topic Re: I did not have the elephant. in Community Chat

I did not have the elephant.

newberry — Fri, 17 Feb 2017 23:44:55 GMT

Funny thing happened to me last week. I had jaw pain took a Motrin and felt better. Went to a regularly scheduled doctors appointment the next morning. Told her about my jaw pain she checked out my ear to see if it was an earache. Nope looked good so she suggested and ecg. Had that done and BOOMB It showed a possible heart attack. Called my cardioligst and got an appoint and just went to the cardio yesterday and by looking at the ecg results he said yep I have had a heart attack. Next week I go back for an echo and tredmill test to see about damage done. I must say I feel good. Have no idea when it happened. I just went up 5 flight of stairs the week before with no problem except my knees said ouch and don't do that again to soon but no shortness of breath or any distress.

What I find the most scary of all of this is I had a heart attack and did not even know that is what it was. I probably went ouch, got up off the couch and went and cleaned the kitchen or bathroom and didn't even give the "ouch" another thought. When you get to be my age we have a few aches and pains don't even think twice about doing anything but taking a aspirin or Motrin. Being women we go about our life doing our jobs and attending to our families and not really paying attention to our own health. I just wanted by writing about this to to remind everyone here that women's symptoms of a heart attack can be very different than the ones we hear about for men.

So ladies....... pay attentiion to feeling off and not just not quite right. Not feeling like yourself and just not feeling on top of your game can actually mean something serious to us and our health. Female symptoms of a heart attack are not always the elephant on the chest. I did not have the elephant. No clammy skin or shortness of breath at anytime. Jaw pain, shoulder pain or tiredness can be signs of a female heart attack. Get checked out and be safe

Re: I did not have the elephant.

itiswhatitis — Fri, 17 Feb 2017 23:48:10 GMT

@newberry wrote:
Funny thing happened to me last week. I had jaw pain took a Motrin and felt better. Went to a regularly scheduled doctors appointment the next morning. Told her about my jaw pain she checked out my ear to see if it was an earache. Nope looked good so she suggested and ecg. Had that done and BOOMB It showed a possible heart attack. Called my cardioligst and got an appoint and just went to the cardio yesterday and by looking at the ecg results he said yep I have had a heart attack. Next week I go back for an echo and tredmill test to see about damage done. I must say I feel good. Have no idea when it happened. I just went up 5 flight of stairs the week before with no problem except my knees said ouch and don't do that again to soon but no shortness of breath or any distress.

What I find the most scary of all of this is I had a heart attack and did not even know that is what it was. I probably went ouch, got up off the couch and went and cleaned the kitchen or bathroom and didn't even give the "ouch" another thought. When you get to be my age we have a few aches and pains don't even think twice about doing anything but taking a aspirin or Motrin. Being women we go about our life doing our jobs and attending to our families and not really paying attention to our own health. I just wanted by writing about this to to remind everyone here that women's symptoms of a heart attack can be very different than the ones we hear about for men.

So ladies....... pay attentiion to feeling off and not just not quite right. Not feeling like yourself and just not feeling on top of your game can actually mean something serious to us and our health. Female symptoms of a heart attack are not always the elephant on the chest. I did not have the elephant. No clammy skin or shortness of breath at anytime. Jaw pain, shoulder pain or tiredness can be signs of a female heart attack. Get checked out and be safe

OMG. My teeth bother me sometime. I never consider it much of anything. Boy are you lucky you followed up. Think I should do the same thing.

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR SHARING YOUR STORY.

Re: I did not have the elephant.

Plaid Pants2 — Fri, 17 Feb 2017 23:48:57 GMT

@newberry

Thanks for the reminder, an I am glad that you are okay!

Re: I did not have the elephant.

Noel7 — Fri, 17 Feb 2017 23:54:43 GMT

Heart Attack Signs in Women

Uncomfortable pressure, squeezing, fullness or pain in the center of your chest. It lasts more than a few minutes, or goes away and comes back.
Pain or discomfort in one or both arms, the back, neck, jaw or stomach.
Shortness of breath with or without chest discomfort.
Other signs such as breaking out in a cold sweat, nausea or lightheadedness.
As with men, women’s most common heart attack symptom is chest pain or discomfort. But women are somewhat more likely than men to experience some of the other common symptoms, particularly shortness of breath, nausea/vomiting and back or jaw pain.

If you have any of these signs, call 9-1-1 and get to a hospital right away.

American Heart Association

Re: I did not have the elephant.

newberry — Fri, 17 Feb 2017 23:51:44 GMT

I just found out that jaw pain and top of shoulder pain can be a sign for womens heart attacks. It does not even have to radiate down the arm. Signs can be subtle.

Re: I did not have the elephant.

cherry — Fri, 17 Feb 2017 23:52:21 GMT

I'm glad it wasn't a severe one. I have always heard that asprin can save your life it you take one in the first moments of an attack

I have never known jaw pain was a symptom

Re: I did not have the elephant.

CareBears — Fri, 17 Feb 2017 23:55:49 GMT

@newberry Thank you so much for posting this, I had a heart attack at the age of 38, and I too did not have "Normal" symptoms, I had been feeling off for a couple of weeks and I had even gone to the doctor the day before and told her I had been feeling off, she basically dismissed the symptoms because as you I was still going about my every day activities, but the morning of my heart attack I had a tremendous pain in my left arm, and as the day progressed it just kept getting worse, I finally went to the ER where I sat for another 3 hours because I kept dismissing my pain as no big deal, when I was finally seen by a doctor, I was in a full blown heart attack mode, I suffered 45% damage.

So PLEASE do not ignore what your body is trying to say to you, it is better to be safe than sorry!

Re: I did not have the elephant.

Noel7 — Fri, 17 Feb 2017 23:53:41 GMT

George Carlin's only heart attack symptom was pain in his jaw. Luckily he knew that to be a heart attack symptom.

Did your cardio take a blood test and give you meds? I hope you are OK!

Re: I did not have the elephant.

Burnsite — Fri, 17 Feb 2017 23:54:18 GMT

So glad you sought help, newberry. Thanks for posting. I didn't know about jaw pain as a symptom.

The aspirin you took might have helped prevent further damage, perhaps.

Re: I did not have the elephant.

Noel7 — Sat, 18 Feb 2017 00:00:23 GMT

@cherry wrote:
I'm glad it wasn't a severe one. I have always heard that asprin can save your life it you take one in the first moments of an attack

I have never known jaw pain was a symptom

************************

It helps @cherry , it acts as a blood thinner. If it's bad, it's not going to save your life. But yes, you should take one or two if you have symptoms, right away.

Call an ambulance and go to the ER. Never worry that you may be bothering them, get in there.

Re: I did not have the elephant.

Reba055 — Sat, 18 Feb 2017 00:01:42 GMT

I'm glad you are ok! They have been running ads about the symptoms in women a lot this month I told my GI doc, I'm doomed I have thie every day so guess I will ever know.

I hope your follow up is good.

Re: I did not have the elephant.

newberry — Sat, 18 Feb 2017 00:03:16 GMT

@Noel7 wrote:
George Carlin's only heart attack symptom was pain in his jaw. Luckily he knew that to be a heart attack symptom.

Did your cardio take a blood test and give you meds? I hope you are OK!

No he did not do a blood test because the initial ecg was five days previous. He was on vacation. I don't think the elevated enzimes stay there that long. My GP did tell me that if I felt even the slightest twings to get to the ER. I had had undetermined heart pain the Thanksgiving before last and had all of the tests run then and it did not show heart attack then on the ecg. My cholosteral is very good as is all the other blood work. I had that done just a couple of months ago.

Re: I did not have the elephant.

chickenbutt — Sat, 18 Feb 2017 00:08:20 GMT

That's trippy! I didn't know about the jaw pain thing (or actually most of the ones in Noel's post, which I experience regularly...oops!).

Every now and then I will suddenly, out of nowhere, have the most intense jaw pain and I just figure maybe I was clenching and didn't realize it. It never lasts all that long, though.

Anyway, best wishes that everything is ok!

Re: I did not have the elephant.

Noel7 — Sat, 18 Feb 2017 00:10:07 GMT

@newberry wrote:
@Noel7 wrote:
George Carlin's only heart attack symptom was pain in his jaw. Luckily he knew that to be a heart attack symptom.

Did your cardio take a blood test and give you meds? I hope you are OK!
No he did not do a blood test because the initial ecg was five days previous. He was on vacation. I don't think the elevated enzimes stay there that long. My GP did tell me that if I felt even the slightest twings to get to the ER. I had had undetermined heart pain the Thanksgiving before last and had all of the tests run then and it did not show heart attack then on the ecg. My cholosteral is very good as is all the other blood work. I had that done just a couple of months ago.

****************************

I'm glad to hear you're doing OK @newberry , I wish you the very best!

Re: I did not have the elephant.

SilleeMee — Sat, 18 Feb 2017 00:10:15 GMT

I take a low-dose aspirin daily as per doctor's orders. I also get annual echocardiograms because of my heart valve being affected by my scleroderma. Even with this attention to my heart it still won't guarantee I won't have an attack. If I suffer an attack, it will most likely end in death because my valve will simply fail. There will be no warning and there's nothing that I can do to prevent it. Hope it never happens.

Re: I did not have the elephant.

Pqfan — Sat, 18 Feb 2017 00:10:57 GMT

@newberry Thank you for the wake up call for all of us to take care of ourselves.

I hope you are feeling better.

Re: I did not have the elephant.

Plaid Pants2 — Sat, 18 Feb 2017 00:10:58 GMT

@SilleeMee wrote:
I take a low-dose aspirin daily as per doctor's orders. I also get annual echocardiograms because of my heart valve being affected by my scleroderma. Even with this attention to my heart it still won't guarantee I won't have an attack. If I suffer an attack, it will most likely end in death because my valve will simply fail. There will be no warning and there's nothing that I can do to prevent it. Hope it never happens.

How scary!

Re: I did not have the elephant.

Irshgrl31201 — Sat, 18 Feb 2017 00:13:02 GMT

Wow @newberry this is great advice and I am so glad you shared it. I have heard of jaw pain being associated with this before. I am SO GLAD you told your dr this because i think a lot of the time we as women tend to take care of ourselves last. If we don't take care of ourselves we can't take care of anyone else. So glad you shared this because I think if someone here reads this it could really help them.

Women and men have different symptoms and sometimes will over look seemingly innocent symptoms.

Re: I did not have the elephant.

Noel7 — Sat, 18 Feb 2017 00:16:10 GMT

@chickenbutt wrote:
That's trippy! I didn't know about the jaw pain thing (or actually most of the ones in Noel's post, which I experience regularly...oops!).

Every now and then I will suddenly, out of nowhere, have the most intense jaw pain and I just figure maybe I was clenching and didn't realize it. It never lasts all that long, though.

Anyway, best wishes that everything is ok!

*****************************

@chickenbutt

You know, it really is true that as women, many or most of us push through and just keep going.

My first attack, I thought it was heartburn, really bad heartburn. It took awhile until I keeled over. The second time it was my ribs that hurt on one side and I thought it was costocondritis. I really got a talking to from the nurse, I thought she was going to slap my hand with a ruler, lol.

Go, get a checkup, get a scan maybe.

Re: I did not have the elephant.

SeaMaiden — Sat, 18 Feb 2017 00:16:46 GMT

I would have assumed that the jaw pain was my teeth as I have so many issues with them....so I would have never gone to the doctor first.