September 19, 2014
I had worked out for 30 minutes, some interval workout at home with a DVD. I finished up with a 10 min cool down of yoga. Then I had heaviness in my chest, but it went away in about 5 minutes or less. I went about my evening, fixed dinner, ate with my family and was doing the dishes, when it returned. I started to have heaviness in my chest again. It quickly worsened to pain in the chest going through to my back, radiating down my right arm. My arm became numb and I then lost function of my right hand. I told my husband, you’ve got to get me to the ER. He thought it was anxiety. We rushed to the ER, as I continued to get worse. It was a heart attack, my LAD artery (widow maker artery) had torn, a dissection. They put me on meds for the night, did a heart catherization the next day and placed a stent in my LAD artery to open it up. I went home the next day. The pain came back that night. I stayed home over the weekend, but ended up back in the hospital a few days later. The artery had torn from the bottom up to the stent they placed. Another dissection, another stent was placed. No plaque in my arteries, no high blood pressure, no high cholesterole. I didn’t have any of the risk factors. I was a normal BMI, exercised and ate healthy. I wasn’t the normal heart attack patient. Only advice I can give people is to listen to your body, don’t ignore chest, arm or upper back pain.