When is a heart attack not a heart attack

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Gastric reflux a good mimic with central chest pain and can radiate, I'd pop into the GP and get your blood pressure rechecked a few times. If it's periodically high it needs treatment, most pipes burst at high pressure rather than low.
Nocturnal angina ( chest Pain due to ischaemia at night) can be precipitated by sleep apnea and we all can be prone to snoring after a few / many beers.
Glad you are better though.
I used to wake up with terrible night sweats and a dozen awful diagnosis went through my mind. In the end worked it out to be Chardonnay drinking in the evening. Didn't matter if it was new world or old world, oaked or unoaked.
Now I just drink it at lunchtimes if I fancy some.

Yeah I will be checking my blood pressure each day two or three times for a while just to see if it does change at all. If I only had chest pains and sweats I might have thought it was something like this but the aching arms and almost fainting took me in another direction.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Did a doctor stick their finger up your ****? They like doing that. Apparently it tells them all they need to know

I asked them to many times but they wouldn’t - just kept asking me to get dressed and leave the other patients alone.

 

[Cwrw666]

Glad to hear you checked out ok. Over the years I've had several false alarms but one wasn't so it's always best to get checked out.
Might point out that my actual heart attack didn't have the classic pains in the chest spreading to the arms symptoms. In fact I had stomach pains mostly.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Glad you passed your MOT H.

Great news about your liver, I don't know how many units you drink a week but imagine from your posts like many here it's a lot more than the 8 units a week recommended.

Yeah, probably closer to 40 than 14.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Good to read you are OK. Was there a diagnosis?

Do you drink coffee?
A mate of mine had a bad reaction (sweating, raised BP etc) and although he had always drunk coffee now abstains.

"Your body chemistry changes as throughout life and something you have always done can suddenly become unacceptable" was the advice he was given.

No diagnosis. A bit like your mate’s feedback, the outcome was that everything is good but my age (60) is when typically our bodies start to change. I was asked to get the doctor to keep an eye on my blood pressure and maybe check my cholesterol.

I drink a lot of fresh coffee in the mornings, usually 3 or 4 large cups.

 

[Leon103]

Have you had the covid ***..... that would be it.

Only joking. Although this isn't a joking matter. I would ask for a 24 hour blood pressure monitor.

I am very fit active 41 yr old, also been active and on the top scale for fitness. Not long at turning 34 I thought I would die and now never take a little chest pain without seeking advice. It came on like a pulled chest muscle, as if I had done bench press for the first time. I had been cycling in sub zero temperatures and didn't eat straight afterwards. ( extreme activity can shut down immune system and eating can kick start it)
Pain went on for a further 4 days when I took the wife's advice. Was rushed through a&e. Ecg was raising alarm bells. A was alone on a bed when I got told I am having an heart attack and flying me to Cardiff. Luckily a consultant who shouldn't have been there saw the commotion and asked what was happening. He was able to confirm it was myocarditis, thankfully. Weeks of medication and tests continued to show something not right on the ecg. A trip to a larger hospital and further checks revealed that there were 2 partial blockages in the artery. A stent was fitted. If it wasn't for the myocarditis I would never have known, until it was too late.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Glad to hear you checked out ok. Over the years I've had several false alarms but one wasn't so it's always best to get checked out.
Might point out that my actual heart attack didn't have the classic pains in the chest spreading to the arms symptoms. In fact I had stomach pains mostly.

I was asked several times about stomach pains - maybe that’s a better indicator than aching arms?

 

[Ale House Rock]

Glad you are OK. I'm wondering if what you had was a brief episode of acute coronary syndrome. Was this not suggested to you? Its good that all your parameters came back to normal and especially that your tropinin level was not raised. This tells you that your heart muscle was not damaged. However, a sudden and unexpected interruption to the blood supply to the heart muscle can cause the symptoms you described which can resolve quite quickly without resulting in a full blown heart attack. People can also have unstable angina (which is also a form of ACS) which can occur at any time. If you haven't already, maybe worth another chat with your GP to see if there any further tests you could have.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Have you had the covid ***..... that would be it.

Only joking. Although this isn't a joking matter. I would ask for a 24 hour blood pressure monitor.

I am very fit active 41 yr old, also been active and on the top scale for fitness. Not long at turning 34 I thought I would die and now never take a little chest pain without seeking advice. It came on like a pulled chest muscle, as if I had done bench press for the first time. I had been cycling in sub zero temperatures and didn't eat straight afterwards. ( extreme activity can shut down immune system and eating can kick start it)
Pain went on for a further 4 days when I took the wife's advice. Was rushed through a&e. Ecg was raising alarm bells. A was alone on a bed when I got told I am having an heart attack and flying me to Cardiff. Luckily a consultant who shouldn't have been there saw the commotion and asked what was happening. He was able to confirm it was myocarditis, thankfully. Weeks of medication and tests continued to show something not right on the ecg. A trip to a larger hospital and further checks revealed that there were 2 partial blockages in the artery. A stent was fitted. If it wasn't for the myocarditis I would never have known, until it was too late.

I have to confess I did wonder if this might be another little surprise from Covid - the gift that keeps giving!

Not lucky for you perhaps but it does sound like you’re better off now.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Glad you are OK. I'm wondering if what you had was a brief episode of acute coronary syndrome. Was this not suggested to you? Its good that all your parameters came back to normal and especially that your tropinin level was not raised. This tells you that your heart muscle was not damaged. However, a sudden and unexpected interruption to the blood supply to the heart muscle can cause the symptoms you described which can resolve quite quickly without resulting in a full blown heart attack. People can also have unstable angina (which is also a form of ACS) which can occur at any time. If you haven't already, maybe worth another chat with your GP to see if there any further tests you could have.

Thanks, I’ll look into that. When I was a Director of IT I used to make the engineers investigate and try to find the root cause of a technical failure rather than just fix it. It’s not as easy with the human body unless you have “House” as your doctor (medical series with Hugh Laurie if you don’t know it).

 

[RoomWithABrew]

A mate of mine had a bad reaction (sweating, raised BP etc) and although he had always drunk coffee now abstains.

=Caffeinism

 

[RoomWithABrew]

Yeah I will be checking my blood pressure each day two or three times for a while just to see if it does change at all. If I only had chest pains and sweats I might have thought it was something like this but the aching arms and almost fainting took me in another direction.

That can occur with severe reflux but no ECG change and no Troponin change especially if they checked Troponin T is good indicator of Non Cardiac cause.

 

[MashBag]

No diagnosis. A bit like your mate’s feedback, the outcome was that everything is good but my age (60) is when typically our bodies start to change. I was asked to get the doctor to keep an eye on my blood pressure and maybe check my cholesterol.

I drink a lot of fresh coffee in the mornings, usually 3 or 4 large cups.

My vote is the coffee.

... And do your own research on cholesterol. It doesn't add up for me. I will not be reducing my cholesterol or medicating for it.

"the clot thickens" is a good read.

 

[Leon103]

My vote is the coffee.

... And do your own research on cholesterol. It doesn't add up for me. I will not be reducing my cholesterol or medicating for it.

"the clot thickens" is a good read.

Will have to read it but a summary may be handy before I waste any time

 

[Benfleet Brewery]

Yeah, probably closer to 40 than 14.

In the 1970's when the Chief Medical Officer first decided to interfere with our drinking habits the UK recommendation for a male was to not exceed more than 56 units per week. You're not drinking too much, you were just born 50 years too late

 

[Clint]

I'm cutting back to 55...

 

[Clint]

That would actually mean the intake of chips,pork pies and the odd trifle could increase by 14%.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

In the 1970's when the Chief Medical Officer first decided to interfere with our drinking habits the UK recommendation for a male was to not exceed more than 56 units per week. You're not drinking too much, you were just born 50 years too late

I was always old-fashioned and a bit behind the times. Seems I’m no different when it comes to drinking!

 

[Chippy_Tea]

In the 1970's when the Chief Medical Officer first decided to interfere with our drinking habits the UK recommendation for a male was to not exceed more than 56 units per week. You're not drinking too much, you were just born 50 years too late

I'm cutting back to 55...

New poll open - How many units 2023 [poll 3]

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

New poll open - How many units 2023 [poll 3]

Oh no, another chance to embarrass myself!