Some personal notes on heart

 This view shows the LAD, or left anterior descending (or interventricular) artery, which feeds the heart itself.

That's where they gave me a stent, and the photo my cardiologist showed me (not this one) was a heart without any LAD. He said that's what mine had looked like before the stent was applied. Someone in my treatment mentioned this heart attack was known as "the widow-maker." So I'm incredibly thankful to be alive.

It's pretty incredible that they found that problem by running a tiny scanning device with a camera at the end, up my right brachial artery from my wrist to my heart. And somehow, by then I was asleep thank heaven, they put the stent in the same way. The only opening I had was that tiny cut on my wrist. How simple surgery now is and almost non-invasive.

I had my heart attack out of the blue 4 years ago. No afib. But pain in my neck kept me from sleeping for 2 days, and I went to my regular MD (as a walk-in patient) who changed my BP meds, and maybe told me something about using pain relievers. The pain relievers over the counter had not worked and I was exhausted from being awake and in pain, some coughing which is chronic for me. Finally on evening of 3rd day a friend drove me to ER, and after the 2nd EKG (MD's office EKG was vague) and several tests of blood they determined a heart attack, and gave me a stent on the LAD artery which feeds the heart. If the EKG from the MD's office had been accurate, they would have sent me to the hospital two days earlier. Yes, this was an ongoing event, not sharp and accute!

Women don't always have symptoms like men! That's the main underlining point here. I'd tell each physician I saw about excruciating pain in my neck and shoulders. Some tightness felt in chest. That was the way I got treated as a heart patient...otherwise they would have left me in the waiting room with everyone else. Heart patients do get immediate care.

I'm not going into all the details about being given care in the second month that COVID hit all the hospitals...and my having COPD and bronchiectasis (a chronic cough.) I've talked about that elsewhere.

I just hope women will take seriously heart problems that appear as non-traditional pains especially if they already have high blood pressure or other indicators that might lead to heart attacks.

I have changed my diet and now exercise much more regularly, and have lost about 20 pounds in the last 4 years.

Keep on ticking, all you lovely heart beating women (and men too)!!

Today's quote:

The more we practice settling our minds, the easier it will become over time.

I'm walking for exercise again

 

I wanted to sit out on my front porch on Sunday, Mother's Day. But I kept waiting for the 70 degrees forecast, and the windy cloudy 60s just weren't as welcoming. I finally did have a half hour in a bit of sunshine!

I walked down our steep hill, then up half way, stopped to photograph some flowers, then came the other half way back home. Whew...good for me!

The porch is looking a bit more welcoming I think.

There goes the flame azalea, and all those thin leaves are promising the day lilies.

Yes the lilies of the valley have bloomed a bit...it's past their peak.

I stuck my nose and the iPhone down among them...got the picture, but my nose is still out of whack.

That's from the pneumonia, I got tested and didn't have COVID.

Even picking one flower and bringing it home, I failed to smell a thing.

This is the last azalea bush still blooming. Sorry to lose these beautiful colorful blooms for another year.

This is the anniversary of my having a stent inserted via my veins into my heart, which was the result of having a heart attack that was not like the medical descriptions usually say. But they do admit women experience different symptoms. Mine were 3 days of pain in neck and shoulders such that I couldn't sleep. Even though I went to my primary care doctor, he just changed one of my blood pressure medicines. So I got a friend to finally drive me to the ER, and they tested and tested and tested and finally found I didn't have COVID, and had had a heart attack.

No wonder I feel so good that I'm still walking around and talking to you all here!

Today's quote:

“This is love: to fly toward a secret sky, to cause a hundred veils to fall each moment. First to let go of life. Finally, to take a step without feet.”

Rumi

Breakfast and health news

My favorite breakfast...those lumps are pears, granola, mixed in with yogurt (non-fat plain.) There's a cup of coffee over on the side somewhere, with Almond Milk to give a bit of different flavor.  The poppy bowl is one of the many that I made last year...and decided that I'd keep to enjoy in my own home. I'm no longer making any pottery, nor decorating with glazes. If I don't have organic pears ready to eat, I have blueberries.

The following is what an email said which I sent to another blogger...somehow we were talking about health, and I just have been telling anyone who will listen!

I just had some amazing news...saw the cardiologist after having a new ultrasound of my heart. It has improved in the last 4 months - I'm at "low-normal" now. He doesn't think it will get much better. But he also showed me a picture of my heart with the artery 100% blocked, and then after the stent was put in. Major difference...no blood flow and then little veins going off into the heart.

And the description was that my heart had been functioning at only half it's normal capacity...which never caused me any pain. I finally got tired of not sleeping because my shoulders and neck hurt so much...and went to ER. When I said my chest also felt tight, they checked my heart right away. They said the EKG was indicating a heart problem, but the blood work didn't show it. It took a couple more tests of the blood work before they concluded I'd had a heart attack, and they told me!

The cardiologist showed me a picture of the artery which feeds the heart muscle, and it looked like a dead-end, just stopped completely. Then after the stent was put in there were little veins going off of it across the heart. These pictures were taken at the time of the procedure, so my blocked artery started giving blood to my heart and they could take a picture of it.  I did have over a month following the procedure before I could walk any distance without being out of breath easily...but still...

And last year, with a half-working heart, I drove by myself to Florida twice, then to Ohio, and then with a friend to New Mexico and Colorado, from my home in North Carolina.  Isn't that amazing? I think so! Of course the blockage of that artery might not have been total until May...but it was beginning to cause problems that I attributed to my chronic lung condition, where I cough more when I'm tired.

I'm not going to just be satisfied with a "low-normal" rating. For once in my life (according to Russ, my son) I'm wanting to be totally normal.

And I'm feeling very grateful today.

no clue it was my heart!

You've all heard that women experience heart attacks differently than men.

I had shoulder pain, all the time, and it wouldn't let up when I tried to lie down on my side to sleep. I'd finally gone to my general practitioner on Wed. after trouble sleeping for several nights.

But let me back up and just let you know what I already had going on...Bronchiectasis...the inability to clear mucous from my lungs which led to chronic coughing. For that I already had 2 kinds of breathing treatments, one of which was a C-PAP to help me breath while sleeping. Anyway, I had not been getting to sleep and had pain all across my shoulders. The more pain, the tireder and the more coughing, of course.

I also already took a blood pressure medicine, and that Wed. afternoon I had the highest reading I'd ever had at the Dr. office. So he put me on an additional blood pressure medicine.

My doctor also gave me Soma, a muscle relaxant, and prednesone, a steroid...for 5 days.  Nothing for the pain. I could tense my muscles, but then they wouldn't relax. My chest was just tense, a bit heavy feeling. No pain there. I finally took some ibprofen on Thurs. night and fell asleep. But Friday was more of tiredness. I didn't feel like doing a thing.

I can sit here at the computer for hours, and so I did that on Fri, but then was tired and tried for about 3 hours to rest. I remember raising my arms while lying on my back gave some relief.

I called the pharmacy to see if I could still take ibuprofen with the Soma, and they said yes.  I may have called the doctor's office earlier as well, but I'm a bit fuzzy about that.  They did say the doctor isn't working today. Someone said, it sounds like you might need to go to urgent care and may need an Xray. But it was close to 5 pm on Friday by then. And the only other option was E.R.

So I called my friend, Helen, who said she'd be glad to take me to ER. And away we went.  I walked into a kind of busy waiting area, after they took my temperature. I already was wearing my mask. I told them I had shoulder pain that went into my chest. A cardio technician heard me say chest pain, and she took me right away to do an EKG.

And it was abnormal, so off I went for more testing.

None of which showed a heart attack.  I had a CT scan, and blood work, and about 2-3 hours into much discomfort, a cardiologist came and stood at the foot of my bed and said:

"You've had a heart attack.  You've had a heart attack."

I never had an acute episode of pain. And so when I consider it now, I don't know when it happened at all. I now am very cautious of shoulder pain...since that was my only clue.

Yes in the next 5 hours I got a catheterization and a stent installed in my artery which was 100% blocked. More on that later...

But this is another patient who was female who had a heart attack without the standard symptoms. Pay attention ladies. I sure am!