists are the ultimate
judges and even that can be difficult, but we have found helpful information
can often be gleaned using our device and App.

~~~
tgokh
Cool product -- especially like the idea of medication reminders in the watch.
Is the silver thing on the face of the watch the second electrode for your
EKG?

------
bkmartin
If you read this... I'm very happy that you are ok. Thank you for sharing your
story and I hope that it helps to save someone else's life. Prayers for
healing. Rest easy.

~~~
textfiles
I read it, and thank you.

------
iguanayou
All of the symptoms can also be caused by panic disorder. Advice like "IF YOU
FEEL ANY DISCOMFORT AT ALL GO TO THE EMERGENCY ROOM ASAP" is bad advice for
people with anxiety disorders.

Go to a doctor and get checked out to rule out any heart issues. If it's panic
disorder, there are safe drugs that are great at making these symptoms go
away.

------
ryan-allen
My dad dropped dead from an arrhythmia whilst at work. People nearby performed
CPR on him immediately, the ambulance was there within 7 minutes and he was
rushed to the Alfred hospital in Melbourne.

He was literally dead for 20 minutes, but they managed to revive him and a few
weeks later, with a newly installed pacemaker, better than new.

He had a very, very, very high probability of dying, or requiring specialised
care due to brain damage from brain hypoxia. Those that knew CPR, and did it
properly for those excruciating 7 minutes gave him his life back.

The moral of the story is, if something feels awry, go and see a doctor (he
wasn't taking it seriously), and learn CPR, you might just save someone's
life.

Oh, and our hospitals and doctors/nurses are top notch. He was in intensive
care for a few days and the final bill was a few hundred dollars. Hooray for
universal healthcare!

~~~
brandon272
I'm glad that your dad is OK. Was he experiencing symptoms prior to him
falling unconscious at work?

~~~
ryan-allen
He was having occasional shortness of breath at night. He wasn't particularly
good at reporting symptoms, and our GP was a bit of a dingdong (he should have
been rushed to a cardiac unit in retrospect after a recent round of testing,
rather than be sent home).

------
a2tech
That's quite the story. I'm glad he made it-the loss of him would have been
keenly felt.

------
Finbarr
I had a spontaneous pneumothorax in my late teens. I was lying in bed and felt
a sudden extreme pain in my chest. It was worsened with every breath. I had
been drinking and decided to try and sleep it off. Over the next couple of
weeks the pain got slightly better but persisted, and I noticed a shortness of
breath. Eventually I went to the doctor and was sent straight to hospital
where I discovered my left lung was 50% collapsed.

I've had several more subsequently and went straight to hospital each time.
Thankfully I haven't had a recurrence in years now, but I learned the same
lesson the author of this post did - you shouldn't ignore chest pain.

------
textfiles
Hi, I'm Jason Scott. I had a heart attack and I'm the one who wrote the essay
this is linking to.

Since the entry was written last week, I went back to the Emergency Room
twice. The first was because I was just feeling "a little weird", and they did
a round of tests and verified that no, I'm healing fine, that's just how I
feel now (I feel less weird every day). The second time was a few days later
when I experienced a notable shortness of breath. This time, the cardiologist
said it was likely a side effect of one of my drugs (it's known to do this)
and we swapped the medication. Now I'm feeling pretty great.

I mention this because one of the themes of messages in here are "I don't want
to be a bother/I don't know if this warrants a trip to the ER" and those two
thoughts should NOT be calculated into your deciding to go. Believe me, they'd
MUCH rather work on "guy feels funny" than "guy got shot by other guy in
argument over the Playstation" or "Guy drank so much he crapped himself and
fell onto a sprinkler and is bleeding profusely".

The doctors thought I should not fly for two weeks after the procedure, so we
booked an AirBNB for the extra time. My hosts of the two events I spoke at
(ACMI and MuseumNext) have essentially paid for this entire extra AirBNB time,
which is generous and wonderful and I give a shout-out to them. Additionally,
the hospital gave me a letter indicating I couldn't fly, and MuseumNext was
able to move my international flight with no real added cost; that's also
worth a shout-out. Melbourne is a very nice place to be resting.

The main annoying part is I was (mostly) doing the right things, health wise -
I had dropped 30 pounds, and was walking like crazy - I'd upped my step goals
on the fitbit after I kept smashing them. On a trip to Japan last year for
three weeks, I'd walked over 160 miles. I'd done this because I'd seen so many
contemporaries drop dead or get really sick in their 40s and 50s - computer
life is not a healthy life. The silent and unaddressed problem, on my side,
was cholesterol - it was choking my arteries. Drugs will help that, but I've
now radically shifted my diet to approach it naturally as well. I'm raring to
go on long walks again, so I will definitely continue that. But please bear in
mind - I might still die! Nothing is guaranteed!

I also see a lot of differing opinions on "see doctors" versus "not see
doctors". I can't imagine how having a regular doctor checkup is in any way
bad. It might not affect what you DIE OF, but it can't hurt quality of life -
when I had bad kidney stones for years, it was certainly my doctor who gave me
the drug that fixed that. And other small notes have made my life better as
well.

Money/cost issues are worth a whole other post.

Finally: I see that 25% of the thread is an argument over linking to the title
versus describing the essay's contents. I see people are VERY INTENTLY
CONCERNED over the two sides in this discussion. As always, HN knows where to
aim the energy.

~~~
Mahn
I don't have anything to add other than to say thank you for sharing this with
us, and I wish you a speedy and full recovery.

------
uladzislau
A tablet of aspirin taken (even chewed if it's too bad) by the first symptoms
of the chest pain can save your life.

~~~
yannk
Why? Because: (small amount works, chewed is better)
[http://www.health.harvard.edu/heart-health/aspirin-for-
heart...](http://www.health.harvard.edu/heart-health/aspirin-for-heart-attack-
chew-or-swallow)

~~~
eric_h
As an aside, I know this simply from experience with taking drugs
recreationally. Chewed or otherwise ground up pills hit you faster, and I've
found dissolving a ground up pill in hot water is the winner, as far as time
to kick in.

Pharmaceutical pills have all sorts of additives intended to delay the release
of the active chemical, recreational pills have an obviously less rigorously
tested version of the same.

My mother, a (retired) cardiovascular pharmacologist, taught me that the
quality/effectiveness of those additives is often what differentiates brand
name drugs from generics (sometimes significantly, admittedly she's been
retired for quite a while now, so that information might be out of date, but
she actually did some professional research on the subject back in the day).

I'll never forget the time when I, at about the age of 11, was sent in to the
store to buy a big bottle of Aleve that my mom was going to "smuggle" across
the border to Canada for her sister (Naproxen was prescription only at the
time in Canada, but available OTC in the US - amusingly, Tylenol w/codeine was
the inverse). I bought a generic naproxen sodium instead (thinking I was so
clever for saving about half the money I'd been given), and I got chewed out
and sent back into the store to replace it. That was what she got for teaching
me to actually read the active ingredients of drugs on the label ;)

------
okreallywtf
Something that I learned in a recent first-aid class: the symptoms for a heart
attack often differ between women and men and that women more often experience
burning sensations that can be confused with heartburn or indigestion. This
can contribute to more women not seeking medical care because the symptoms can
be more nuanced.

Better safe than sorry, especially where the heart is concerned.

------
zaxophone
I love Jason Scott. Just a real upstanding guy. Hoping for a speedy recovery!

------
ben_jones
How is it THAT IN 2017 someone is still designing business critical systems
with single points of failure?!

Seriously though I wish him a full recovery and we all need to remind
ourselves that all too often we lose track of what's really, life stoppingly,
important.

~~~
Angostura
Fair's fair: the system flagged up an error condition, and faced with a
quarter of the critical system failed degraded performance but kept going
until it could be patched.

------
ajtaylor
Two Christmases ago I had a 100% blockage of the LAD for about 45 minutes -
the time it took to get me from my house to the cardiac unit. It's called the
Widow Maker for a reason. I was extremely lucky in that the pain was acute
enough we called 911 immediately, and both the firehouse and hospital were
very close by. I was 41 and in excellent health. No drinking, smoking, drugs,
etc.

If you're feeling chest pain, please don't mess around. Get checked
immediately. Better to feel silly than miss a heart attack and die!

------
fasteo
My highest appreciation for Dr. Sonny Palmer. He went above and beyond his
duties and I truly believe he is not the exception, but the norm.

------
mozumder
Man that's young.. What are the best ways of actually reversing blocked
arteries/artherosclerosis? Excercise? Statins?

------
taneq
As the article started out describing spending an exorbitant amount of money
to achieve a bunch of non-essential goals (not counting being with his father,
of course) I was expecting "the other half" to refer to a friend or
acquaintance without "means" dying in an alley due to lack of funds for
medical treatment.

~~~
textfiles
I'll get it better next time.

------
hengheng
Who is this about? I read a well-written and beautiful story, I just have no
idea what the context is.

~~~
AceJohnny2
Jason Scott is a computer archiver, in that he works to preserve the history
of all things computing. He works for the Internet Archive.

He's been featured around here a few times:
[https://hn.algolia.com/?query=textfiles.com&sort=byPopularit...](https://hn.algolia.com/?query=textfiles.com&sort=byPopularity&prefix&dateRange=all)

One of the more memorable posts was the one where they worked frantically to
preserve a warehouse full of old manuals:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10076974](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10076974)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Scott](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Scott)

(and even his cat has a wikipedia page:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sockington](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sockington))

------
lowglow
I saw Jason perform at Internet Archive's anniversary party this year and was
really captivated by his stage presence, showmanship, and ability to wrangle
and move a show forward.

Glad he's doing OK. Good vibes, Jason!

------
nailer
Quick readability fix: open DevTools and paste:

    
    
        document.body.style.fontSize = '14pt'; 
        document.body.style.fontFamily = 'Georgia,Cambria,Times,Times New Roman,serif'

~~~
TazeTSchnitzel
Or click your browser's “reader” button.

------
JeremyMorgan
Really glad he got in there and got it taken care of before it got really bad.

I cringed when I read he was chugging energy drinks to stay awake, given the
context of the post.

------
anonymous_iam
I hope Jason recovers in time for DefCon.

~~~
wanderingjew
lol

------
jedanbik
Sending healing thoughts your way, Jason!

------
losteverything
Good ending now.

I wonder after reading, is Wikipedia the new "Who's who in America?"

>[His] Wikipedia page.

------
mayrosedgdotcom
I love that textiles.com exists

------
and0
Jason described HN once as "the ass-end of the tech elite" and I still use
that quote to this day. Wonderful dude.

------
lkrubner
Once again, the policy on headline titles for articles on HackerNews is a bit
bizarre. The original title explained that the man almost died. This current
title is "The Other Half" and does not explain anything at all.

As a practical matter, the policy seems to amount to "We use the title of the
original article, unless it is strongly stated, in which case we regard it as
clickbait and change it to something dull." That is not a good policy, since
we should all hope for and promote strong writing, and the fact that a strong
headline could be confused for clickbait is not a good reason to change it.
Nor should the default be "use the article's original title" since a better
default would be "Highlight what part of this article would be interesting to
the Hacker News audience."

~~~
tptacek
That doesn't work. The submitter of an HN story doesn't own the story; stories
are community property. Submitting doesn't entitle you to choose for the whole
site what is or isn't interesting about a story. If you want to do that, you
write a comment, like everybody else.

This is one of the oldest meta-arguments on the site. Once or twice a month,
perhaps, we get a story that isn't particularly well served by the guidelines,
and people have to click one more time than they might have, or read a few
more sentences than they might have. But pretty much every day, and probably
more frequently than that, we see problems stemming from the guideline being
broken.

Almost everybody reading these comments knows what this story is about now.
It's a shame a pointless meta-complaint is bolted to the top of the thread,
instead of something actually about the post itself.

~~~
lkrubner
tptacek, I never suggested that the person submitting the article should have
monopoly control of the title. My comment is aimed at dang. I suggest the
default question to be answered in the title should be "What part of this
article is interesting to the Hacker News crowd?" It's fine if dang re-writes
all the titles, but why re-write the title to make it something dull or
confusing? We've all seen cases where the original title of a blog post was
deemed too strong, and was thus re-written to make it something dull -- the
kind of title that a college professor of writing would give a bad grade and
suggest "You need a bolder title." We should generally want strong writing,
because strong writing is good writing.

~~~
tptacek
Ah, sorry. That's a more reasonable request. I shouldn't have responded so
petulantly.

I still think it's not going to work out. There aren't many moderators, and
fixing the titles on this site is a huge amount of work. For instance, it's
also probably not reasonable to expect the mods to read every story on the
site, or even just the stories with broken titles.

A thing you can do to help is, when an article has a title that doesn't follow
the guidelines, _suggest a better title_. The mods often use those suggestions
as the replacement title.

~~~
jrs235
And rather than rely on the moderators having to sift through comments and
hope they see a suggested better title, email them directly with the HN
submission link/id and your suggested better title.

------
danjoc
Why the title change? "archive.org guy nearly died" was much more
direct/informative. I wouldn't take a second glace at this thread under "the
other half" assuming it to be marriage advice.

~~~
dang
Because it's the author's own title. That's significant, especially for so
intimate and personal a piece.

It's true that one can trade that off for immediate factual placeability, but
on HN we prefer to make the opposite tradeoff. That's one of many reasons why
the guidelines say "Please use the original title, unless it is misleading or
linkbait."
([https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html))

~~~
canuckintime
I recently saw a suggestion that there should be two titles: one that's the
author's own title and a second that's the HN submission title (which could be
identical if the HN submitter prefers so). Any opinion on the suggestion?

~~~
dang
In my opinion, too complicated, and people would use it to editorialize.

