The Hints I Ignored Before My Heart Attack by John Chamberlain, parishioner
On a Sunday morning recently at 5 o’clock I woke up with an aching arm, a painful chest and a cold clammy sweatiness all over. I got up and walked around for a bit, thinking that it was just stiffness. Then decided to give ‘her’ a nudge, “I’d like to talk to you about something”.
By 8 o’clock I’d been ambulanced (they were a great team – thank you for your speed) to The Lister hospital and had two stents inserted into my Right Cardiac Artery. “Just as well you got cracking,” observed the consultant.
I was sent home after two days’ recovery with a report stating that I had sustained only slight damage to the heart and that most of the measurements are well within normal. Plus a big bag of pills.
Great. However, I realised that for several months I had been given hints that all was not as it should be. The purpose of this note is to share those hints. Note, I’m 66 yrs old, in good health and fitness.
- When carrying out some fairly strenuous task; drilling into tough concrete, putting up a heavy ladder, heavy digging, etc., I was finding that I needed a bit of a rest – not something I had needed before. I didn’t think about it – obviously I’d always been like this or I was ‘lashing in’ to the task too enthusiastically.
- When climbing a small slope I was becoming breathless trying to keep up with my wife. Again obviously it was my age. Although I’ve always been fit for this sort of activity.
- Maybe once or twice a week, one of my arms would suddenly start to ache or even hurt. The ache would start below the shoulder and carry on to include the whole arm. The feeling would last for less than 2 minutes then disappear. I could be lying in bed, walking or driving – the sensation was the same. I put it down to how I’d been lying or my elbow was bent or a temporary trapped nerve or trapped blood flow in my shoulder. I have had tendon trouble in them for a while. The feeling was much less than cramp. More, as I say, having been lying on the limb.
- Occasionally this sensation affected my legs, although rarely.
- Soon after the procedure I glanced at my arm and realised that for some time I’d thought that my skin had ‘lost its suntan’ very quickly – I had been much paler than I’d thought I should be. Not a pallor, just paler. My colour was back.
- I had rarely thought to mention these events to my wife – they were just ‘life’.
- For 20 years I’ve had periodic cholesterol tests which have always been around 5.2 or more recently below that figure.
- My diet would be generally considered to be good, mostly of the healthy stuff as well as some fatty stuff. Alcohol – socially moderate.
- Weight, BMI and blood pressure, all well within the numbers for my age, height and build.
- So, the event was completely unexpected. That is what all the public advice warns you about. Therefore, when considering the reasons for my hints, I should most certainly have included POTENTIAL HEART PROBLEMS.
- I hope that all these observations help you or someone else. Don’t just think of the easy obvious.
- Finally – and this is very useful. The 111 call handler told me straight away – take a 300 mg aspirin if you have some. Don’t wait to dissolve it – get it in, pronto!Luckily we had some in the medicine cupboard.
SO GET SOME 300 MG ASPIRIN NOW – you never know……..!
Three months later update. I’m now pretty well normal. Had 6 weekly sessions of remarkably strenuous NHS cardiac rehab exercise sessions at Letchworth Leisure Centre – v. good value (free). Now back to lots of my old diy and heavy gardening. Statins have brought my Cholesterol down to 2.7 with the HDL and LDL values better. Only five tablets a day for the rest of my life!