Posted: 1/24/2007 9:14:36 PM EDT
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I know there is another post about this in the Team forum, but wanted everyone to be able to read this. I am 34 and had a mild heart attack a few days ago. There is history in my family with heart problems, I am a little overweight, and definatly dont eat like I should. This whole experience has been a wakeup call for me and just wanted to spread the word. You dont have to be over 60 to have a heart attack. It can happen to anyone. If your family has a history of this, and or you dont eat very healthy, you are a smoker, ect. Please go get checked out, it may save your life. I just want to thank my ex for being there for me and giving our relationship another chance. Love you txwxgirl, your the greatest!!! |
Im not real sure exactly just yet what happened, I am supposed to see my doctor tomorrow and hopefully find out. I started taking new blood pressure meds last thursday, Friday through sunday i had been having chest pains in the evenings. Sunday night (monday morning at about 4 AM, i had them so bad i had to wake up my wife, it was just unbearable. So Monday I called my doctor to tell him that i thought the new meds were not working, and let him know what was going on. He took X-rays, and told me my heart was enlarged, and sent me to the ER. The doctors there told me that it couldnt have been the meds, so they ran all kinds of blood tests, and gave me an angiogram (which wasnt fun by the way). That test showed a little blockage, but he wasnt sure if that was what caused it or not. When I was 17, i had a bad case of tonsillitis. That virus spread to the muscles around my heart and I had a pretty bad heart attack then. The doctors think that there might have been damage done to my heart way back then, but they cant be sure. |
Had to kick my dad in the ass to get him to quit what he was doing outside when he had his first. 5 later and he is still kicking but only because he made significant lifestyle changes. Glad you're OK. |
Yikes! I've been on BP meds since I was early 20's, but I'm a healthy guy; my high BP is caused by work stress. Funny when I took a long vacation (2 months of time) it went back to normal with zero meds. After being back for a week I had to go right back on  Definately nothing to mess around with!
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I can definitely relate , 9 years ago also at 34 , I started to feel bad walking from the car to the job and I was huffin and puffin from the walk and had to rest when I got inside and the felt ok but if I would do anything physical my energy level would just go nothing. So I went to the E.R. and they checked my blood pressure and it was super high and after a few test including a heart cath they found a %100 blockage. So meds and diet and exercise were the treatment. Fast forward to june of 05 that when I had my first heart attack , that really sucked and it kinda felt like the scene from alien looked where the alien rips out of the guys chest , and they found %95 , %75 , another %75 , and a %35 blockages so now I have three stints . Now I can not handle ANY stress and ended up quiting my job and doing the stay at home dad thing which I love. EDIT : I have never smoked or drank but my moms dad died young from a heart attack so if you have history of heart problems in your family no matter how young you are get a checkup with a heart specialist and tell him about the family history. If they do not find anything it will give you piece of mind but if they do you can start to treat it before something bad happens. |
Strep can do serious and lifelong cardio damage, it could be related or made worse by your previous infection. |
That happened to my stepfather. He had rheumatic fever when he was a teenager, during the Great Depression. He died of a heart attack at 69. 
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I am only 28 and was in the ER last night. For the last few weeks, I've had some minor pain(call it discomfort?) in my chest/back and jaw. It never happens when I'm at the gym or anything, just when I'm sitting around watching tv or surfing the web. I didn't have a doctor, so I got some recommendations and scheduled an appointment with a new doc for tomorrow. I just figured I'd wait until then, and if things get worse between now and then I will just visit the ER. As of yesterday, I hadn't felt the pains in a few days at least, but I was short of breath on and off throughout the day. So when I got home from work and was still short of breath, I went to the ER. They did some blood work, chest xray, and EKG, and said there was no indication of heart trouble. He just told me to go home, take it easy, and see my doctor on Friday as planned. I don't know what my initial blood pressure reading was, but after being there and sitting around for a while waiting to hear the results, it was in the range of 110/65-120/70 so I think I'm fine there. I have a history of heart disease on both sides of the family, although not this young. Hopefully when I see the doctor tomorrow we can figure this out. I still think it's a heart problem, but I'm no doctor. ETA: I had strep numerous times as a kid until I had my tonsils removed, but I don't recall havng any heart trouble. I drink some, but no smoking. I've also gained 12 lbs in about 7-8 weeks due to lifting weights, so I think maybe the added mass has been enough to take what was maybe a very small issue and made it more severe. |
I have nearly constant pain from stomach acid that gets into my sinuses and lungs when I sleep. It scares me that I don't think I could differentiate the symptoms. I have a 35 year-old relative that recently had to have a quintuple bypass. He ran every day, had a 29" waist, and seemed perfectly healthy until about a year ago. Then he started having shortness of breath that just got worse and worse. The only thing he did wrong was that he had a Hardees biscuit every morning, Krispy Kreme donuts every day since his business bought them for customers, and McDonalds for the other two meals since his store was next door to one. It appears that no matter what you do otherwise, if you eat the wrong foods it can still kill you. I've cut the number of fast food meals a day I have from four down to two.z |
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Well, my doctor didnt have any results from any of my tests yet. (go figure) I didnt really eat much fast food to begin with, maybe once a week, but cutting that down to once a month probably. I just hope some of you guys take this seriously, if you think you might be having problems, or your just unsure about your health, go get checked out!! Thanks all for responding! |
There are a lot of little things you can do to decrease your risk. My wife specializes in heart care. I will ask her tonight and see what she says. Sounds like you already know about the obvious stuff; don't smoke, drink excessively, watch what you eat (no fast food!), exercise, etc. I wish you well. |
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Welcome to the club. I had my first heart attach in '99 at the age of 45. Smoked, chewed Skoal and ate bad food. Plus the family history. I had "micro-attacks" for a couple weeks until the test results came back and said I had one artery blocked about 90%. Scheduled me for an angioplasty a week later. Went to the hospital and woke up to the cardiologist telling me that the angiogram showed one artery blocked 99%, two more at 90% and a fourth at 75% so the 'plasty was called off and I was scheduled for bypass surgery in two weeks. Fast forward to July 1, 1999. Quintuple bypass lasting 6 1/2 hours. 10 hours later, I'm back in surgery again. Seems as thought the thoracic surgeon kinked one of the bypasses and actually placed another one upstream of the blockage. Three repairs (still not sure what the third one was) and another bypass later I'm back in my room recovering. Fast forward again to June 20, 2005. I'm on my way back from a business trip when "heartburn" starts to act up. It's bad enough that I'm thinking I better get it checked out when I get back into town and since I'm only about 30 minutes out by this time I can go to my regular cardiologist's hospital where my records are. "Oh, sh*t! I'm blacking out!" I have just enough time to steer off to the right side of the road when I'm gone. Next thing I know I'm waking up looking at an ER light above me. I had died on the road. Fortunately for me (let's list the miracles here), there was a volunteer fireman with first responder training right behind me. I veered right off the edge of the road as I went out, then went back left across both lanes of eastbound traffic, through the median, across two lanes of westbound traffic into a ditch and came to a stop just short of hitting some trees. Fireman says to himself "what's going on?" and pulls into the median to see if I'm alright. He gets to my car and the doors are locked of course. I'm laying on the front seat (no seat belt on). He has the appropriate tool and breaks a window. As he's doing so, a Michigan State Trooper comes along and wonders whats going on, so he stops too. They drag me out of the car, no pulse and no respiration. Trooper has a portable defibrillator in his car so they grab it and hit me. Pulse comes back and breathing resumes. Time from veering right to regaining pulse, according to them... about two minutes tops. No brain damage, no additional heart damage. Cardiologist tells me I still have "low normal" pumping function so it's all good. Apparently I had a clot that got caught in a narrowed spot. I spent another week in the hospital, two stents to be sure, and an ICD implanted. Well, that's my story. And why is it relevant here? 'CAUSE I SAID TO THE WIFE... "I NEVER HAD HAD A CENTERFIRE RIFLE BEFORE AND I'M GONNA GET ONE BEFORE I DIE (again). So I did!  Two AKs later, I'm really looking for a Garand or M1A.
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I was in the ER yesterday for chest pain that began about a month ago. My first episode of this was six months ago when my dad was in the hospital for quintuple bypass surgery. I suffered for a few days and finally went to the ER at 10:00 at night. They finally released me at 4:30 am with the news that none of the tests found any indication of a cardiac event. My family doctor said it was likely my GERD acting up. I was symptom free for five months but right before Christmas it started acting up. Yesterday I called my doctor for an appointment and he told me he wouldn't see me and insisted that I go to the ER. The results were again, no cardiac event indicated but this doctor scheduled me for a thallium stress test next week just to make sure. I'm 38 years old. |