by Carolyn Thomas  ♥  @HeartSisters

When I showed up in the Emergency Department with textbook heart attack symptoms – central chest pain, nausea, sweating and pain radiating down my left arm – the hospital staff snapped to work and immediately ordered a flurry of diagnostic tests. These included an EKG (ECG, or electrocardiogram), blood tests, chest x-ray and a treadmill stress test. But all test results came back “normal”. I was then told that I was in the “right demographic” for acid reflux before being sent home – less than five hours after the onset of symptoms.

I left hospital that morning feeling terribly embarrassed for having made such a fuss over just a little case of indigestion.  It was only much later – after finally being correctly diagnosed, taken directly from the E.R. to O.R. and admitted to the cardiac intensive care unit for a myocardial infarction (MI, or heart attack) caused by a fully occluded Left Anterior Descending coronary artery – when I learned that my first “normal” blood tests may have been far less “normal” than I was told.  Continue reading “Those curious cardiac enzymes” →