85% of hospital admissions for chest pain are NOT heart attack

by Carolyn Thomas    @HeartSisters

“I was asleep and my symptoms woke me up. I had several simultaneous symptoms, but the first one seemed to be central chest pain. It wasn’t sharp or crushing or burning, more like a dull pressure. The pain radiated down my left arm and up into my neck and jaw. I had cold sweats, and I felt nauseated.”

Laura Haywood-Cory, age 41, heart attack, six stents

Researchers tell us that most of us already know that chest pain like Laura’s could be a symptom of what doctors call Acute Myocardial Infarction (AMI – or heart attack) or Acute Coronary Syndrome (any condition brought on by sudden reduced blood flow to the heart muscle).  So it may not surprise you to learn that chest pain is the main reason that over 6 million people rush to the Emergency Departments of North American hospitals each year. These visits also represent a whopping 25% of all hospital admissions – yet 85% of these admissions do NOT turn out to be heart-related at allContinue reading “85% of hospital admissions for chest pain are NOT heart attack”

Guess which woman in this photo is having a heart attack

This week: a terrific guest post by Linda Johns, librarian at Seattle Public Library by day and writer of children’s books (including the Hannah West mystery series) before and after work. Originally published on June 4, 2016 on Linda’s self-titled blog.

I am having a heart attack in this photo. But look at who I'm surrounded by -- friends and writers. Love these women! Kirsten Kittscher, Kiry Larson, Suzanne Selfors, Sara Nickerson, Jennifer Longo.

Can you tell which author in this group photo* taken at a Seattle book event was experiencing heart attack symptoms while this photo was being taken? Me neither. Read on to solve the mystery as told by Linda Johns – which reminds us that heart disease can strike any of us at any time, an equal-opportunity medical crisis. 

  ♥  ♥  ♥ Continue reading “Guess which woman in this photo is having a heart attack”

Chest pain while running uphill

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥  @HeartSisters

 Part 3 of a 3-part series about pain

runningMy initial heart attack symptoms struck me right out of the blue.  I was out for a brisk walk early one beautiful Monday morning around 6 a.m. when suddenly, I experienced a pain smack in the centre of my chest. It felt like a cross between crushing heaviness and a severe burning sensation that gradually extended right up my chest into my lower throat. My left arm began to hurt. I also felt like I was going to vomit, and I started sweating far more profusely than my walking pace warranted.

But a strange realization about my heart attack symptoms hit me much later, long after I was hospitalized for what doctors still call the “widowmaker” heart attack 

This was not the first time in my life I’d felt the chest pain symptoms I experienced on that spring morning.
Continue reading “Chest pain while running uphill”

The freakish nature of cardiac pain

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥  @HeartSisters

Part 1 of a 3-part series about pain

I was thinking about the freakish nature of pain the other day. I think about pain quite a bit, actually, given the frequency with which I now experience the ongoing symptoms of coronary microvascular disease. But when the first alarming warning signs of a heart attack struck out of the blue while I was out for a brisk pre-breakfast walk, the reality was not at all what I would have ever imagined a heart attack to feel like. And because I was clueless, I believed the Emergency Department physician who’d misdiagnosed me with acid reflux and sent me home that same morning.  Continue reading “The freakish nature of cardiac pain”