“It’s 2 a.m. and I think I’m having a heart attack”

February 7, 2016May 22, 2019 ~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 13 Comments

“It’s 2 a.m. and I think I might be having a heart attack. Right now I have a tight chest and pain in my left arm and in my elbow that comes and goes; early this week, I was having pain in my left and right legs. What should I do?”

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“I’m sitting in bed and have been up for hours. For four days, I have been having upper right back pain up to the neck. I cannot turn my head left. Tonight I have pain in my elbow and a tingling all the way down my right arm and to my fingers. I’m only 29 and a healthy weight. I need some answers. Do I need to go to the ER?”

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“I have most of these symptoms. My mom thinks I’m fine. I really think she doesn’t understand. I can be heading to a heart attack any day soon. And I’m only 14, almost 15 in a couple of days.”

These represent just a tiny sampling of the symptom questions that my blog readers often send me. My response to each of these is virtually always some variation of this statement: Continue reading ““It’s 2 a.m. and I think I’m having a heart attack”” →

Finally. An official scientific statement on heart attacks in women.

January 31, 2016October 19, 2021 ~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 18 Comments

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by Carolyn Thomas ♥ @HeartSisters

“Sucks to be female. Better luck next life!”

You’re unlikely to spot this succinct summary within the pages of the new official scientific statement on women’s heart attacks from the American Heart Association, but that’s basically the message.(1) That pithy summary, by the way, was originally quoted here from Laura Haywood-Cory, who at age 40 survived a heart attack caused by Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection. (See also: Cardiac Gender Bias: We Need Less TALK and More WALK.

The AHA statement, published in the journal Circulation to a flutter of media interest, basically confirms what I’ve been writing and speaking about for the past eight years: if you’re a woman having a heart attack, you’re more likely to be underdiagnosed – and then undertreated even when appropriately diagnosed – compared to our male counterparts.

So my question this week (as a woman who was sent home from the ER in mid-heart attack with a misdiagnosis of acid reflux) is this: if Laura and I and countless other women who’ve survived a heart attack have long ago reported on this “news”, why has it taken 92 years for the American Heart Association to produce its first ever scientific statement on myocardial infarction in female patients? But don’t get me wrong – I’m always relieved to see any attempt from any major heart organization that helps to spread the word, so I’m running the full AHA news release for you here:

Continue reading “Finally. An official scientific statement on heart attacks in women.” →

6 reasons women delay seeking medical help – even in mid-heart attack

December 20, 2015May 28, 2022 ~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 3 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas ♥ @HeartSisters

I finally realized that I was in big trouble during a five-hour flight from Ottawa to Vancouver. But I’d been told emphatically by an Emergency Department physician two weeks earlier that my symptoms were just from acid reflux – and had nothing to do with my heart.

So for two weeks, I’d endured increasingly debilitating episodes of chest pain, sweating, nausea and pain radiating down my left arm. But hey! – at least I knew it wasn’t my heart. A man with the letters M.D. after his name had told me so. Continue reading “6 reasons women delay seeking medical help – even in mid-heart attack” →

Most common heart attack signs in men and women

September 20, 2015May 20, 2022 ~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 32 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas ♥ @HeartSisters

Simple. Clear. Easy to understand. Each of these symptoms could be a warning sign of a heart attack. Notice that the unique symptoms listed on the right of this CardioSmart infograpic excerpt are most commonly seen in women.

But there’s more . . . Continue reading “Most common heart attack signs in men and women” →