Topic: Text book: chest pain

[MCRider]

Chest pain; radiates up to the jaw, out to the left arm... textbook.

Thank goodness for 911.

The kind folks at St Vincents Hospital Indy, fitted my heart with a stent for a 95% blockage. Home now, hopefully all's well. 

I've got an update for last week n my build thread, post it soon. But I'll be MIA the next weekend or 2.

[RAFster122s]

Ouch, glad you are OK. Hope you are able to bounce back quickly. The lifestyle changes and diet changes will help, even if not easy at first.
David

[scottly]

Wow! Glad you caught it in time, Ron!!!!

[MCRider]

Thankns Raff and Scottly: Yeah, no heart attack, jsut pain. Low blood pressure, OK cholesterol, clear EKGs, I get 2-3 per year. Even clear on this episode.

I already do all the heart healthy stuff, my dad died at 51 of a heart attack, so I've been paramoid for 9 years. He never showed symptoms till the day he died either.

I "knew" something was going to happen, someday, family history is big no-no. BEst result possible.

[Stev-o]

Wow! Glad you caught it in time, Ron!!!!

+1.  Was expecting this thread to be about Gandolfini - he wasnt as lucky as you.

[kghost]

Glad to hear you caught it and that the stint is in.

Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

[Retro Rocket]

Lucky you know the symptoms Ron, hope you are ok mate....

[Jerry Rxman Griffin aka MuthaF'er]

That bike is gonna kill you if you don't get it done! 

[azuredesign]

Good call! Keep it going!

[70CB750]

Glad you caught it!  Get well!

[wannabridin]

this happened to my dad a few years back.  he had identical symptoms for a heart attack, turned out his right coronary artery was 99% blocked! 

doc's went up through his femoral to place the stent, but it did not work as he was having bad pain.  they had to go up the other femoral shortly thereafter and it alleviated the problems, but because of all the dang blood thinners, he had some 280 lb beast gurney guy sit on his leg to compress flow!

ANYWAYS, his was caused almost exclusively from cholesterol.  he used to eat a LOT of blue bell homemade vanilla ice cream, and the doc's contributed the blockage to his diet - mainly the ice cream.

glad to hear you're ok though Ron, and good luck with the recovery!!  make sure to watch out for banging yourself up if the doc's put you on blood thinners, my dad bruises like my 101 year old great grandmother and if he starts bleeding, it's hard to stop!

[bjatwood]

Glad that you caught it Ron. Hoping that your recovery is quick, and that your back on 2 wheels in no time! My Dad had the same thing happen to him in his mid 50's years ago..I'm approching my mid 50's very quickly, so I will get checked out too. 

[Tintop]

To say I was take back by this thread would be an understatement Ron.  Glad to hear things are OK.  The bike's taken how many years, & pages....it can wait a few more until your back on your feet. 

Speedy recovery seems in the cards though.

[Raul CB750K1]

I was diagnosed high blood pressure a couple of years ago and was unable to keep it down just by losing weight and staying out of salt and coffee, so I got on medication for life.

Last summer I started to feel chest pains every now and then. They lasted a couple of minutes but they happen when not exercising, so I thought maybe something was wrong.

I went to the doctor and told about it, feeling he would think I was hypochondriac being just 40.

12 days later I got a stress test and the EC result was clear: angor pectoris. 12 days later I underwent a cardiac cathetherization and the result was one of the coronary arteries was blocked at 90%. In the same time I got the stent implanted.

9 months later and in two weeks time I will go through another cathetherization to check everything is fine. I agreed to have some kind of experimental stent implanted and they offered to make a control check to make sure it has not blocked.


I understand what you feel because I felt the same: close call. Fortunately I didn't came in through emergency room either, but it makes you think that here today, gone tomorrow. From that day I sold a couple of bikes and many other stuff, with the intention of keeping life simple: less things, but in better condition. Less bikes, more ridden and better mantained.

I'll be $400 a year poorer because of the medication I'll have to take for life but hey, many would not have minded to have such a problem!

[Powderman]

Sat. of Memorial day weekend I started having the tight chest, elevated heart rate and loss of breath for about the 10th time in the last year or so. Finally went to the ER an ECG like my brother the PA had been telling me to. I have no money or insurance so I was reluctant to go and be a burden on society. When I showed up at the ER my heart rate was 190 and BP through the roof. Diagnosed with A Fib and spent the whole holiday weekend in the cardiac care unit. Fortunately my A Fib was just am electrical anomaly and not related to clogged arteries. They got everything back in check and I am now on blood thinners twice a day forever.

[MCRider]

Thanks for the stories, misery loves company and all that.

My EKGs, blood pressure, cholesterol, heart ultra sounds, never showed a problem. Not till the stress test brought back the pain, did they get real serious. The catheritization showed all the trouble spots. The cath lab guy told me this test will tel the tale and he was right. So why don't they do it first? Too invasive I guess.

I had a heart scan 10 years ago, didn't show much. I'm going to go back to that test and see if they see what the cath lab did. Then I can follow up without getting stuck. I've got a real purdy bruise in my groin about the size of, well 10' diameter or so.

[Raul CB750K1]

So why don't they do it first? Too invasive I guess.

Obviously. A cardiac cathetherization is no joke. After all, they are putting a thin wire into your heart and then injecting an x-ray blocker, and they have to do it while wearing lead garments to avoid radiation. Definitely no joke.

Chest pains can be caused by many things and the stress test is a good way to eliminate the heart as a cause. Mine lasted something like 4 minutes. It is a standarized test, walking on a threadmill while being ECG'd, at a given pace and at a given slope. I was constantly asked whether I was feeling chest pain and I didn't, so I was a little dumbfounded when they told me there was something wrong in my heart and only a cathetherization would tell. If they found out, in the same intervention "they would fix it". I didn't even know what the heck a stent was!!!

Thanks to internet I coud learn a lot about the subject. Seems that the test gives either positive or negative result. And a positive result can be either clinical positive or electrical positive. That is, you can experience the pain -clinical- and the ECG reveal no wrong -electrical negative-. In may case was the contrary, I didn't feel the pain but the ECG showed electrical signals of angor pectoris. According to the report, even the results are standarized: when your ECG shows a drop or rise of the electrical signals of X at that stage of the test, the result is positive etc.

I would say I rather go through the stress test first rather than undergoing unnecesary cathetherization. As I said, I was thinking everybody would think I was  hypochondriac -everybody else were men of 55+ while I was a 40, non drinker non smoker-, but they took my pain seriously and sent me to the cardiologist. I came back to my family doctor to tell him he saved my life by erring on the safe side; in a time of cost cutting it is important for them to know that sometimes their instinct can save lives instead of trying to cut corners with patients! -Spain has socialized medicine-

[70CB750]

It reminds me of this joke:

In a car garage, where a famous heart surgeon was waiting for the service manager to take a look at his Mercedes, there was a loud mouthed mechanic who was removing the cylinder heads from the motor of a car. He saw the surgeon waiting and lured him into an argument.

He asked the doc after straightening up and wiping his hands on a rag, "Look at this car i'm working on. I also open hearts, take valves out, grind them, put in new parts, and when I finish this baby will purr like a kitten. So how come you get the big bucks, when you and I are doing basically the same work?"


The surgeon very calmly leaned over and whispered to the loudmouth mechanic, "Try doing it with the engine running."

Hope your ticker never needs an overhaul, gentlemen!

[MCRider]

"saved my life by erring on the safe side"

Yeah. I was near my computer so I googled "chest pain" and the first article said: "there are mainly 4 reasons for chest pain, all of which require immediate medical attention".

I didn't read any further. Hence the call to 911

Regardless of the tests, pain rules.

[Johnie]

MC...glad you caught it in time. I was an EMT for 22 years and saw the results of to many people who thought it was just nothing. You are one of the smart ones - lucky ones!!! Heal fast my friend...

[jerry h]

Boy was I nervous opening this thread... Sure glad you took quick action.  Hope you have a speedy recovery!

[Raul CB750K1]

"saved my life by erring on the safe side"

Yeah. I was near my computer so I googled "chest pain" and the first article said: "there are mainly 4 reasons for chest pain, all of which require immediate medical attention".

I didn't read any further. Hence the call to 911

Regardless of the tests, pain rules.

Years ago I also felt chest pain and went to the ER just in case. Over here people complain about waiting 3 hours at the ER. I was dealt with at the spot. That's when I understood some patients need inmediate attention. Your broken leg may hurt like hell, but you are not going to die in the ER for a broken bone!

In my case it was different. I experienced the pains -I would call them "discomfort"-, a strong discomfort but not a pain as you feel when you are hit. They would last three or four minutes and would be gone for a couple days. The first time it happens you get a little anxious, but as it disappears quickly you don't give it more importance. After it has happened a few times is when you start to think there is something wrong and the next time it may last longer...

And going to the ER, in my case, was pointless, because when I got there the pain would have been gone!

Over here you just don't go to the cardiologist. You go to the family doctor who deals with the "common" things such as flu's, colds, skin rash, allergies etc. If he/she thinks that what you have needs specialized attention he will send you to the specialist -remember, socialized medicine-. Doctors are encouraged not to divert to specialists just to please the patient because there are long waiting times, so many times it is on their judgement whether you should visit the specialist or what you have is of no importance. That's what I mean that "my family doctor saved my life". Had it not sent me to the cardiologist I would have thought I had nothing heart-related, and one day I would have had to go to the ER and God knows whether I would have made it in time....

MC, has the experience served to make you look at things differently? Has you changed something about your life?

[70CB750]

Friend of my parents, his wife was a doctor, he would complain every so often about chest pain.  When she finally checked him, she would not let him get up from a chair, she was so scared.

[HondaMan]

Wow, Ron! Glad you 'caught' it! That's scary stuff. How are you feeling now?

My father-in-law was out chopping wood one day (his hobby, at least once every week), and came in saying his arm hurt. All that night, his arm hurt. His wife took him to the ER the next AM, they slammed him into Intensive Care, then immediately took him to cardiology. Three hours later he was under anesthesia and the knife: they said he was going to get a triple bypass, which became a quadruple. Turned out, he had 3 totally blocked heart arteries, for probably several years, said the doc, and the 4th one was almost closed. Around one of the others, the heart had grown another artery because the original one was blocked, had pix to show it.

Way cool, amazing stuff! 

All this was 14 years ago: they said he probably had 8-10 years left. He still chops 3 cords of wood every summer, for the next winter (they heat with a wood stove, mountain house).

[MCRider]

Raul: My "come to Jesus" moment occurred in 2000 when my HawkGT spit me off on the interstate, from hitting a deep hole that caused a tank slapper. There were any one of several ways that could have ended up a lot worse than it was. I had a profound and lasting spiritual effect.

Mark: Feeling pretty good now. They asked me in the Cath LAb, if they saw something they thought they could fix, should they? I said yes, and they fixed the 95% block, leaving the 70%, and 4 50% I assume maybe for later.  Waiting for the meet with the cardiologist as to what  can really expect going forward.  I think the Stents are replacing bypasses in certain instances, now.

Glad your FIL beat the odds. We're both in the ""bonus round" now.