HEART ATTACK SYMPTOMS

Hi OP, hope you're OK

@Natalieannamay how are you doing now?

Been thinking about you, Hooe everything's OK OP x

Hope you’re OK, OP x

How are you doing @Natalieannamay ?

Are you ok, OP?

I work in the ambulance service and our closest cardiac hospital where they performing stenting will only accept you 12 hours from onset

I had to wait 3 days in the local hospital after my heart attack waiting for a slot at the hospital that has the facilities to do stents! When I finally got there there was a "severe" lesion of 94% blockage!

Maybe she's been kept in?

any news OP? Hope all went well

Definitely worth checking out. I get the same symptoms from anxiety bizarrely, but always worth having checked initially. That strange impending sense of doom is sometimes a symptom as well! Odd but true.

The thing is though, hearts are very ‘reparable’ if things are caught. It’s when they’re ignore that it becomes a lethal issue

My DH had a massive HA at the age of 51. He’s alive due to some really strong people that gave him CPR for 15 minutes until a defib arrived. We’re so lucky, and in his case there was no earlier symptoms.

If, on the odd chance it is heart related you’re doing exactly the right things x

The heart itself doesn't actually have any typical pain receptors that the rest of our tissues do. So typically you just feel referred pain when something is wrong with it which is why pain tends to present in odd places like jaw/arm/neck and has lots of different descriptions - people can feel stabbing/crushing/pressure/tightness - or even no pain at all (diabetics predominately).

As with most of medicine the classic well known signs and symptoms are what the average man experiences - severe crushing left sided chest pain. Women tend not to experience this and more likely to experience mild discomfort often described as a tightness or pressure. The takeaway should be that they can present in a myriad of ways/signs/symptoms and certainly shouldn't be reassured a chest pain is on the right hand side.

Exactly, no ones going to suggest "oh it's probably just a pericarditis so take ibuprofen for a couple of days then if still sore going and get checked out to make sure it wasn't an MI.

I'm slightly suspicious that writing "HEART ATTACK SYMPTOMS" as the title could be diagnostic of health anxiety. (which ultimately would be a much preferable diagnosis to having a heart attack personally)

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/heart-attack/

The OP should still have gone straight to A&E herself with those symptoms.

Genuine question. I thought heart issues presented on the left side of the body, not the right?

I had similar symptoms but with constant chest pain. DD was 4 months old so I didn’t want to be in hospital. Stupidly ignored it for a few days. Eventually went to GP, oxygen sats were low and it turns out I had a partially collapsed lung. Because I’m tall and skinny apparently. Hospital were great though, they got me a bedside cot so I could have DD in with me (BF). This was 20 years ago though so things might have changed since!

Hope you’re well anyway OP.

I'm unsure of your point.

@SleepyRich a cardiac problem could also be myocarditis, pericarditis, etc. If this the case and it is not minor then there likely will still be elevated troponin and therefore inpatient monitoring and treatment provided.

Because getting into a car with your child while having palpitations is a sensible decision. This is reckless and dangerous for you, your child, and whomever else your car comes in contact with if you lose consciousness. Absolute madness.

Such a frustrating waste of resources!!!

Of course you were always going to end up in A&E with "i'm wondering if I was having a heart attack". If you'd have just gone when after pretty much everyone told you to after asking advice you'd probably have your answer now; if you are actually unwell treatment would have been hours earlier, if it was just something like anxiety/indigestion then you'd likely be heading back home now (instead of something like 2am when you finally get through it tonight and then have to make your own way home).

In a somewhat even more frustrating turn of events for you, because you're such a delayed presentation even if it was a heart problem 2 days ago it's quite likely all your tests on the ambulance would be relatively normal to them. So you'll go right to the back of the triage queue at hospital and have a much longer wait then if you'd arrived at the front door by yourself and a history of chest pain but no examination had taken place.

For reference if anyone thinks they could be having a heart attack, the meaningful window for treatment is a round 12 hours. After this it's essentially diagnosis. I work in the ambulance service and our closest cardiac hospital where they performing stenting will only accept you 12 hours from onset, if our tests essentially prove heart attack in progress - but you've been having pain for 12 hours 30 minutes they will not accept and direct you to a local A&E to be cared for. So if you think it could be your heart then your only real decision should be are you well enough for family to take you to A&E or do you need to call 999.

I'm only frustrated because constantly ambulances are wasted on patients like this, in which there is absolutely no clinical benefit or need - you could have been at hospital hours before you even called 111. This is absolutely the typical call ambulance crews lose all their time with - the worried well. Leaving no capacity for the elderly fallers/fractures stuck on the floor waiting with their fractured hip - or that cardiac arrests/children not breathing now routinely have response times approaching 10 minutes. -

The system can't fix this problem itself because it's so risk adverse and everyone is defensive - absolutely no one gets in even a tiny bit of trouble if the not breathing/septic baby gets a response time of 20 minutes because no one was available - they don't look at all the non-jobs the last x ambulances that were available in the area were sent to. Just so long as that baby got it's cat1 code - meaningless when there's no one to send. Yet if anyone makes a mistake and misjudges the situation when delaying a response over the phone/telling to make own way then their names across the papers/whole career at risk. So frustrating. We routinely go weeks without providing any treatment just ferrying people back and forth which would have been just as well served by the taxi service (and in most cases would arrive at hospital much sooner).

Good luck

Glad you are being seen hope you are OK and your toddler is settled x

Happy they are checking you out, hope you get home soon

Great to hear you're getting checked OP. I posted earlier but if went wrong and deleted to say 111 don't always get it right - my friend's 90 year old grandmother died of pneumonia when 111 told her daughter she probably just had a seasonal cough even though she was struggling to breathe. Also a neighbour died three days ago of a heart attack having been admitted to the hospital and the consultant telling her husband two hours before she died 'She's fine, I've no idea why she's here.' He consequently dithered at home packing some things up for her and missed the chance yo say goodbye.

It could well be nothing, and hopefully it is - but it's always worth getting checked out if you aren't sure and it is such (potentially) serious symptoms. Good luck!

Good luck OP. I had similar symptoms to you and went to A & E. My ECG was normal and it turned out to be a digestive problem (I get very painful wind!) I hope you get similar good news x

Best wishes OP. Hope its nothing serious, but glad you are getting it checked, so that you are in a place where they can prevent further damage.