Monday, October 08, 2007

Heart Attack

A week ago last Saturday I had a heart attack. At the time I didn't even realize it was a heart attack. I was getting ready to go out for the evening and suddenly felt clammy and a little nausea. Then it passed.

Granted, I still didn't feel that great afterward but I can't say that I felt like I needed to go to the hospital. We decided to stay in for the evening. It was midnight before I decided that something was obviously wrong and that I needed help. In the emergency room I was told I had a heart attack.

I am sharing this information because until this event occurred, I had no idea what a heart attack felt like. Being a somewhat typical guy, I think I need to be unconscious or have a limb hanging on by a thread before I would consider going to the emergency room. I always thought a heart attack would "knock me to my knees." Mine didn't.

Time is the most critical factor in a heart attack. Delaying getting help results in heart muscle loss and as I now understand it, heart muscle loss is permanent. The good news for me was that the muscle loss was minimal.

I was lucky.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

WB, thanks for sharing your experience. I too would have thought that a heart attack is more obvious. Get well soon!

Anonymous said...

Get well soon!

Jessie Newburn said...

Be good to yourself and let others be generous and a bit over-protective of you for a little while. Big hugs to you, wb, as you recuperate and re-energize yourself.

Hayduke said...

Yikes, wb. I'm glad to see you're OK, all things considered. Recover...and then get back to blogging.

FreeMarket said...

Holy Cow! Glad you're OK. Now stop eating meat. Seriously.

Anonymous said...

Glad to hear you're Ok!

Anonymous said...

Glad to hear you're ok. The ICU post had us all worried, and it's good to know you are well.

RedWrites said...

Thank you for posting this. The more we can educate one another about heart disease, the greater our chances of saving lives. Glad you are well - take it easy :)