
Just had a heart attack - mindcrime
In the ICU at UNC hospital in chapel hill.  Had emergency surgery and it looks like I&#x27;ll be OK.<p>Wish I had some deep insights to share as a result but right now all I can really say is<p>&quot;If you start feeling chest pains, don&#x27;t hesitate to call 911. If I&#x27;d waited much longer I probably wouldn&#x27;t be here to send this.  Learn the warning signs and call 911 if in doubt.&quot;
======
M4v3R
Can someone with some medical experience write about what are exactly the
warning signs for a heart attack?

While it's definitely wise to call 911 when in doubt, it's good to have own
understanding first so we don't ignore the symptoms AND don't flood 911 with
false problems.

~~~
robbiep
Doctor here. The 'typical' signs of a heart attack are chest pain usually
described as dull, heavy or tight, with radiation to the arm(s) and neck. The
patient often also complains of diaphoresis (sweating) , shortness of breath
and perhaps weakness.

'Typical' signs do not present in everyone: in particular diabetics are at
increased risk of having 'silent' heart attacks, And chest pain that is not
typical may also be a heart attack.

An ECG can rapidly demonstrate that a patient is having a heart attack or as
we call them myocardial infarcts, and excellent intervention is often
possible.

If the above condition/pain is experienced and there is not a clear ECG
picture of a heart attack troponin levels are taken at 6 hrs, an increase f
which will demonstrate that there was cardiac specific muscle damage.

Without wanting to alarm anyone, there is in the US 250,000 sudden cardiac
deaths a year, almost all from a coronary artery called the left main
blocking: this vessel supplies a huge percentage of the heart muscle and when
it blocks there is no warning and the heart doesn't have enough fuel to keep
pumping.. These patients unfortunately almost all dead on arrival. There is
very little that can be done to predict this as their first episode of chest
pain usually results in death within minutes, and there are rarely indications
that the patient is at risk of such a problem.

~~~
MrJagil
One problem with this is that, I, as an individual suffering from anxiety,
"regularly" suffer form chest pains.

This often spirals into the terrible cycle of anxiety -> chest pains ->
anxiety about the chest pains being a heart attack.

I can only assume that the chest pains will be different and more severe if I
should ever have a heart attack.

[http://www.calmclinic.com/anxiety/symptoms/chest-
pain](http://www.calmclinic.com/anxiety/symptoms/chest-pain)

~~~
robbiep
Literally yesterday I treated a patient who has had 4 presentations this year
to emergency with chest pain that sounds cardiac enough, except it lasts for
several hours sometimes and sometimes she can 'feel it coming on' and heD it
off by relaxing. Still, it could always be a heart attack and until a through
work up is done to exclude it (acutely, ECG and troponins, as outpatient,
stress test), it is worth investigating.

In her case the deeper I delved into her personal life the more it became
apparent that this was a clear cut case of stress/anxiety related pain- that
was having physical manifestations.

for her, we discussed exactly what you are describing: that anxiety leads to
the pain, which then leads to fear about it being a heart attack, which
worsens it etc. we went through the work up we had planned and after her
second troponin was negative we sent her home to have an outpatient stress
test to see if she may have some partial blockages. If that is clear, we as
medical personnel feel comfortable knowing that her episodes are non-cardiac
in nature- and referral to psychologist for CBT (which she had previously
undertaken to good effect) was recommended. I think she will do well, she
appears willing to seek help.

I hope you are also seeking help for your anxiety, and that you have had at
least one good work up for your chest pain to exclude a cardiac cause.

~~~
coned88
I suffer from anxiety and panic and have for years. Just reading this post and
your post makes me anxious. The reason being I have seen a Cardiologist and
had stress tests but years ago. 2 of them about 9-10 years ago after so many
ER visits and then another about 5-6 years ago. All were fine.

EKG's have always been normal as has blood work when I did go to the ER. At my
primary care doctor EKG's have also always been normal.

I have been in CBT and getting better but I have to say your post kinda opened
a wound. The reason being my primary care doctor says I don't need a stress
test and that the prior ones are good enough. She says given my age of 29 and
risk factors there's just no reason for it. So far she's been right. Over the
last 12 years the hundreds of times I have had chest pain I am not dead yet.

I guess now you have me a tad worried. My primary care doctor and her
colleagues have been so convinced at times when I show up with chest pain they
don't even think a EKG is necessary.

~~~
CmonDev
It could be a tense ribcage muscle. If you stretch and the pain changes then
it's probably a muscle.

~~~
coned88
It is that at times. But sometimes not.

------
escapologybb
Just thought I'd chime in with the fact that I have had quite a few heart
attacks and nobody's mentioned one of the overriding sensations I repeatedly
had, and that was one of having a belt tightened around my chest. Like there
was literally somebody stood behind me tightening the thing, and the longer it
went on the more it felt like an iron band was clamping tighter and tighter.
Not fun.

That's also one of the terrible things about anxiety bringing on these types
of symptoms, if you've already had a heart attack and subsequently you have an
anxiety attack which brings on similar symptoms there is just no way to
discount anything (for me). Also not fun.

Luckily the heart attacks I had weren't the result of an underlying problem
with my heart, it was because I was going in to urine retention which caused
either sodium or potassium to build up in my system causing all the problems.
I can never remember which one it was!

But seriously, if you feel the symptoms get help.

------
StefanPopp
Last year when i was 27 i had a strange feeling in my chest after smoking a
cigarette, i didn't smoke for 4 years in row. After 2 minutes i got very
nervous and i felt overall very strange.

Two days later i smoked another cigarette and the same feeling started again,
but this time it felt like ants are running up my neck. After 5 minutes and
calming down me teeth started to itch. From day to day i got more and more
weaker. After 4 days i couldn't walk more then 25 meters without pain in my
chest and short breathing. Thankfully one of my co-workers dad is a doctor and
he said that he wants to take a look on me. After i arrived at his office i
had to walk up 20 stairs and when i opened the door i've fall down on the
floor.

Immediately two people took me to a room where they checked some stuff. My
doctor made some tests and he said that it doesn't look like a heart attack
but something is wrong with one of the lines on my ECG. He asked me if its ok
to call the ambulance for doing more checks at the hospital. I said yes,
please.

5 minutes later ambulance arrived and took me to the hospital. I was quite
unsure if i should be happy or not as my doctor said it doesn't look like a
heart attack. In the emergency room they took my blood to check if troponin is
in my blood. The test was negative. I told them my history and the history of
my dad who had his first heart attack with 36. I had 92 kg at 172cm. They made
some other checks and everything said my heart seems to be normal, except one
line on the ECK. The doctor said i have to stay for at least 1-2 days for
additional tests.

First night, they check my blood pressure shortly before i slept. 180 / 130 @
80 bpm. They gave me some stuff to get it down to a normal value. First
morning, i woke up. I had pain in my chest so hard the i was close to fall out
of the bed. Rolled left, rolled right. 2 minutes and 20 clicks on the
emergency button later a nurse came into my room and gave me painkillers. 10
minutes later ECK + blood test. Everything negative except that one little
line in the ECK. Two hours later i they made the first test. They brought me
to the ultra sonic room were they took a look on my heart. 10 Minutes later
they said, everything looks normal. One day later the next test. Cycling. I
had to stop after 2 minutes and a pulse rate of 120bpm. The nurse asked me if
i am serious that i cant ride more. They expected me to get up to 180bpm. The
doctors got nervous, my blood tests are still negative, no troponin and the
ECK is also negative, except one line. They decided to make a test called
echocardiography. While watching my heart the gave me a medicament to speedup
my heartbeat. When they hit 120bpm i started to sweat, at 130bpm they gave my
emergency medicaments to calm me down. It took almost 30 minutes and 1
lorazepam to calm me down.

After that test they put me to the intensive care unit. For the first time
they found troponin in my blood. I had 10+ cables all over my body. Every 4-5
hours they made blood tests, also when i slept. They gave me blood thinner and
tranquilliser. After 4 days in intensive care unit they made a cardiac
catheterization and they found a 99% closed vessel after 10 minutes. Another
10 minutes later i had my first stent. The complete process took around 45
minutes always with full consciousness. I felt horrible but i was so lucky
that they found the problem. One day later the doctor told me what happened
and what the future is. They said i can live a normal life without the risk of
a heart attack but i have to change my life radically. So i did. One year
later i am doing sports multiple times per week. I lost over 15kgs, never
touched a cigarette again and i feel so much healthier now.

My doctor told me after everything was over that 3-4 weeks later i would be
dead without help. My heart has no damage and only 2 little 30% spots are
left. As long as i live a normal life and i don't want to run marathon i wont
have problems in the future. The little strange ECK line is also normal now =)

I hope that my english didn't distract you at all, i want to show that even
not normal signals of a heart attack can be a sign of much bigger problems
coming up.

~~~
HeyLaughingBoy
_For the first time they found troponin in my blood_

Probably a selfish, personal comment, but I immediately searched for the word
"troponin" in this thread and smiled to see it in the second post.

As an engineer having spent the last decade or so on an instrument that, among
other analytes, measures the level of troponin in your blood (serum), it's
quite satisfying to remember that my work is saving lives. Sure, you may not
have been analyzed by one of our instruments, but somewhere a group of
software, electrical, mechanical and biomedical engineers out there suffered
through the miasma of FDA-required procedures, onerous development process,
reviewing every line of code, arguments about exactly what a STAT reponse
means, ridiculous training requirements, long validation procedures run by the
most anal testers ever and ended up with an instrument that helped save your
life.

It might not be as exciting as state of the art webapps, but it's nice to be
reminded that we matter.

~~~
gordaco
Well yeah, it might not be as exciting as webapps, but that's the difference
between a job and a hobby. If your daily job includes exactly the kind of
craftsmanship you could spend years doing happily, that's great; but if your
job is more boring than that, you still have a few hours each day to devote to
the more exciting kind of software development. However, in the meantime, your
job, as boring as it might be on the worst days, is still saving lives and
working for the good of the society. Hell, I wish I could say the same about
my job (which may affect millions of people around the world, but in a far
less relevant way).

Yes, you do matter. People are better off thanks to you. Sincerely:
congratulations, you're a lucky man.

------
ludicast
Good luck, and congrats on making it through the woods. Sounds like you are in
good hands which makes all the difference.

You are right on the money about calling 911. As men we tend to be slow making
the call, and don't want to seem like whiners. I always think of the line from
The Edge - "Most people in the wilderness, they die of shame".

Had emergency surgery for aortic dissection myself in february (mentioned it
on caffeine thread here:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8520241](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8520241)).
I felt for a moment like someone grabbed my heart, then agonizing back pain
took over, and some nausea. But no more chest pain. I really just assumed I
hurt my back working out, because I do easily it once a season (though I'm
getting older, but am acting younger)

I sort of ruled out heart issues because I did cpr in real life a few days
earlier (I'm a fireman with FDNY (though now probably looking at forced
retirement)). And took my CFR (EMS-lite) refresher a week before that. Thought
it would be a total coincidence it's my heart.

Even though it takes time to heal, 8 months later I have mostly "healed from
the healing process", and you will get there in time. In some weird way it is
one of the best things to have happened to me too, kind of plants your feet on
the ground in the way few things can.

The major post surgery things I had were:

\- Chills waking me up at night

\- Nerve damage from my shoulder being mis-positioned at some point

\- The pericardium being partially removed during surgery lets me hear my
heart much more intimately than I'd like to

But all these are way better now. Still have a lot of insomnia still.

~~~
narag
Congratulation on your recovering. If you don't mind me asking, why is a
fireman interested in HN?

~~~
ludicast
I'm a software developer too. Was before I joined the FDNY (in 2003) and still
am.

Most firemen have a 2nd job, mine just is a little more cerebral than most
(though there are doctors and lawyers on the job too).

Always loved having this split brain. The split aorta, not as much :).

------
purplsnkrs
I had my MI when I was 23 when I was cycling to work. Took me about two hours
to get treatment, and I was lucky as my Triponin peaked around 35 IIRC. My
symptoms were chest pains (not too severe, about as bad as a really severe
running stitch) and an extreme shortness of breath.

I didn't find Rehab that bad, but then I was the youngest person there by
about 30 years and a bit of a novelty. The drugs were the absolute pits
though, I found that my reaction time dropped by about half a second. It took
me about 2 months to be able to play squash again even after I regained by
physical fitness.

They never found a root cause for my MI (there was no plaque , and they don't
know why the clot formed). I still get asked if they know why it happened -
like that's the most important thing. It's okay to not want to share any
causes of your MI with everyone who asks. Apart from your medical
professionals, they don't have a right to know.

Good luck and let me know if you ever need to talk.

------
nostromoa
The main risk after starting to have a heart attack (other than dying)and
clearly realizing it, seems to be going into denial and not proceeding
immediately to a hospital. That circus lasted almost two hours for me, so by
the time the stent cleared the clot I was just on the edge of being on the way
out (becoming unconscious). - I even had a smoke in the middle of the two
hours before heading to the emergency room!

Next phase was the month to a year as one ponders whether one managed to
induce heart failure (enough damage not to pump blood in sufficient
quantities) when faced with the tiredness any exertion including rehab seems
to induce. The possibility of always being tired IS DEPRESSING. Also there is
the "fun" of pains in the area one felt the heart attack pain bringing the
question of "am I having another heart attack." And then there are all those
stories about how great someone or other felt after having their arteries
cleared as if one got a tune up...these stories are B.S. one is looking at
about 6 months of not feeling great with any somewhat serious heart attack.

My overwhelming sentiment as the anesthetic set in before they cleared my
Widow Maker and inserted a stent was, well, feeling pretty good and the notion
there were "worse ways to die," and a certain willingness to go with it if
this was it. So I guess I'm not much scared of dying once there.

Mentioning the heart attack is devilish fun in a gathering because most males
start to squirm immediately.

There is a disconnect between one feeling fairly back to oneself and other's
views of you who has had a heart attack(if they never had one). No one will
learn from your example and stop smoking or eating less crap so don't even
bother to think so. You'll be lucky if you manage to improve yourself your own
bad habits.

After a while one resumes ones devil may care posture towards life with
occasional reflective moments on when the 'next one' will be and if there will
be a next one(probably).

So as far as great revelations? Not many mostly mundane discoveries. A stent
is better than being filleted. Being alive appears better than dead to those
of us that are still alive. And next time I feel a heart attack I WILL GET MY
ASS TO AN EMERGENCY ROOM ASAP to reduce heart muscle damage that ensues the
longer I wait.

------
linker3000
I am a 48-year-old T2 diabetic - I'm not grossly overweight and there is no
family history of the disease; it is suspected I became T2 following a viral
illness coupled with a highly stressful job.

I ended up in Accident and Emergency (UK) after developing what was thought to
be a bad chest infection - I was coughing up bloody fluid from my lungs. After
a some examination and an ECG, I was whisked into a ward and scheduled for a
angiogram. A day or so later, right after the angiogram, I was told I had some
damaged blood vessels around my heart and I had "probably" had "at least one"
heart attack sometime in the past!

Every physician that did the rounds while I waited for a stent operation asked
me whether I'd had any further chest or arm pains and I had to keep telling
them that I'd _never_ had any such pains - no 'classic' symptoms.

The upshot was that the heart damage was put down to a combination of
diabetic-related complications, possibly not helped by one of the meds I had
been taking.

3 years and 5 stents later (should have been 4, but one of the blood vessels
tore during the procedure so I had to have an extra 'covered stent'!) and I am
still up and about - albeit with some reduced heart function.

So, as robbiep commented - "'Typical' signs do not present in everyone: in
particular diabetics are at increased risk of having 'silent' heart attacks"

------
parasubvert
I'll also bring to people's attention an uncommon heart condition that won't
nrcessarily kill you, but may change your life: pericarditis. I've seen it in
myself and too many acquaintances lately - most people have never heard of it.

Basically this is inflammation of the lining of your heart. the most common
cause being idiopathic (ie. We don't know), or viral, followed by trama post-
surgery or radiation therapy. Sometimes it has been caused by vaccination
(influenza and others).

The symptoms make this tricky to diagnose, but if you have some combination of
fever, consistent or spamming chest and/or upper back pain, difficulty lying
down or adjusting position, lethargy, shortness of breath, change in unrine
habits / color, go get checked out - an echocardiogram will often reveal the
inflammation. High dose (500-625mg) aspirin helps. Most times it will resolve
through such NSAIDs or with steroids.

Left too long this can lead to liver damage and can become a chronic
constructive condition that mimics heart failure. This is generally curable by
surgery to remove your pericardium.

------
wcchandler
Can we expect a health-based startup being added to Fogbeam Labs after this?

In all seriousness, I hope you have a speedy recovery. Be thankful it happened
in the RDU area. We have two of the best med schools in the country within a
30 minute drive of each other. I'm certain you'll pull out of this without a
problem.

~~~
mindcrime
Heh, good point. We'll see what happens.

------
vegancap
Get well soon. One of the biggest causes of death, especially for males is
being too stubborn or too scared to get things checked out. Me included. Have
a speedy recovery!

~~~
mindcrime
This. I was so reluctant to call 911 at first, but i've been a firefighter and
911 dispatcher, so knew how important it was!

~~~
vegancap
I think people are scared it will turn out to be nothing and they'll be
embarrassed or something. But the fact is, no one knows that it's nothing,
until a medical professional checks it really is nothing. There's no shame in
that.

~~~
philh
I suspect that "worry about wasting other people's valuable time" is also part
of it.

------
noir_lord
Had a friend at a shared office building a few years ago start feeling ill and
sweating profusely.

I kept insisting he get medical attention and he kept saying he was fine, in
the end I said either you go get medical attention or I phone an ambulance.

So he goes to a local NHS walk-in center (I'm in the UK) where the first nurse
who saw him phone an ambulance, daft macho sod was having a heart attack.

Saw him not long since, he'd gotten back into cycling, looked incredibly well
and had dropped 3-4 stone (42-56lbs) having just completed a 300 mile charity
ride.

Moral of the story, if you start getting chest pains radiating into your arms,
sweating profusely get your ass to the hospital ASAP or phone an ambulance,
early intervention greatly improves the outcome.

------
Mahn
Ever since I started my startup nearly 3 years ago I've been experiencing what
I'd describe as heart "flutters", "sneezes" or "thumps"; very short and sudden
"misplaced" beats. They happen very ocassionally, perhaps once or twice a
week. I've done all sorts of checks with a cardiologist, but everything
checked out fine.

I've since learned not to panic when they happen and just live with the little
shocks, but, you know, I'm only in my 20s, I can't help but wonder what my
heart will do when I get to my 40s.

~~~
ctdonath
At 40, I generally felt fine, but something in my heart rhythm just seemed out
of sync. TL;DR - went to a cardiologist, who basically asked me "why are you
still alive?" and wanted to install a pacemaker the next morning ("don't die
in the meantime").

~~~
CmonDev
Well, what happened then?

~~~
ctdonath
Well, I didn't die.

Needed a valve replaced too (no point installing pacemaker, then replacing the
valve and having to re-install the pacemaker), so "don't die" stretched out to
11 days. After getting to watch a live X-ray of my heart, had open-heart
surgery (which my boss wanted me to take as a vacation day), had an _external_
pacemaker attached for 3 days (whatever happens, don't pull those wires
out...hey, stop turning that "pulse rate" dial!!!), and then had the pacemaker
installed. So now I'm a cyborg, with periodic data dumps and parameter
tweaking, and looking at a the-hard-way battery change (whole unit upgrade
while they're at it) next year. I couldn't sleep on my left side for two years
because a wire was inductively stimulating my diaphragm when pressed close;
eventually reprogrammed the wire's voltage/current to a tolerable state.

Feeling great, appreciate software which doesn't crash, and mechanical valve
ticks like a clock.

As a bonus, the software monitors other things (while it's in there, may as
well), and served to mitigate atrial flutter when that (unrelated problem)
tried to shoot my heart rate to >350 beats per minute, pacer slamming on the
brakes at 150bpm. ER crew was surprised when I walked in and calmly explained
the problem. Glad that was in place to keep things together until the drive-
thru heart surgery (run a blowtorch up an artery, zap 2 distorted nerves, go
home) to fix that problem.

~~~
CmonDev
That's hardcore, glad you are fine! I cannot complain about much now.

~~~
ctdonath
I complain about very little now. Having already been dead ("M'am, everything
is going fine, they're stopping his heart now"), I know how bad it can get,
survived that, and know nothing can be worse.

------
jbb555
Are there any symptoms that indicate that it's probably not a heart attack? I
recently had "stabby" pains in my chest area and as I didn't know what it was
went to urgently get checked out and it was basically muscle pain (chest wall
pain they said, I think?) and said that intermittent very brief "stabby" pain
in your chest wasn't the most usual symptom (But that getting it checked out
was still a very good idea).

Is that correct?

~~~
robbiep
One of the most common presentations for heart attack that turns out to not be
heart attack is reflux. If it happens after a meal, and especially if it is
relieved by antacid, it is unlikely to be a heart attack.

But then again, it could very well be. Which is why you will never find a
doctor who will say 'it's ok' from the history alone. They need a workup
anyway... If there are no ECG or biochemical markers of heart attack and it
responds to antacid in the emergency department then we can prescribe its use
ongoing.

The other one that every medical student gets that convinced them that they
are having a heart attack is muscular or rib pain, like which you describe.
People present to hospital with it all the time but we usually quickly exclude
it as a heart attack.

If you're concerned, always present.

------
ssharp
I had a scare about two weeks ago. I woke up in the middle of the night with a
lot of tightness in my chest, which I've never really felt before. I was also
a bit dizzy/disoriented and became extremely anxious over whether or not I was
having a heart attack. My first reaction was to look online for heart attack
symptoms and began reading how you shouldn't be looking online and should be
going to a hospital.

The final straw for me to NOT act was that I had no radiating pain. No pain in
face, jaw, arms, etc. I took an aspirin and went back to bed. The next day, I
went to the doctor and the EKG looked fine.

The whole thing was stress-related. Two newborn twins in the NICU may do that
to you. What was interesting to me was that these symptoms showed up several
days after their birth and after any initial scares were over. By the time I
had these stress pains, the babies were eating from bottles, gaining weight
and were functioning as they should in room air.

The scary part to me was realizing that heart attacks aren't like they are on
TV or the movies, where the pain is so intense that the person collapses. I'm
very thankful that I didn't have a heart attack, but I learned a lot more
about them from that stress spell.

------
atko
Glad you're okay and thank you for the warning.

Could you provide any information as to what could be the possible cause of
your heart attack? Your age, habits etc?

~~~
dontdownplease
Looking at the picture on his LinkedIn profile
[https://www.linkedin.com/in/philliprhodes](https://www.linkedin.com/in/philliprhodes)
it does look like he may have been overweight. I suspect that is a huge
contributing factor in this. I'm sorry if anyone get offended by this, but it
does look like mindcrime could have been more proactive in looking after his
weight. Now it's completely possible that mindcrime has some other condition
which limits, or at least restrict his ability to do exercise, which makes
trying to stay healthy a whole lot harder. But I would have thought for a lot
of people it is caused by either: heavy smoking, heavy drinking, little
exercise and a bad diet. Either way, I wish mindcrime a speedy recovery and
hope he can return to good health as soon as possible.

~~~
mindcrime
Yes, I could have been more proactive. I made a lot of sacrifices in terms of
not working out, overwork, stress, etc., in the quest to get this startup
going.

~~~
dontdownplease
Maybe you can find some casual running groups in and around North Carolina? I
attend one and we run every Wednesday and Saturday. Even though I'm 20 years
younger than the average runner some of the guys (who were on track to be the
position you find yourself in now) have really turned their life around with
respect to looking after themselves. I would encourage anyone of any age or
fitness to do the same. Having people around you who can encourage you makes
it so much harder to give up.

~~~
dontdownplease
Also, 2 hours a week is nothing in the grand scheme of things. If you have to
commute, try commuting by bicycle or if you go by train, get off at an earlier
station. I'm not sure what your commute is like in the USA (I suspect most
people drive to work), but a lot of people in Europe get trains and buses -
which does make that latter idea a bit easier.

------
JohnBooty

      > Learn the warning signs and call 911 if in doubt.
    

I'd be super-dead if not for this advice. Few years ago I was 34 years old.
Only moderately overweight, and I was very healthy in general.

One night I had pain and tightness in my chest. This isn't really anything
new, because I have asthma and sometimes it feels like that. But then I
noticed pain radiating from my chest down the inside of my arm. I realized
that was one of the signs of a heart attack.

Got to the hospital just in time. Almost went into cardiac arrest in the ER.
Lips were blue, heart rate began to plummet, etc.

It turns out it wasn't a heart attack, actually - it was peridcarditis, an
inflammation of the lining around the heart. In severe cases (although this
seems rare) it can swell so much that your heart can't pump effectively. You
can die. I almost did.

Moral of the story doesn't change! Even if you're young and healthy, get to a
hospital if you feel something in your chest.

------
charlysisto
I usually don't pay attention to who's who on HN but last week there was an
interesting debate on the status of semantic web, and the name "mindcrime"
stuck as I appreciated his comments a lot. Always a bit of a shock to find out
those virtual personas are made of flesh...

Hope you recover fast, and yeah EXERCISE (if the doctor says so).

------
mgkimsal
HEY! So sorry to hear about that - I'm glad you're on the mend. Thanks for the
warning/heads up to the community here, and I hope we're able to catch up when
you're better.

Related to the topic... I've had 'chest pains' of varying degrees for... 20+
years - chest pains alone aren't going to signal me to call, unless I feel
they're different somehow from what I've had in the past. Someone else posted
below that arm pains and sweating usually accompany this, so I'll have to look
out for those - never had those, but have 'chest pain' often. And yes, have
been to ER and had scans, and they can never find anything. :/

GET WELL.

------
nostromoa
The deep insight is nearly dying doesn't necessarily lead to deep insights and
perhaps one really has to 'die' and come back to get deep insights and maybe
even that doesn't result in deep insights. The other deep insight is, "I
didn't die this time and that's ok with me." Deep insight may seem mundane
because its just living through proving the obvious things you already
knew...might be a third insight. For me dying quickly anesthetized looked a
lot better than dying slowly from cancer or in a car crash burning to death or
a litany of other possibilities which I assumed was the case before but now I
really believe.

------
hokkos
One time I came back from a ski week with friends, I was feeling weak and had
pain in my chest on the left. I fall gently on the floor and said to my
friends I had pain on my heart, they panicked a little and quickly called the
emergencies, I described my symptoms to the operator and they promptly told me
it only was intercostal pain, that I should eat and rest for the day. The pain
sometimes come back when I lift or run an move my arms, it is slythly
annoying, I just hope it won't dull me from a real sign.

------
agumonkey
Also, don't hesitate to push the medical staff a little. Two family members
were told they had no sign of heart attack and spent the following night
having multiple infarctus.

------
kclay
Maybe I should go back and get my heart checked. Last year I found out I had a
silent heart attack at one point(had to do some physical for insurance first
time I've went to the doctor in about 8+ years). I was 27 at the time. I do
remember one time in college having sharp pain in my left arm and all the
signs of a heart attack, at the time I was doing some PT for a class and the
instructor thought I was playing around trying to get out of it.

Good luck on your recovery.

------
davidcrow
I had mine in 2006 at 32. Details
[http://davidcrow.ca/article/1130/barcamper](http://davidcrow.ca/article/1130/barcamper)

Make sure you go your an annual check up. Figure out how to get some exercise.
And pay attention to the warning signs.

Worst part for me was the 8 hours waiting for troponin levels. Well and the
angiogram/pasty/stent.

------
GimbalLock
Just wanted to say thanks for this post. I read it this morning, and after
lunch had the worst allergic reaction I have ever had. Luckily I already had
epipens, just in case.

I had never used one, but when it came time for it, I just did it. It probably
saved my life. My airway was closing up. I dialed 911 and injected while the
phone was ringing. All is okay now.

Anyway, thanks for the PSA.

------
waterlesscloud
Mindcrime, we're all here hoping for your fast recovery. The place wouldn't be
the same without you. :-)

------
thret
Once you realised you were having a heart attack, what did you think about?

~~~
mindcrime
Putting on clean socks and underwear for one. Feeling fortunate that CHFD has
a station a block from my apartment.

Thinking that I should have called my mom more often.

Not much fear, to be honest. I have a pretty stoic outlook by nature, and I
was almost killed a few times as a firefighter. And as an atheist with no
belief in any afterlife, I don't fear death too much.

------
gregd
I wish you a speedy recovery @mindcrime. My good thoughts are with you..

------
Flemlord
Glad you are ok. I've heard this advice before and always wondered what degree
of pain qualified. If you are up to it, would you mind describing the chest
pains you were having?

~~~
mindcrime
It was a dull ache that slow spread through my whole chest. Also, my teeth
stare to hurt, and I got chills / cold sweat. That was enough for me to pull
the trigger on calling 911.

------
hudathun
Regarding taking aspirin when you get chest pains, I believe the current
advice is to _chew_ an aspirin (300mg) as it is more quickly absorbed via the
lining of the mouth.

------
ck2
Glad to hear you survived and are getting better.

When people say "start feeling chest pains" do you mean like WOW that really
hurts, or hmm that doesn't feel right kind of pain.

~~~
rswail
Only speaking for myself (other people have different symptoms), thre was some
chest pain in my upper left chest, but it was mostly in my arm and shoulder
blades and jaw.

It wasn't like on TV... guy clutching his arm and thrashing around... it was
more like "damn, that hurts! Why does my arm hurt? Hmm, now my jaw... why am I
in a sweat... goddamn, I better get to the ER..."

I was actually pretty calm. Drove there, parked carefully, walked up to the
ER... as soon as I said "pain in my chest, left arm, jaw..." all the
bureaucracy stopped and the medical stuff happened. Took about 5 minutes to be
shaved for electrodes, aspirin given, ECG and bloods taken.

30 minutes later was admitted and was talking to the cardiologist about risk
factors of angiograms...

------
joshdance
Can the AliveCor product detect a heart attack?
[http://www.alivecor.com/home](http://www.alivecor.com/home)

------
tptacek
Glad you're OK!

------
known
1\.
[http://www.everydayhealth.com/hypertension/treating/medicati...](http://www.everydayhealth.com/hypertension/treating/medications-
used-to-treat-hypertension.aspx)

2\. Drink warm water with lime to stay healthy
[http://m.timesofindia.com/life-style/health-
fitness/health/D...](http://m.timesofindia.com/life-style/health-
fitness/health/Drink-warm-water-with-lime-to-stay-
healthy/articleshow/37702890.cms)

------
peterstjohn
Oh my goodness…glad to hear you're okay.

------
for_i_in_range
Not sure why but the title made me laugh.

~~~
las_cases
It is just so casually putted that the level of seriousness associated with a
heart attack makes it absurdly to be putted this way. Where I am from, in
Romania, a heart attack is basically a death sentence. Regarding this, I have
read an article recently[1] which stated that in Romania only 3% percent
survive if they have a heart attack outside of a hospital.

[1] [http://www.romanialibera.ro/societate/sanatate/doar-3--
din-c...](http://www.romanialibera.ro/societate/sanatate/doar-3--din-cei-care-
fac-un-infarct-in-afara-spitalului-supravietuiesc--353672)

------
bobsgame
Glad that you're OK.

~~~
mindcrime
Thanks, me too.

------
AdamN
No 911 service here in Kenya :-(

~~~
breitling
What do people do in case of an emergency? There must be some local version of
911, no?

~~~
JshWright
Hopefully friend or family have a car and are able to get you to some sort of
medical care. If not, you die (I've spent some time in Kenya, and as a
paramedic, I was curious about this, so I asked)

------
lexalizer
Get well soon!

------
sillysaurus3
You're quite lucky that you could afford that hospital trip. In the US, it
would typically go like "My doctor made some tests and he said that it doesn't
look like a heart attack but something is wrong with one of the lines on my
ECG. He asked me if its ok to call the ambulance for doing more checks at the
hospital. I said no, I can't afford that. So I died four weeks later."

This isn't an exaggeration. Many people live paycheck to paycheck and can't
afford the thousands of dollars a hospital trip would entail.

~~~
pdabbadabba
This is an exaggeration, and it's an unfortunate one, since it distracts from
the truth of what you're saying.

As many have pointed out, a person who chose to be taken to the hospital would
be taken to the hospital and treated whether they could pay for it or not. The
result of this would be a serious amount of debt, but likely could be paid
down with a monthly payment. The worst case scenario is bankruptcy, which
sucks (though it sucks much less if you're already poor and have no credit to
destroy). Best case scenario, is that you make a lot of sacrifices, cope with
making the monthly payments for many years, and eventually become debt free
again. Like I said: best case scenario.

I think that anyone would agree, though, that either outcome is far better
than dying young. (Also note that none of these scenarios includes going to
prison for failure to pay your debts. There is no such thing in the U.S. legal
system, except for certain debts owed to the U.S. government, and even this
situation is rare and typically involves willful failure to pay, not mere
inability. Private debts are just that: private.)

The real problem is that people in the U.S. are forced to make this sort of
choice -- i.e., the choice between healthcare and basic material comfort. An
ancillary problem is that people believe the myths that you're perpetuating --
if they _think_ they won't be treated, or that they will go to jail if they
don't pay, they may avoid treatment and die, essentially, only out of
ignorance. This wouldn't be their fault. This would be the fault of a
healthcare system that sends all the wrong signals, and secondarily the fault
of the people who spread half truths about the healthcare system to score
political points. (And I say this as an ObamaCare supporting, lifelong
democrat.)

~~~
Justsignedup
You would be surprised to know that hospitals would treat the person with the
cheapest drugs and not do the major heart surgery. Not all hospitals, mind
you, I know Mt Sinai (NYC) will most likely treat the person fully, but some
will give enough heart meds to make the person feel "okay" until he/she dies.

Also, often after treatment, hospitals will just write the treatment as a
"loss" and get a tax break. I've had friends pay $20 for a broken arm fixed.
The problem is that many will give sub-par treatment, won't do the surgery,
etc.

American health care system is an atrocity.

~~~
pdabbadabba
Yes, there are cases where things are worse than I described. But the comment
I was responding to, and thus my comment, was addressed to what is "typical"
in the U.S. system. What's typical, is that a person has insurance, goes to
the hospital, and everything is more or less fine. What is not typical, but
still entirely too common, is that an uninsured patient takes on an obscene
amount of debt that has a major impact detrimental impact on his life. But
that is far better than dying, which many would have you believe is the only
option.

It is also true that people sometimes get this calculation wrong and die as a
result. This is due, as I mentioned, to a system that inhumanely forces this
choice upon you, as well as people who spread misinformation about how our
system works.

------
cLeEOGPw
This is right, I started working for my uncle and had to shift bags of peat at
a plant nursery at around 14, because of it I over developed chest muscles
that caused me to have my first of about 4 'heart attacks' at around 17. It
was caused by the muscles in my chest squeezing the heart and forcing it to
stop briefly. Kinda puts me on my ass, but I can feel is still to this day and
now understand how to relax when i feel it begin to come on (I'm 31 now and
still kicking)

------
ebbv
Glad you're OK. Rest up and feel better.

This is a good reminder for all of us with sedentary jobs to be active and
get/stay healthy.

------
Gratiated
I just ate a dry muffin. Just wanted to let you all know that if you encounter
a dry muffin, here's what you do: make sure you have milk or coffee handy.

~~~
wpietri
What kind of person creates an account just to be a dick about somebody's
heart attack?

~~~
kbart
I call them special. You know, like _special_ kids.

~~~
Rightbacka
Nobody believes you.

You care only when it serves your selfish interests.

