Heart Attack*

Rosa Rodriguez

I started having pressure about a week before my heart attack that seemed to exacerbate with exercise or extra-heavy work such as lifting, and went away with resting. It felt like a heavy stone was resting on my chest, which would come and go. It could have been indigestion perhaps, but I was very worried it was my heart.

I had worked all during the week while I was feeling the pressure. Then on a Monday night the pressure stayed there all night long and didn't go away. I started feeling shortness of breath and didn't feel good, but I finished my shift (I work the night shift). I didn't tell anyone about how I was feeling, but I checked my blood pressure that night. It was only a little high for my normal, but my heart rate was higher than usual, at about 120 beats per minute.

After my shift's work I decided to go for a check-up at the emergency room, which was nearby. I left my car at work and took the bus part way to the emergency room and then walked the rest of the way there. I walked the first block okay. After that I had to stop and rest, and then stop and rest again for awhile. Eventually I could not walk more than two steps at a time before I had to stop and rest.

In the emergency room I told them I had chest pain. They immediately took an EKG and they put me in a room. They took some blood work to check my cardiac enzymes which if elevated indicate a heart attack has occurred. They gave me an aspirin and they applied some nitroglycerin paste to my chest wall and they also gave me something for pain.

I thought I was going to go home but the doctor told me that I had to stay overnight. They kept me NPO (nothing to eat or drink) that night for a procedure the next day. First, however, they did an echocardiogram of the heart to check everything. I could see the exchange of the venous blood with the arterial blood. The arterial blood which is oxygenated blood looked red. The other looked blue. You can see the interchange where it gets oxygen. You can see how the values open and close. They also talked about my having a stress test but they skipped it because they said I'd already had a heart attack.

They did an angiogram to see where the occlusion was and found that I had an 85 percent obstruction in the coronary artery, so they did an angioplasty which is inflating a balloon to open up the artery and then they also placed a stent at the same time. The stent has medication on it to prevent blood clots. The purpose of the stent is to reinforce the artery wall because it is weakened when they inflate the balloon, so it can sometimes become an aneurysm. In time the stent will be covered with tissue and your artery will be stronger. They kept me there one more night to continue to observe me. The next day they were talking again about having me do a stress test to see how much damage my heart had from my heart attack, but I was too nervous. My heart rate was 160 beats per minute at that time just worrying about it, so I didn't have it.

I got to go home after that. Thank God I didn't have any damage to my heart after my heart attack because they caught it in time. They gave me medication to reverse the damage (which has to be done within a short period of time of having a heart attack). I was able to go back to work within two weeks time of my heart attack without any restrictions.

I now take metoprolol and lipitor and plavix and a baby aspirin and protonix.

*These submissions represent the author's opinion. Tunguska Time does not claim responsibility for the content. Not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent disease. Always consult a doctor for medical advice.