Quoted post said:Quoted message said:Just found it curious upon raising my level of walking, light
jogging, jump roping and so on, I've noticed upper chest
pains. It quickly subsides when I rest up for a minute or so.
The key point there is "quickly subsides". My bet is that if
you take your pulse, you'll find that there is some specific
rate at which it goes away.
Quoted message said:Quoted message said:But it does get painful. It does not seem to be in the heart
area, and it is on both sides of the front of the chest and
down the left arm if I really get my heart going.
Note that the actual location of the pain is not really
significant. The type of pain isn't either.
Let me tell you a story, to put that into perspective. An EMT
or an paramedic is not allowed to touch you without permission,
which means if you are able to say yes or no, you *must* say yes
or they can't. If you are unable, they have implied permission
and can assume you would say yes if you only could.
So John Doe is sitting at a bar having a beer, and begins to
experience severe pains in the chest area. Bad enough to double
him over and cause his face to be a bit pale and drawn such that
a couple people notice that he is in distress. They ask him if
he's okay, and he describes the pain. Over his objections, they
call for an ambulance, which arrives in 3 minutes and 43 seconds
(cracker jack crew :-).
John Doe tells the medics that he is having indigestion, and
doesn't want to have them doing anything that he'll get a bill
for, so *hands* *off* is the word. John Doe is beginning to
look like death warmed over too, as his face is pale and his
forehead is obviously moist.
The paramedics can't touch him... so they wait. They sit down
at the bar, and order lemonade. They get half of it down too,
before John Doe collapses on the floor, unconscious. He has
just suffered a second, more serious, myocardial infarction
(MI), commonly known as a "heart attack". He is immediately
treated, given an electro shock to restart his heart, which was
just quivering all over (fibrillation). He is transported to
the hospital emergency room, and soon transfered to a regular
room where he is wired to an ekg for a "few days" of
observation.
John Doe suffers a massive MI three days later an cannot be revived.
The funeral is 3 days later.
What's the significance? Several points of interest.
"Indigestion" is *commonly* what people think they are feeling
when they have a heart attack. If they are *immediately*
treated the consequences are greatly reduced. Those
consequences are that an artery to the heart muscle is blocked
to at least some degree, and if it is totally blocked the part
of the muscle that it supplies blood to will simply die. If it
is a major artery, and a significant area dies... the patient
is dead. But if it is a small area, and the blood flow can be
restarted, the muscle can heal up. However, during the first
few days as it heals there is a very great chance that the
process will cause the heart to become unstable due to false
electrical signals that come from the forming of scar tissue on
the heart.
That is why refusing assistance in the first place is deadly.
And it is also the reason that people who have a minor heart
attack are kept "for observation" for a few days... and
sometimes die.
*Don't* *put* *yourself* *in* *that* *situation* *unnecessarily*!
Quoted message said:Quoted message said:I've done very little if any exercise in the past. I don't
much care for it. But now that I made my peace with it, I am
stepping it up. Any comments on this?
Yeah. Cool it until you get a checkup.
Quoted message said:Quoted message said:I'm setting up a doctor's appointment ASAP, of course. And
will refrain from over working the heart until I get a clear
picture. Just wanted some ideas, whether or not it happens to
others that start off exercising after not doing so for so
long.
Once upon a time I had a cardiologist do a workup on me. He
said I needed another appointment, but with a different doctor.
The other doctor said it would be okay to put it off for a few
days, but not more than a couple weeks. He basically told me
not to lift anything heavier than my left foot until then...
Of course, the "other doctor" was a surgeon. The fact that I
could, and did, put it off for two weeks turned out to be
significant, and very unusual. Few people have that option, but
I did simply because I'd had a lot of advance warning, and some
significant training. I spotted what was going on before it was
too late. But the more common way it works is what had happened
to my younger brother a few years before me (that was my advance
warning!). He was told to lay down, and do *not* even so much
as stand up. They took him directly to surgery.
Quoted message said:This is not normal. You should get to a doctor immeadiately
and refrain from any excercise until you get checked out. The
symptoms you have, especially the pain radiating down the left
arm, could definitely be heart related and need to be checked
out. I'd be sure to have a cardiac stress test done as part of
the diagnosis.
Excellent advice. *Do* *it* *now*. Do *not* put it off for
even a few days.
The difference can be very significant. I know a couple dozen
people who've had a bypass done. When I had mine (1998) they
*all* told me the same thing: after surgery you will get
depressed, so be prepared. Except what I noticed was they all
gave me a time frame too (3 weeks, 1 week, 6 weeks, etc), and
they were all different! I thought that was odd, but didn't
understand until much later, when it became clear what had
happened.
I had two weeks to prepare for being out of commission for 3
months. I put my things in order, and basically set myself up
for a long vacation.
I had time to cover all the bases, and that is exactly what none
of those other people had been able to do. So one guy's business
went to Hell 4 weeks after he had surgery... which he knew was
happening and couldn't do a thing to avoid, so he got depressed.
Another guy's situation took 6 weeks, and someone else's took 3
weeks. That was why they all had different times to depression!
Me? I had a *wonderful* three month long vacation! I stayed
for a while with 3 different kids of mine, and didn't come home
until I had to go back to work. Depression??? I was too busy
having fun!
Early detection and treatment helps. The way to ensure that is
to spend a lot of time talking to doctors about how you will
know it's time.
--
Floyd L. Davidson <http://web.newsguy.com/floyd_davidson>
Ukpeagvik (Barrow, Alaska) [email hidden]
