December 10, 2016
Hello, I’m Terri. I’m 59 years old. On a Friday morning November 18th,2016, as I was getting ready to pick up my grand babies from school I began to experience an ache in my shoulder, then my chest as it moved over to my right arm. The ache never turned to pain, but I knew this was nothing I have ever felt before. Once the ache was felt in my jaw I figured I must be having some sort of heart attack.
I called my husband who came home and drove me to the hospital. Every test they gave me, including the first enzyme test came back negative. EKG, x-rays, my lungs were clear as I had been coughing from bronchitis for 3 weeks prior so they checked for clots.They also did a CAT scan and as they were doing that, I had that terrible ache once again. By this time I was back in the ER room where I started, talking to a very kind Doctor who said it wasn’t a heart attack and I could go home. I asked if this happens again should I not come in? He said to come in anytime I feel I am having chest pains. Better safe than sorry.
As I was calling my husband back to come get me, a nurse practitioner came in and decided to keep me another half hour for another enzyme test. After waiting half an hour they took more blood and did the test. I’m getting dressed and ready to leave when she returns and tells me my numbers were beginning to rise and that means I am having some kind of heart attack. Luckily this lady decided to do another test to make sure before sending me out the door. That was on Friday.
They put me on meds in the hospital and did a cardiac cath on Monday and found that I had SCAD. They also said that it was healing on it’s own so I didn’t need a stint put in. I am now in cardio rehab but until I found this site I really had no idea about this disease.