Tag: STEMI

Dear Carolyn: “I take issue with the heart attack terms STEMI and NSTEMI”

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 12 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas   ♥   @HeartSisters

Today, in this Dear Carolyn episode (our 11th in the occasional series featuring Heart Sisters readers sharing their heart patient perspectives), we’ll attempt to address my reader Eva’s observations about how our heart attacks are currently classified:

“I take issue with the terms STEMI (the most serious type of heart attack) and NSTEMI (a slightly less serious heart attack). But both types of heart attack have a serious impact on our lives and how we live them.”             

♥

Dear Eva,

The day I first read your comment in response to an earlier Heart Sisters post coincided with the tragic heart attack death of a woman in an American hospital’s Emergency Department. Continue reading “Dear Carolyn: “I take issue with the heart attack terms STEMI and NSTEMI”” →

Let’s pretend that atypical heart attack symptoms don’t exist

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 33 Comments
by Carolyn Thomas  ♥  @HeartSisters  

Two cardiology reports landed in my inbox on the same day this past week, in the  same issue of the same cardiology journal. The first was a Yale University study on how women, particularly women younger than age 55, fare worse after surviving a heart attack compared to male counterparts, partly because of a tendency to present with vague or atypical symptoms that can delay accurate diagnoses.(1) The second was about the future of the American Heart Association’s Go Red For Women® campaign.(2)*   Both papers were published in the journal, Circulation.

The trouble was this: each report seemed to contradict the other. Continue reading “Let’s pretend that atypical heart attack symptoms don’t exist” →

Dear Carolyn: “I had both acid reflux and a heart attack at the same time!”

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 15 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥  @HeartSisters

As I’ve repeatedly insisted, my Heart Sisters blog readers are the smartest, kindest, sharpest and best-looking readers out there in the blogosphere. . .  Today starts a series of Dear Carolyn posts starring my readers, each of whom has contacted me over the years to share, in her own words, the unique story of how she became a heart patient. Most of these, as you’ll discover if you keep up with this series, involve an “aha!” moment, or a plot twist that I didn’t see coming, or a lesson that just strikes me as downright useful for other women to know. And if you too have a personal heart story you think needs to be shared with the world (or at least the part of our world reading Heart Sisters each week), please share yours by contacting me here.

Today’s tale focuses on one of my favourite themes in women’s heart health: it’s possible to have both acid reflux (or any other chronic condition) AND a heart condition all at the same time. It’s from Debbie Orth, who lives near Cleveland, Ohio. (That’s Debbie in olive green at the centre of the photo above, having fun on a family cruise while celebrating her parents’ 50th wedding anniversary, just seven months post-heart attack!) Continue reading “Dear Carolyn: “I had both acid reflux and a heart attack at the same time!”” →

No such thing as a “small” heart attack

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 18 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥ @HeartSisters

As I have written here earlier: 

“There are few life events more stressful, in my considered opinion, than surviving a heart attack.

“Not only is the actual cardiac event a traumatic and overwhelming experience in itself, but what very few cardiologists tell us before they boot us out the hospital door is how debilitating the day-to-day angst about every subsequent bubble and twinge can actually be.  Continue reading “No such thing as a “small” heart attack” →