HeartDiseaseinWomen

This is the story about my heart attack at the age of 50
and the events leading up to it which I now know were warning signs.
I hope it will help anyone who reads this to be more in tune with
their body and more diligent about taking care of themselves
by taking preventive measures.
Don't ignore symptoms out of the ordinary;
it would be better to be wrong than to experience a heart attack
and die because you think it is nothing.

In January of 1998 I came down with the worst cold I've ever experienced in my life; it
lasted well over two months. I saw the doctor two or three times and took antibiotics to no
avail; I will spare you the gross details; just believe me it was terrible.

In February of that year I celebrated my fiftieth birthday; a little traumatic but I had some
very nice celebrations at work and with my family; I felt good about it in spite of still being
sick with the long-lasting cold. Later on in cardiac rehab they asked us to look back over
the last few months and recall if we had any type of cold or other virus
or infection that just would not go away.

Not long afterward at the end of a day at work, I changed from my high-heeled dress shoes
into my outside shoes (remember this is northern Illinois) and noticed that my feet and legs
were seriously swollen. I dismissed it to being busy and walking around more than usual
that day. The next morning the swelling had gone away.

On Memorial Day weekend we made our traditional trip to the Smokey Mountains.
After all the walking in the resort town of Gatlinburg, my legs and feet were again swollen;
this time the swelling lasted for several days.

Near the end of summer I saw my family practice physician, Dr. Costabile again for another
problem unrelated to my heart, but I hadn't been seeing him regularly and hadn't had a
blood profile done in some time, so he sent me for a lipid profile as
well as some other blood tests.

A few days later his nurse called and said the doctor wanted to see me in his office
to discuss the test results. I found that my cholesterol was too high, especially the
bad cholesterol. He further said that the high cholesterol together with my diabetes
put me in a high risk group for a possible heart attack. So he gave me a prescription for
cholesterol-lowering medication and advised me to see a dietitian at Edward Hospital to
help get my diabetes under better control. Additionally he wanted me to test more
frequently and report back to him with the records of blood glucose
testing and insulin dosages.

One week later on October 2, 1998, I was at work thinking that it would be my dad's
birthday if he was still alive. He had died eighteen years earlier but seems like I felt his
presence so strongly that day; I hadn't felt like this in a while so I was all choked up with
tears. About 11:00 AM when I stood up from my desk and started to go out of my office to
take care of something, I felt a stabbing chest pain and for just a few
seconds I was gasping for breath. This event scared me and I thought of Dr. Costabile's
conversation with me a week earlier. However the feeling only lasted
for seconds and I thought I was just being melodramatic, that I likely just jumped
up too quickly, possibly also affected by my feelings about my dad.

At noon I went out to lunch to a Mexican restaurant with some of my co-workers. One
of the girls had a terrible headache and I recall thinking "I don't feel very well either."
About an hour or so later, I started having heartburn and acid reflux which kept
growing worse. I thought it was the food I had eaten for lunch, also there had been a
stomach virus going around at work. About 4:00 PM I told some of my co-workers that
I really felt lousy so I was going home. I left a note on my boss's desk since he was in
a meeting. I really felt guilty for leaving early and thought that probably no one would
believe that I suddenly got sick on a Friday afternoon.

On the drive home I had to keep the window down so that the cool damp air (it was raining)
would hit me in the face, hopefully keeping me from vomiting. The acid reflux was the
worst I had ever experienced. At home I couldn't find anything for the acid/
heartburn so I drove to Walgreen's, but the medicine did not make me feel any better. In
fact by now I was vomiting and could not keep anything down.

I went to bed because I was so sick by then that I couldn't function. Every time the acid
came up in my throat, I could feel the related heartburn in my chest. I kept having to get up
because I couldn't stop vomiting. About nine PM it occurred to me that the chest pain
seemed a little too spread out to be heartburn. The pain was in my chest, my left arm, and
around my left shoulder blade.

I decided that I would get up and go to the nearby medical center which was not a hospital
but it has a 24 hour emergency room. At least maybe they would give me something to
help me quit vomiting.

When I walked into the medical center, the man at the desk asked if I could wait a few
minutes because there were a couple of people ahead of me, so I said "Sure I can wait."

When I was called, I told him that either I had eaten something that was making me
very sick or I had a virus or flu and I wanted to see if I could get something to make
me quit vomiting. Then almost as an after-thought I told him that I was having
chest pains from the heartburn.

Of course when you mention chest pain, they take you back immediately and start
an electrocardiogram. I was laying there chatting with the nurse when the doctor walked in
and asked me what I thought was causing the pain. I told him "heartburn," then he said
"The electrocardiogram shows that you are having a heart attack!

I was just stunned; it was nothing like a heart attack, or so I
thought. Then someone called my doctor and my family while the doctors and nurses went
about trying to make me stable. They told me it was their goal to stop the pain before they
put me in an ambulance.

A while later the ambulance along with a paramedic and a nurse took me to the hospital
where a cardiologist was waiting at the emergency room door. I was
admitted and Dr. Brown did an angioplasty where he found an artery completely blocked.
He was able to open it up and put in a stent to help keep it open.

After being in the hospital for about 3 1/2 days, I was released to go home and begin my
recovery. I then went through three months of cardiac rehab where I participated
in an exercise program under the supervision of nurses and physical therapists while
having my heart and blood pressure monitored. A big part of this program was patient
education; I really learned a lot. It was also a big help to be in constant contact with
medical personnel because then I still was not feeling well and didn't know whether
certain symptoms were a normal part of the healing process or a cause for concern.

Tests showed that I had some damage from the heart attack; I have a mild case of heart
failure which can be controlled with medication and a healthy lifestyle. I have to take a
number of very expensive medications.

I am so thankful that the Lord put me in contact with Dr. Brown and all my other doctors
and medical specialists. These special, talented, intelligent, and caring people are
doing everything within their power to help me and others like me live a normal life.

Alan S. Brown, M.D., F.A.C.C.
Interventional Cardiologist

Dr. Brown is the cardiologist who saved my life that night I experienced a heart attack and
the one who has been taking care of my heart ever since.

Dr. Brown has been very active with the American College of Cardiology and the American
Heart Association where he holds and has held various offices. He is
greatly interested in prevention and has lectured in various parts of the world on
preventative cardiology. Currently he is a Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine
at Loyola University in Chicago.

Additionally Dr. Brown is program director for the Midwest Heart Lipid Tutorial which is
one of the largest training programs for the establishment of lipid clinics in the country.

I feel very privileged to have him as one of my team of doctors.

Major Risks Factors for Heart Attacks:

Uncontrollable Factors:
Race and Family History
Age

Controllable Factors:
Smoking
Diabetes
High cholesterol Levels
High Blood Pressure
Inactivity
Obesity

What Can You Do to Decrease Your Risk?

- Develop Better Food Habits.
- Pay attention to your body; if something isn't right, get it checked out.
- Be aware that heart attacks happen to women too.
- Get regular check-ups and diagnostic tests, especially as you get older.
- Exercise and fitness help you have a healthier heart.
- If you smoke, stop! This is the #1 most preventable risk factor.
- If you are a diabetic, do everything possible to get and keep your disease
under control & to keep your blood glucose at an appropriate level.
- Keep cholesterol and blood pressure at appropriate levels. Exercise and healthy
eating will help; also take medication if prescribed.
- Manage your stress, especially your reaction to stressful events. If stressful
events are out of control, get help. It could save your life.
- If you are overweight, get serious about losing for your health's sake.
Seek help from your doctor.
- If you don't get the help you need from your doctor, stop seeing him/her
and go to another one.
- Ask questions and make sure you understand what your doctor says.

Some Information from the American Heart Assoc.

Most of the studies about heart disease and heart attacks have been done on
men, consequently not a lot is known about these conditions in women. That
is a real shame because heart disease is the #1 killer of U.S. women. Many
more women die from heart disease than from breast cancer or even from all
types of cancer.

Clinicians and patients often attribute chest pains in women to non cardiac
causes, leading to misinterpretation of their condition. Both women and men
may present “classic” chest pain that grips the chest and spreads to the
shoulders, neck or arms. Women may have a greater tendency to have less
severe chest pain or to complain of abdominal pain, difficulty breathing,
nausea and unexplained fatigue.

Women may avoid or delay seeking medical care, perhaps out of denial or not
being aware of both typical and atypical heart attack symptoms.

The exercise stress test, or stress ECG, may be less accurate in women.
For example, in young women with a low likelihood of coronary heart disease,
an exercise stress test may give a false positive result. In contrast, single-
vessel heart disease, which is more common in women than in men, may not
be picked up on a routine exercise stress test. More precise noninvasive and
less invasive diagnostic tests tend to cost more. These include thallium,
sestamibi or echocardiographic stress tests.

Thank you for visiting my pages.
Now that you have read about diabetes and its complications,
including heart disease, what will you do with that information?
I sincerely hope you can use it for your own or a loved one's benefit.
Diabetes can be a devastating disease but it can also be controlled;
and many of its complications could be prevented.
Together one day we may find a cure, but until then,
we can take the information we have available
and use it to make our lives better.

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