"I had a heart attack during a treadmill test, with a doctor and nurse right there in the room"
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Thanks for sharing your horrible experience.
I just don't understand why doctors, including cardiologists, who REALLY should know better, still ignore symptoms of a heart attack, when the patient is a woman.
Heart attacks are the NO. 1 cause of death for women and doctors still aren't paying attention.
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A Woman's Heart: Symptoms of Heart Attack
http://womenshealth.about.com/cs/heartdisease/a/sympofheartatta.htm
Every year hundreds of thousands of women die as the result of a heart attack or other cardiovascular disease. What many people, including many healthcare professionals, don't realize is that the symptoms of heart attack in women are often different than in men. Women are more likely to experience nausea, dizziness, and anxiety as symptoms that indicate a heart attack.
Chest pain-may also include back pain and/or deep aching and throbbing in one or both arms.
Breathlessness and/or inability to catch your breath when waking up.
Clammy sweating.
Dizziness--unexplained lightheadedness, possible blackouts.
Anxiety--unusual nervousness, feelings of impending doom.
Edema--fluid retention and swelling usually of the ankles or lower legs.
Fluttering--rapid heartbeats, palpitations.
Nausea--gastric upset.
Feeling of heaviness, such as pressure-like chest pain between the breasts that may radiate to the left arm or shoulder.
Cardiovascular disease is the number one cause of death in women and it is the most preventable cause of death. Women should pay particular attention to these symptoms and seek immediate advice from a healthcare professional if these symptoms occur.
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WOMEN: PRINT THIS OUT AND SHOW IT TO YOUR SCEPTICAL DOCTOR.
Thank you for pointing out the lesser known symptoms of heart attack.
We're now finally starting to see doctors paying attention to heart disease in women.
My story has a happy ending - my heart attack was 14 years ago, and now at the age of 62, I'm living a normal life, with medication and good habits: keeping my weight down, exercising (Curves for Women and walking). Retiring from a stressful job has also worked wonders.
I've had several of those symptons over the last five years. Went through a full gamut of tests; Holter Monitor, cardiac ultrasound, etc. Cardiologist said there was no underlying heart disease. Even though I am VEY overweight, I have always had normal cholesterol and blood pressure, even during my four pregnancies.
Before all the testing, when I was having heart palpitations, my regular doctor put me on some medicine that was supposed to prevent palpitations; I had them anyway, so he took me off that. He also put me on Warfarin; I hated the way it made me feel. After the Cardio guy told me there was no disease, I told my regular doc I wanted OFF the Warfarin. I told him I'd take an 81mg aspirin everyday instead, which I had been doing, before the Warfarin. He agreed, and I haven't had any real problems since.
I still have the swelling in the ankles, but the palpitations almost never happen anymore. I'm pre-menopausal, though, and they only usually happened when I was ovulating, so I always though they were hormonal, anyway.