Hi, I have just been let out of hospital and have been t...

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Hi, I have just been let out of hospital and have been told I have unstable angina, and I have had a silent heart attack ?? I find this so hard to believe, after one hour in the emergency unit, I was fine and was wanting to go home.

My story is, I came home for lunch from work and went to make a cup of tea when I felt an ache in my left shoulder, I knew I also had heart burn as I suffer from it and took some antacids but then my neck and jaw felt very tight and I felt light headed, then felt sick. This took a step up 3 times over 15mins until I felt very sick and felt my jaw and neck was in a head lock and so asked my husband to take me to the emergency hospital. In the hospital my heart rate was fine but my blood pressure was slightly up, they took a blood test and said they would keep me over night and take more blood which they did, they told me my first blood test was normal but the next showed enzimes consistant with a heart injury, they then asked me if it was ok to tell my mother who had phoned that I had had a heart attack??? I was shocked? no one said I had had a heart attack, I had no chest pain at all???

I am 44yrs old and awaiting an angiogram. This is so unreal I feel so well, I was in hospital 3 days and went back to work straight away as I am a self employed hairdresser and xmas is such a busy time, I carry my spray for under my tongue. I feel a fake & think my doctors are wrong I never took drugs before, now I must rattle with them.

Is there anyone who can identify with me .. I am told this is denial.. I feel really well... I smoked up to 30 a day.. now down to 4 or 5 a day, I know I must stop smoking but I'm so stressed out. my mum runs the rehab unit for heart patients, she has had 3 heart attacks and I won't go, she also is the secretary for the heart support unit and I won't go. I am really trying to give up the smoking but it's so hard because it's all so unreal..

Is there anyone who has had like me above who I could confide in and know what I am going through??

juls.

[i:6095fead10]This message was automatically imported from the original Patient Experience[/i:6095fead10]

0 likes, 8 replies

8 Replies

  • Posted

    Hi,

    I can relate with what you are saying,i am 43yrs of age and a self employed electrician.Back in august 2005 i had very bad chest pain and my left arm was painful, i ignored it at first and put it down to muscle pain due to my work.But with my family nagging me i went to hospital and was kept in for 1 night.They told me i had suffered a very bad angina attack and sent me home with spray and all the tablets.I to found this hard to believe that it was happing to me and went back to work but stopped smoking.Two weeks being back at work i suffered another bad attack and was back in hospital where they kept me in to do the angiogram test where they found 4 blockages 3 were 90% blocked 3 stents were put in i was then released from hospital and gave up work for now so i can come to terms with what has happened to me and the fact i am still getting chest pain due to the last blockage and may have to go back in for that to be done.I have now resigned my self to the fact i had to change my life style which i have now done after a lot of thought and upset.The main thing is you and i are still here to tell the story.BE strong and you will get there in the end in your own time.

    Billy

    [i:1ff099ac6a]This message was automatically imported from the original Patient Experience[/i:1ff099ac6a]

  • Posted

    Sorry my 1st letter got lost on my pc??

    Thanks Billy or replying

    I had my angiogram yesterday 19th jan 06 and I have moderate heart disease.. I do not need a stent etc only drugs?

    It still seems unreal except I had an attack on the table during the test and needed 3 sprays of GTN and then 2 more attacks while lying flat afterwards ... the heart specialist said my heart didn't like the dye?

    Hope you are ok and thanks for your response, if you need to chat I am here.

    Julie Williams

    From Chester England uk.

    [i:fb4897ed87]This message was automatically imported from the original Patient Experience[/i:fb4897ed87]

  • Posted

    HiJulie,

    I am glad to hear you are ok, and that you did not have to have stents put in because it is not very pleasant to have done.I am like you and still finding it hard to believe it is happening and not being allowed to do the things i used to do like working but for now i have to do as i am told as i am waiting for another test because i am still getting bad angina pains.One thing we have got to do is to slow down our pace because i still find my self rushing around like i used to don,t know if your the same.The main thing is we are here to tell the tail so keep that thought in the back of your head as i do and you will feel better each day.And i will not say give up the fags as you are probley sick of hering that one.

    Hope to speak soon and good luck

    Billy Mitchell

    Sale, Cheshire

    [i:2bbd2e4bb2]This message was automatically imported from the original Patient Experience[/i:2bbd2e4bb2]

  • Posted

    [i:bf29181343]hi not really sure how i got here but three weeks ago i was diagnosed with what the doctors think is angina. i am only 42 and the shock of finding this out has literally knocked me for six. i have a great husband who suffers with depression and has done for nearly all our married life (22 years), three brilliant kids who are 17, 21 and 23 and two of the most gorgeous three year old grandsons i could wish for and now this!!! After seeing the doctor he gave a spray for under my tongue, tablets to take twice a day and some nicorette chewing gum as i was smoking twenty a day, i say was because today is day 25 of no smoking for me!! i came out of the doctors surgery that day and thought \" right no more ,if i want to see my grandchildren grow up ,no more fags\" and i havent since. But then this week things went a bit further, i go up monday morning and walked to the bathroom to go to the toilet, by the time i got back to bedroom the pain in my chest was back and the difficulty breathing. to cut a long story short i wasnt right all day but in the early hours of tuesday morning around 3am, i woke with pain in my chest which was really frightening as usually only get these pains if i have been during something like walking a fair way or going upstairs. Throughtout the night this happened a a further twice and the third time i had to use my spray as the pain was not easing. Tuesday morning i was back in the doctors waiting room., and when i saw the doctor she prescribed aspirin , and a statin tablet and also doubled the strength of the iso tablet i was already taking. i am now waiting to get an appointment to see a cardiologist and am left feeling quite freaked out by whats happening. I always thought that older people had angina i never dreamt that this could happen to me and i feel so scared sometimes and im usually so independant and the one who looks after every one else, i am not used to being the one who has anything wrong with them. just waiting for the appointment from the hospital now see what happens there, take care everyone and its nice to be able to say how i feel to someone who may understand a little how i feel, bye, take care.[/i:bf29181343]
  • Posted

    hi, like you i dont know how i found this

    i have had alveolitis for 1 year and have now just found out i have angina as well, i went to the docs today as the pain was so bad last night, the pain startes in my chest then goes up my neck,down my arm and into my back, like you have pulled a mussel well im in such shock as im only 43 i smoke 15-20 a day and have tried so many ways to give up and cant, i feel a compleat loser, and im in such shock i just cant belive it, im now on the spray but no tablets i just wish there was someone to chat to.

    hope your ok and well done for not smoking

    porsha

  • Posted

    Can I add that I identify with much of what has gone before and tell you that I have just been released from hospital following 4 stents and angioplasty. Like everyone (I suppose) I was worried at first but after coming to terms with being 43 and having heart disease I made a resolution to lose weight (22 Kg and counting) drink less alcohol and exercise more.

    Well, I had the procedure on Monday and got home yesterday and went for a walk today with absolutely no chest pain. The worst pain now is from the Angio-Seal that went into my leg to seal the femoral artery. Boy did that smart when it was deployed into my leg.

    I gotta say that I could not have hoped for better treatment from the NHS in Aberdeen a fantastic bunch of people who could not have been more professional or cared more if they had tried. I'll be on the Plavix for a year and Aspirin for life but the one I am really looking forward to quitting is IMDUR which gives me such bad headaches.

    I'm not sure what I am trying to say here other than to celebrate my own success which is perhaps a wee bit selfish but to also tell you that it does happen to us young ones and that there is real hope out there. The cardiologists in the UK are amongst the best in the world.

    Have faith and take each day as it comes !

  • Posted

    I have just had an exercise test and the following day the hospital phoned for me to come in for echo test in 2 weeks. I already have an appointment for 24 hour ECG in just over 2 weeks.

    I originally went to GP complaining of fast and sometimes irregular heartbeat. Apparently I may have angina. I have had no pain but a little chest tightness at times, nothing too uncomfortable though. I have cut out coffee which has all but stopped the palpitations and cut out the fags which also causes the papitation as I can tell if i just have the odd puff now and then.

    The trouble is while I am waiting for the echo test I am getting all sorts of pains that I wasn't getting before. The problem is that I have bulging discsin my neck which cause all kinds of chest and shoulder pains, so How am I to know which is which? I'm a very sprightly 59.

  • Posted

    Hello, I hope everyone who's experience I have read is on the road to recovery or coming to terms with what we have. My symptoms were that I could only walk about 30 feet before the pain in my chest was bad and going up stairs at work, well I had to sit down for about 5 mins and then the pain stopped, I thought it was indigestion or oesophagitis. I did have pain in my back and across the chest but still did not think it was my heart, I was too young for that I was only just 46, did exercise nearly every day, kept fit because of my job and had nearly stopped smoking. When I was diagnosed with Angina (Nov 2006) I nearly fell off my chair. I had been sent to hosp by my GP after a second ECG and he thought I had had a heart attack which thankfully I had not. The Doc at the hosp told me I had angina and not indigestion. He asked if I used the spray I had been given and when I said no, his face was a picture, I then told him I was in denial (I had not used the spray, reason being if I did not use it and was still okay it was not the heart, if I used it and it stopped the pain, you know the rest), the Doc at the hospital was shocked about the denial but I explained I was only 46, did exercise every day, my job ensured I kept fit and I had nearly stopped smoking. I have stopped completely the day before I had my first angiogram on 19 Dec 06. I have had two stents (one in Feb 06, second Sep 06) and am on loads of medication. I thought I was the only one of my age group with this. When your GP is surprised with the diagnosis and even the hospital consultants are suprised it does scare you a bit, I was on gaviscon for 3 weeks as even my GP thought it was oesophagitis, the only reason I had a second ECG was because it was a month since he last did one and was ruling things out. Never mind onwards and upwards, I have been lucky. We learn to live with it and adapt slowly.

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