Category: Signs of a heart attack

Why does your arm hurt during a heart attack?

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 33 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥ @HeartSisters

Cath Haywood recalls the day in 2006 when she felt a bit “under the weather”. She told her family that her arm ached. At first, she attributed the arm pain to over-enthusiastic ball throwing – she had been tossing lobs to her springer spaniel earlier that day. But on the following evening, the 49-year old former Welsh police officer again experienced what she describes as “a dreadful ache in my right arm”. She remembers thinking:

“I’ve really got to lay off throwing that ball!”

As the arm pain got worse, Cath brushed aside pleas from her husband and two sons to call an ambulance, and she went to bed. After all, as she told herself, she was fit, relatively young, had just lost 28 pounds, did not smoke, and drank only occasionally. So why bother the ambulance crew?  Continue reading “Why does your arm hurt during a heart attack?” →

“Is my bra too tight?” – a poem for heart patients

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 44 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥  @HeartSisters

Numbness in the lip. Persistent cough. Pain between shoulder blades. Buzzing elbows. I thought I’d heard just about every possible vague or unusual heart disease symptom in women so far, but there’s one that I had never heard about until just recently.  And since then, women seem to be coming out of the woodwork to add that they too have experienced this peculiar cardiac symptom.   Continue reading ““Is my bra too tight?” – a poem for heart patients” →

How women can tell if they’re headed for a heart attack

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 44 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥ @HeartSisters

When nurse-researcher Dr. Jean McSweeney from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences interviewed hundreds of heart attack survivors, she discovered something surprising: 95 percent of the women she interviewed actually suspected something was very wrong in the months leading up to their attack.

But even these early warning prodromal symptoms didn’t necessarily send women rushing to the doctor, as reported in Dr. McSweeney’s study published in the medical journal, Circulation.(1)  And for those women who did seek help early, doctors often failed to identify their problems as being heart-related.

If you experience the warning symptoms listed below – especially if the feelings are new, worse, unexplained, or you have other heart disease risk factors – call your doctor.  And if they’re severe, or you have any signs of an impending heart attack, call 911.  Continue reading “How women can tell if they’re headed for a heart attack” →

The unforgettable diagnosis: “You’re having a heart attack!”

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 2 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas   ♥  @HeartSisters

Jennifer Donelan was a 36-year old television news reporter for ABC News 7 in Washington, DC, covering a dramatic story one day about a local 4-month old baby girl who had been found in her crib, unresponsive. After her live shot on the 5 o’clock newscast, Jennifer was waiting near her car when she started to feel a very strange pain in her chest. We pick up her dramatic story there, as told in Jennifer’s own words:

“I remember looking at my car and thinking: ‘I need to go home and lay down.’ Then the pain started to worsen. I took a few steps and my left arm went numb.  Continue reading “The unforgettable diagnosis: “You’re having a heart attack!”” →