I spent last Sunday morning in the cardiac ER after waking in the middle of the night with many of the classic heart attack symptoms - tightness in chest, arm numbness, sweating, shortness of breath, and light headedness. All tests for heart damage were negative so I visited my family doctor and was referred to his buddy, a cardiologist. I’m scheduled for a heart cath this coming week. My odds: 20% - nothing wrong; 40% - minimal blockage treatable by meds; 40% - more substantial blockage requiring some type of intervention, likely a stent they’ll do that day through the cath. The doc told to me keep the exertion down. Who am I to argue about kicking back and taking it easy this weekend? (Some tractor time last evening was very therapeutic.)
Guy, don't ignore these signs, especially when they stack up like this. My dad, 88 at the time with no previous heart symptoms, woke up in the middle of the night with the same type of symptoms. He and his new wife got dressed and ready to go to the hospital. He felt better and decided to go back to bed. He never woke up again.
Funnies from these events:
- Sunday morning, they dispatched an ambulance and two firetrucks to our home. (Makes sense as the EMTs don’t know what type / size of patient they will be dealing with.) After I was wheeled out to the ambulance, the fire fighters told my wife that they tested all our smoke detectors and noticed that there wasn’t one in our master bedroom. They offered to install one for free that night. She asked them to call back about it, as she just wanted to go to the hospital. Sure enough, they called me a couple days later. I said that if I want one there, it will be one that communicates to my alarm system so they would get automatically dispatched.
- The cardiologist’s office is in the old medical office building next to the hospital. At 2:00 PM in the afternoon, the nearest parking spot was in the next time zone. After hiking in and up the stairs, I asked the receptionist if patients who manage to walk all the way in without being out of breath don’t need to be here, right? The snappy comeback was, “No, that only applies if you have to park at Kroger across the road or at Menards across I-96.”
Guy, don't ignore these signs, especially when they stack up like this. My dad, 88 at the time with no previous heart symptoms, woke up in the middle of the night with the same type of symptoms. He and his new wife got dressed and ready to go to the hospital. He felt better and decided to go back to bed. He never woke up again.
Funnies from these events:
- Sunday morning, they dispatched an ambulance and two firetrucks to our home. (Makes sense as the EMTs don’t know what type / size of patient they will be dealing with.) After I was wheeled out to the ambulance, the fire fighters told my wife that they tested all our smoke detectors and noticed that there wasn’t one in our master bedroom. They offered to install one for free that night. She asked them to call back about it, as she just wanted to go to the hospital. Sure enough, they called me a couple days later. I said that if I want one there, it will be one that communicates to my alarm system so they would get automatically dispatched.
- The cardiologist’s office is in the old medical office building next to the hospital. At 2:00 PM in the afternoon, the nearest parking spot was in the next time zone. After hiking in and up the stairs, I asked the receptionist if patients who manage to walk all the way in without being out of breath don’t need to be here, right? The snappy comeback was, “No, that only applies if you have to park at Kroger across the road or at Menards across I-96.”