September 2, 2012
Very Happy to have found this site! For a long time, I thought I was the only one out there that had a SCAD episode until now after reading I’m not the only one. Last year June 2010, age 38 with no health problems, no family history of heart problems or other major medical problems to be concerned of. I woke up one Saturday, felt fine. Started with my normal routine in the morning, coffee, started some laundry, had breakfast then went to the gym. Other than feeling a little tired once getting to the gym, I felt fine! Just before getting on the eliptical machine, I became very exhausted. I thought I was just being lazy & trying to talk myself out of being at the gym that day being it was the weekend & the weather was just perfect out. As I talked myself into staying at the gym for a little bit , I jumped on the eliptical machine and started my usual workout. No more than 3 minutes of being on the eliptical my Rt arm became very week to where I felt like I had no strength to hold the bar, my chest became tight as if I had something heavy sitting on my chest. I began to think, ok Im too tired to work out today so I decided to go back home where my boyfriend was. On the way home the heaviness was still in my chest, I started to worry… not know what this was. Once getting home 15 min later, I walked in the door, sat on the couch. My boyfriend at the time asked what was wrong? I said nothing, I was just tired & had some heaviness in my chest. I told him not to worry, I was just going to rest on the couch while he got ready for work. He knew something wasn’t right, ended up calling work to say he was going to be late. He ended up taking my to the ER. I got the the ER at 1:30 that after noon, after numerous testing, they couldn’t find anything wrong with me. The heaviness in my chest went away while in the ER, I said I feel so much better I’d like to go home now. They were hesitant on letting me home. They wanted to run more test, Scans, EKG’s and so on. By 4pm they decided to admit me being my Troponin level was slightly elevated and no one knew why?. I still felt fine after they admitted me, Had no symptoms of anything, chest felt fine until around 6 pm my chest started to feel as if something really heavy was sitting on it, almost as if a truck was on it. My boyfriend was by my side, nurses & doctors were there also, before I knew it I was being rushed down for an angiograhm. I did not learn until the next day waking up in ICU that I had a heart attack just before being rushed down for the angiograhm the night before. After hearing all this, I was not believing any of it, just could not wrap my head around the thought that I had a heart attack and even better that no one could explain to me why this happened to me. They could not find one reason why this happened to me, and had left them all stumped also. I was in the hospital for 2 1/2 days, sent home with lots of medications. Instructed to follow up with cardiologist and go to cardiac rehab. I followed all there instructions! Took meds, went through 12 wks of cardiac rehab, followed up with cardiologist. 5 months after my SCAD episode, I asked my cardiologist if I could stop taking all the medications being I felt horrible on them ( very tired on them ) I was taking 325 mg aspirin 1 x day, Plavix 75 mg 1 x day, Metoprolol 25 mg 1 x day & Simvastin 20 mg 1 x day. I’m not one for taking medications unless abosolutely needed. My BP is normal to low, my cholesterol is good. I workout 3-4 x a week. Long story short, The cardiologist Ok’d me stopping all medications with one exception to continue taking a daily aspirin of 81 mg & continue to workout. As of today, thank God, I’ve not had any more episodes, and hope I never experience that again. I’m thankful to be here & back to my daily routine. I’m very thankful for my boyfriend( My ANGEL ) who I believe saved my life that day. I told him I’d be ok, I’d just go lay down & rest that day & I’d be fine. He should go to work & not worry. Instead he listed to his gut & took me to the hospital. I still think, what if he went to work, I fell asleep, home alone & this happened?! I’m thankful to share my story with others, I’m hoping to learn as much as I can about SCAD, be a part of whatever it takes to learn about this mysterious thing that happens to some of us with no reasons why.
I too want to get involved with any research, talks, seminars, meet with other that have experienced what I went through, I’d like to be there for someone else who wants to share there story or just talk about it!
I believe there’s a guardian angel watching over each of us!!
Ann