Guys, here's a story and a warning. In the early hours of Sunday morning, I had a heart attack. I'm 52 and 6 foot and 183 pounds, so I'm not overweight, and my diet is OK, and I don't smoke, and for an Irishman, I don't drink a lot. I am on no meds. The only thing I have is mild asthma. Only operation I ever had before was getting my appendix out when I was 9.
I had, for the week preceding this, what I thought was a bad case of indigestion. I tend to get indigestion with acid reflux, so I assumed that's what it was. Even though the discomfort sometimes seemed to radiate to my shoulders and even neck, I ignored it stupidly.
On Sunday morning around 2:30am I woke with discomfort; felt like someone had punched me in the back, and I thought if I got up, it would pass. I drove myself in the morning at 10:30 to the ER! I told my wife it was nothing and they'd give me something for bad indigestion or an ulcer etc. I only went there as it was Sunday, and my GP was obviously not available on Sundays.
Within minutes after the ECG, the Doc came in and said eh, you've had a heart attack, and we need to get this fixed today without delay. That was not what I was expecting! I was rushed by ambulance to another hospital, where a team were waiting for me, straight into the Lab, and an angiogram was done to blow up the blocked artery and put a stent in. This was done while I was wide awake, just local anaesthetic on the wrist where the catheter was put in. It's incredible what these guys can do now. Then, another ambulance to another hospital in my area of Dublin, which is the system for heart attack sufferers. I have another block, which I will get sorted tomorrow by angiogram, and then I should be home on Thursday.
Because I stupidly waited, a small part of my heart died, but it's not going to affect my heart too much, thank god. I will be on meds for the rest of my life: blood thinners, statins etc.
So men, never dismiss what you think is indigestion if it persists and isn't sorted with antacids, Pepto etc. My thing felt like a burning ball in the middle of my chest, which sometimes radiated to my shoulders and neck.
A heart attack can be very different to the movies with the dramatic clutching of the chest and collapsing. Mine was not painful enough to stop me from doing everyday things.
I have been very lucky; if I continued to ignore this, the damage would have been irreversible, with likely cardiac arrest.
