Important medical information

I didn't write this. It was one of those pesky little  forwards that you're not supposed to read at work,  because they  are generally very funny and waste oodles of staff time. This one wasn't funny - I saw as my finger hovered over  the delete button.  It was deadly serious.  So serious,  I decided to post it on my blog. I mean who says blogs are  simply frippery?  Who says they can't carry a health alert the may  save your life?  *** NURSE'S HEART ATTACK EXPERIENCE This has been  passed on from an ER nurse and is the best  description of this event that she had ever heard. Please read,  pay attention, and send it on!                                        FEMALE HEART ATTACKS I was aware that female heart attacks are different, but this is the best  description I've ever read.  Women and heart attacks (Myocardial Infarction).  Did you know that  women rarely have the same dramatic symptoms that men have when  experiencing heart attack .... you know, the sudden stabbing pain in the  chest, the cold sweat, grabbing the chest & dropping to the floor that we  see in the movies. Here is the story of one woman's experience with a  heart attack. I had a heart attack at about 10 :30 PM with NO prior exertion,  NO prior emotional trauma that one would suspect might've brought  it on.   I was sitting all snugly & warm on a cold evening, with my  purring cat in my lap, reading an interesting story my friend had  sent me, and actually thinking,  'A-A-h, this is the life, all cozy  and warm in my soft, cushy Lazy Boy with my feet propped up. A moment later, I felt that awful sensation of indigestion,  when you've been in a hurry and grabbed a bite of sandwich and  washed it down with a dash of water, and that hurried bite  seems to feel like you've swallowed a golf ball going down the  oesophagus in slow motion and it is most uncomfortable. You  realize you shouldn't have gulped it down so fast and needed  to chew it more thoroughly and this time drink a glass of  water to hasten its progress down to the stomach. This was  my initial sensation---the only trouble was that I hadn't taken  a bite of anything since about 5:00 p.m. After it seemed to subside, the next sensation was like little  squeezing motions that seemed to be racing up my SPINE  (hind-sight, it was probably my aorta spasming), gaining speed  as they continued racing up and under my sternum (breast bone,  where one presses rhythmically when administering CPR). This fascinating process continued on into my throat and  branched out into both jaws.   'Aha!! Now I stopped puzzling about what was happening. We all have read and/or heard about pain in the jaws  being one of the signals of an MI happening, haven't we?   I said aloud to myself and the cat,  'Dear God, I think I'm having a heart attack!'  I lowered the footrest dumping the cat from my lap, started  to take a step and fell on the floor instead. I thought to  myself, If this is a heart attack, I shouldn't be walking into  the next room where the phone is or anywhere else ...  but, on the other hand, if I don't, nobody will know that  I need help, and if I wait any longer I may not be able to  get up in moment. I pulled myself up with the arms of the chair, walked  slowly into the next room and dialed the Paramedics ...  I told her I thought I was having a heart attack due to the  pressure building under the sternum and radiating into my jaws.  I didn't feel hysterical or afraid, just stating the facts.  She said  she was sending the Paramedics over immediately, asked if the  front door was near to me, and if so, to unbolt the door and  then lie down on the floor where they could see me when  they came in. I unlocked the door and then lay down on the floor as instructed  and lost consciousness, as I don't remember the medics coming in,  their examination, lifting me onto a gurney or getting me into their  ambulance, or hearing the call they made to St. Jude ER on the way,  but I did briefly awaken when we arrived and saw that the  Cardiologist was already there in his surgical blues and cap, helping  the medics pull my stretcher out of the ambulance. He was bending  over me asking questions (probably something like  'Have you  taken any medications?'' but I couldn't make my mind interpret what  he was saying, or form an answer,  and nodded off again, not  waking up until the Cardiologist and partner had already threaded the  teeny angiogram balloon up my femoral artery into the aorta and into  my heart where they installed 2 side by side stents to hold open my  right coronary  artery. I know it sounds like all my thinking and actions at home must  have taken at least 20-30 minutes before calling the Paramedics, but  actually it took perhaps4-5 minutes before the call, and both the fire  station and St. Jude are only minutes away from my home, and  my Cardiologist was already to go to the OR in his scrubs and get  going on restarting my heart (which had stopped somewhere between  my arrival and the procedure) and installing the stents. Why have I written all of this to you with so much detail?   Because I want all of  you to know what I learned first hand. 1.  Be aware that something very different is happening in  your body not the usual men's symptoms but inexplicable things happening (until my sternum and jaws got into the act).   It is said that many more women than men die of their first  (and last) MI  because they didn't know they were having one  and commonly mistake it as indigestion, take some Maalox or  other anti-heartburn preparation and go to bed, hoping they'll  feel better in the morning when they wake up ...  Which doesn't happen.    My female friends, your symptoms might not be exactly  like mine, so I advise you to call the Paramedics if  ANYTHING is unpleasantly happening that you've not  felt before.  It is better to have a 'false alarm' visitation than to risk  your life guessing what it might be! 2.  Note that I said ''Call the Paramedics.'' And if you can,  take an aspirin.  Ladies, TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE!  Do NOT try to drive yourself to the ER you are a hazard  to others on the road. Do NOT have your panicked husband who will be speeding  and looking anxiously at what's happening with you instead  of the road. Do NOT call your doctor -- he may know where you live  and if it's at night you won't reach him anyway, and if it's  daytime, his assistants (or answering service) will  tell you  to call the Paramedics. He doesn't carry the equipment in  his car that you need to be saved!  The Paramedics do,  principally OXYGEN that you need ASAP.  Your doctor will be notified later. 3.   Don't assume it couldn't be a heart attack because  you have a normal cholesterol count. Research has discovered  that a cholesterol elevated reading is rarely the cause of an MI  (unless it's unbelievably high and/or accompanied by high  blood pressure). MI's are usually caused by long-term stress  and inflammation in the body, which dumps all sorts of deadly  hormones into your system to sludge things up in there.  Pain in the jaw can wake you from a sound sleep. Let's be careful and be aware.  The more we know,  the better chance we could survive.  ***