This is an email from a niece who is a nurse......it could save your life......please read..........................> This is an amazing story. a woman just passed away
> recently with a heart
> attack. She said she didn't feel well and had a
> backache and was going
> to lay down on the bed with the heating pad. A while
> later her husband
> went to check on her and she was not breathing. They
> were not able to
> revive her. This is something we women should
> definitely take seriously.
> Please pass this on to those you love.
>
> I was aware that female heart attacks are different,
> but this is the
> best description I've ever read on Women and heart
> attacks - Myocardial
> infarction (MI).
>
> Did you know that women rarely have the same
> dramatic symptoms that men
> have when experiencing heart attack...you know, the
> sudden stabbing pain
> in the chest, the cold sweat, grabbing the chest and
> dropping to the
> floor that we see in the movies. Here is the story
> of one woman's
> experience with a heart attack:
>
> 'I had a completely unexpected heart attack at about
> 10:30 pm with NO
> prior exertion, NO prior emotional trauma that one
> would suspect
> might've brought it on. I was sitting all snugly &
> warm on a cold
> evening, with my purring cat in my lap, reading an
> interesting story my
> friend had sent me, and actually thinking, 'Aah,
> this is the life, cozy
> and warm in my soft, cushy Lazy Boy with my feet
> propped up.'
>
> A moment later, I felt that awful sensation of
> indigestion, when you've
> been in a hurry and grabbed a bite of sandwich and
> washed it down with a
> dash of water, and that hurried bite seems to feel
> like you've swallowed
> a golf ball going down the esophagus in slow motion
> and it is most
> uncomfortable. You realize you shouldn't have gulped
> it down so fast and
> needed to chew it more thoroughly and this time
> drink a glass of water
> to hasten its progress down to the stomach. This was
> my initial
> sensation---the only trouble was that I hadn't taken
> a bite of anything
> since about 5:00 p.m.
>
> 'After that had seemed to subside, the next
> sensation was like little
> squeezing motions that seemed to be racing up my
> SPINE (hind-sight, it
> was probably my aorta spasming), gaining speed as
> they continued racing
> up and under my sternum (breast bone, where one
> presses rhythmically
> when administering CPR). This fascinating process
> continued on into my
> throat and branched out into both jaws.
>
> 'AHA!! NOW I stopped puzzling about what was
> happening--we all have read
> and/or heard about pain in the jaws being one of the
> signals of an MI
> happening, haven't we? I said aloud to myself and
> the cat, 'Dear God, I
> think I'm having a heart attack !' I lowered the
> foot rest, dumping the
> cat from my lap, started to take a step and fell on
> the floor instead. I
> thought to myself 'If this is a heart attack, I
> shouldn't be walking
> into the next room where the phone is or anywhere
> else.....but, on the
> other hand, if I don't, nobody will know that I need
> help, and if I wait
> any longer I may not be able to get up. I pulled
> myself up with the arms
> of the chair, walked slowly into the next room and
> dialed the
> Paramedics. I told her I thought I was having a
> heart attack due to the
> pressure building under the sternum and radiating
> into my jaws. I didn't
> feel hysterical or afraid, just stating the facts.
> She said she was
> sending the Paramedics over immediately, asked if
> the front door was
> near to me, and if so, to unbolt the door and then
> lie down on the floor
> where they could see me when they came in. 'I then
> laid down on the
> floor as instructed and lost consciousness, as I
> don't remember the
> medics coming in, their examination, lifting me onto
> a gurney or getting
> me into their ambulance, or hearing the call they
> made to St. Jude ER on
> the way, but I did briefly awaken when we arrived
> and saw that the
> Cardiologist was already there in his surgical blues
> and cap, helping
> the medics pull my stretcher out of the ambulance.
> He was bending over
> me asking questions (probably something like 'Have
> you taken any
> medications?') but I couldn't make my mind interpret
> what he was saying,
> or form an answer, and nodded off again, not waking
> up until the
> Cardiologist and partner had already threaded the
> teeny angiogram
> balloon up my femoral artery into the aorta and into
> my heart where they
> installed 2 side by side stents to hold open my
> right coronary artery.
>
> I know it sounds like all my thinking and actions at
> home must have
> taken at least 20-30 minutes before calling the
> Paramedics, but actually
> it took perhaps 4-5 minutes before the call, and
> both the fire station
> and St Jude are only minutes away from my home, and
> my Cardiologist was
> already to go to the OR in his scrubs and get going
> on restarting my
> heart (which had stopped somewhere between my
> arrival and the procedure)
> and installing the stents.
>
> 'Why have I written all of this to you with so much
> detail? Because I
> want all of you who are so important in my life to
> know what I learned
> first hand.':
>
> 1. Be aware that something very different is
> happening in your body
> not the usual men's symptoms, but inexplicable
> things happening (until
> my sternum and jaws got into the act). It is said
> that many more women
> than men die of their first (and last) MI because
> they didn't know they
> were having one, and commonly mistake it as
> indigestion, take some
> Maalox or other anti-heartburn preparation, and go
> to bed, hoping
> they'll feel better in the morning when they wake
> up...which doesn't
> happen. My female friends, your symptoms might not
> be exactly like
> mine,so I advise you to call the Paramedics if
> ANYTHING is unpleasantly
> happening that you've not felt before. It is better
> to have a 'false
> alarm' visitation than to risk your life guessing
> what it might be!
>
> 2. Note that I said 'Call the Paramedics'. Ladies,
> TIME IS OF THE
> ESSENCE! Do NOT try to drive yourself to the
> ER--you're a hazard to
> others on the road, and so is your panicked husband
> who will be speeding
> and looking anxiously at what's happening with you
> instead of the road.
> Do NOT call your doctor--he doesn't know where you
> live and if it's at
> night you won't reach him anyway, and if it's
> daytime, his assistants
> (or answering service) will tell you to call the
> Paramedics. He doesn't
> carry the equipment in his car that you need to be
> saved! The Paramedics
> do, principally OXYGEN that you need ASAP. Your Dr.
> will be notified
> later.
>
> 3. Don't assume it couldn't be a heart attack
> because you have a
> normal cholesterol count. Research has discovered
> that a cholesterol
> elevated reading is rarely the cause of an MI
> (unless it's unbelievably
> high, and/or accompanied by high blood pressure.)
> MI's are usually
> caused by long-term stress and inflammation in the
> body, which dumps all
> sorts of deadly hormones into your system to sludge
> things up in there.
> Pain in the jaw can wake you from a sound sleep.
> Let's be careful and be
> aware. The more we know, the better chance we could
> survive.
>
> 4. A cardiologist says if everyone who gets this
> mail sends it to 10
> people, you can be sure that we'll save at least one
> life.
>
My granddaughter, Erin, photographed the cup pictures............
When she and Prince Charles married, I got up in the middle of the night to watch the wedding on television. She always was special to me.....I think because she came across as shy and unassuming....it was really hard to believe that she had been killed in the wreck.......she was indeed the people's princess....the Queen of Hearts.....
Thanks for dropping by my home......you are always welcome................
