Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Bad heart day (long post)

Wednesday, 1/19/11, was more exciting for Sue, my wife, than me. After being at work for awhile I noticed a kind of tightness in my chest. Not a pain, just a tightness in a three inch wide oval shape starting from the bottom of the sternum to the bottom of my throat. I mentioned it to my boss who told me his wife has the same thing and is coughing a lot. I thought I might start coughing also let it slide.

A couple hours later I started to sweat. It seemed very warm so I turned off the heater. But I continued to sweat. I decided to check my pulse. At first there was none and then a few beats like it was trying to catch up. Then there were some hard ones and some easy ones. I told the boss, �When I finish what I�m doin� here I�m goin� to urgent care.� He said, �If you need to go to urgent care you sure don�t need to finish what you�re doin�. I�ll go tell John.� I went to the bathroom and clocked out at 12:20 PM then headed out of the building. My boss was �Johnny on the spot� with a golf cart to take me across the street to urgent care.

�I think I�m having a heart attack,� I told the young lady at the reception desk. She didn�t say, �What�s your name? Do you have insurance?� Or anything else. She immediately got up and left. Right away she returned and sat down. Then she asked, �While we�re waiting for someone to come, can I get your name?� Before I could answer there was either a doctor or an orderly motioning me to follow him. He gave me an aspirin, took my blood pressure, and began an EKG. The blood pressure was 170 over 110. Another doctor came and told someone to call for an ambulance. I told them, �Before I get into the ambulance I need to go to the bathroom.� They had me transfer myself to the gurney.

Once I was in the ambulance the young man spoke kindly to me and gave me an I.V. He told me it would slow my heart rate and lower my blood pressure. I told him I needed to be home before dark. �Why�s that?� �I received a new scope and want to check it out.� He told me about his new Nikon. Nice ambulance ride.

When we arrived at the hospital I needed to urinate again. By 5PM I had urinated ten times. Each time I voided a normal amount. I thought I was going to pee all my inside fluids away. Each time I needed to urinate I would slide off the bed and pee in a square bottle with a bent neck. Every time my heart beat went wild and hit 165 beats per minute. When I laid back down my heart rate dropped back to an irregular range of 95 to 120 beats per minute. If I lifted my arm it would go over 120.

I told Sue, �My heart muscle is fine. I exercise. It has to be the software that is having a problem.� The nurse said she never heard that before but continued, �We�re going to reboot your heart.� She gouged my chest while she was roughly using a hair clipper to clean the hair from the area over my heart. Then she put a rectangle patch slightly larger than a 3X5 card. My back met with her approval so she stuck another on my back. These pads were wired to some kind of machine standing next to the bed.

The doctor came in and told me they were going to shock my heart back to its normal rhythm. If my heart stopped there was another doctor who could fix that. If something else went wrong he had another doctor ready for that. He listed another but I don�t remember what he told me. With that he left.

About that time the nurse looked at the electronic monitoring device. She, with considerable surprise, said, �He�s normalized!� She left and came back with the doctor. He looked at the monitor and verbally agreed, �He�s normalized. I guess we don�t need to shock him.� I was asked to void again to see if my heart rate changed from the consistent 66 beats. It rose only to 85 and went right back to 68 when I lay back down.

The doctor said, �I guess you might as well go home. I was going to keep you for a few days, but you are fine.� I asked if I could go to work and he told me not to lift anything heavy. I would like to get paid to lay around, but that's not going to work in a grinding room.

RM,

That's a real compelling situation. One just never knows do they? My Dad went through this at exactly the same age but his attack was for real. The women....well they have those same exciting/good and bad days you mentioned but they live well into their 90's. I wish the same long life for you.

Glad you're home!

David

so how was your scope?

glad you are ok buddy!

Yeah...never really ready for those events. I was hunting a couple hundred miles away from my home in the big town. Had severe heart burn that got so bad I went to the local ER. A few tests and they told me I needed to go back to the big town for treatment....I asked if they meant I should drive back tonight or in the morning.... They told me a plane was on its way to pick me up - that was a life-changer...spent an hour in ICU waiting for the plane, a pastor was called in and prayed with me....

One thing is for sure - a 50+ man with any kind of chest pain gets into the ER in the fast lane!

170 over 110 is high. Especially dyastolic pressure. If you have similar readings after repeated measurements, You need to seek treatment. Hypertension in males over 40 is number one risk factor for stroke and many cardiovascular disease.

Ringman,
sounds like you were going into V Fib..

glad to hear it got better for you..

you and I are getting to the age, we are no longer bullet proof.

If we don't see you tomorrow, we'll know why...

you take it easy and get well..

did the doc's talk about the potential need of a Pacemaker to be considered?

Did they take you to Three Rivers or RVMC?

Glad to hear you're doing well.

Glad all is well. Those signs are nothing to fool with.
Today I will be going o the viewing of my former business partner and best man in my wedding. 46 , in shape, and all go. He was having issues in the night,thought them ulcer related. Bypassed a close hospital to go to a more trusted but 20 minute further one and died en route with his wife driving.

BTDT...a number of years ago ( 27, to be exact...so if you need inspiration, there it is...tis not the end of the world...)
To keep my post short, just keep an eye on symptoms, pay attention to them....and most importantly, and I can't describe this well...be prepared to just plain feel like schitt occasionally for no apparent reason... it'll gradually go away too, but pay attention to it as well, and take it easy when you don't feel like doing anything else...
Best of luck...and don't be the one to test the new equipment on!

Golly! Great to hear all is well.

Glad you came through it OK. Take good care of yourself.

Paul

Sounds like you went into A-fib; atrial fibrillation. I have the exact same problem, been dealing with it for nearly 3 years. They did 2 conversions (restarts) on me, the first lasted 45 min and the next lasted 6 weeks before going haywire again. I ended up having an ablation where they go in and zap the offending nerve with a laser; that solved the problem other than a very minor, very occasional episode. Exactly the same symptoms you described. Medications are required but I'd rather do that than the alternative.

I think you did all the right things. Good call.

I'd also offer the opinion that it will happen again. You can't ignore it either, because its very hard on your system. According to my cardiologist, A-fib really bothers some people, like me, yet other have it and don't even realize it and it doesn't interfere with their daily routine.

Glad you are okay!

glad you dodged the reaper.....we are trained to John Wayne it out, which has killed a few guys I know. lucky you got to help in time.

I also have A fib. They put in a pacemaker about 6 years ago.

Even with a pacemaker, it is a miserable feeling when it starts. It's scary, because you don't know whether or not it is going to get worse or go away.

So far, it has gone away within a few minutes, but it is an uncomfortable few minutes.

V fib, I don't know anything about, other than that it is very bad news. If you had V fib, I don't think they would have let you go home.

Just saw this thread.

Since you didn't mention anything re: follow up with a heart specialist, I'm hoping you just happened to leave that part out.

You're are not doing well until you do so, and even if they tell you that you are, you may not be. However, you gave yourself a chance.

Did they draw blood for heart enzymes and potassium and other electrolyte levels?

You go into fibrillation long enough and it may not be a heart attack that gets you. The blood pools in one of the champers of the heart and doesn't get pumped thru the body. It clots, get sent to the brain. Stroke time.

IF YOU HAVEN'T YET, GET A FOLLOW UP WITH A CARDIOLOGIST. NOW.

Glad your o.k.! 5 years ago (on my birthday) I started having a little chest pain. I thought it was heartburn so I paid no attention to it! The next morning I went to the club for the open range day! All day I kept rubbing my chest and folks kept asking whats wrong! I still thought it was stomach troubles and continued to ignore it. On the third day the pain was getting worse! By about 2am Monday morning I knew I was in trouble! I jumped in the Jeep and started looking for a hospital! There was supposed to be one a few miles away but I couldn't find it!! I gave up and started driving to the only one I knew for sure where it was! Turned out to be a heart attack! They sent me to the cath lab and while trying to repair the problem they broke a piece of the wire off in my heart!! I woke up in the middle of this and my Doctor kept saying "this has never happened before"!! I started to sit up so I could get a better view but they turned up the drugs and back out I went! Felt like someone was trying to get lose a stuck drain snake!! I remember thinking as I hit the pillow again that this was it, the last thing I'd remember before death!!

Anyway its been downhill ever since!! I'm now pretty useless!! Can't do much of anything, and it continues to get worse!

ONCE YOU LOSE YOUR HEALTH DEATH STARTS TO LOOK PRETTY GOOD!! Take care of yourselves!!! Once it happens,, there's no going back! Hunting and fishing are now just memories!!

Glory!

Best wishes on a full and speedy recovery

Glad to hear you're OK, friend.