Listen up, women.
 

A dear friend was buried today. She was in her mid-50s, had diabetes, and had been recently hospitalized for an infected cut.
But what killed her was a massive heart attack. No, I take that back, what killed her was ignorance.

Sure, she had a massive heart attack, but she didn't know it, because women's symptoms are not the same as men's, which have been drilled into everyone's heads with public service announcements, and pamphlets/literature.

The next day she complained to a friend, in passing, she felt really crappy, and said friend forced her to go to the ER, worrying it was a reaction to the infection drugs. You see, she didn't know the symptoms either.

At the ER, they asked her if she had chest pains. She said no. Then they did blood tests and confirmed the heart attack. Finally 30-odd hours after the attack, surgery and a pacemaker. She died the next day.

This has been mentioned here before, but there's a lot of work to be done educating women about heart attacks. Educate yourself, your life depends on it.

I'm so sorry about your friend, Bruce. I'll go look up the symptoms now.

Hmmm. Never knew that.

From the NIH:

http://usgovinfo.about.com/cs/health.../womensami.htm

unusual fatigue? sleep disturbance?
I've been having a heart attack for the past 15 years, then.


Sorry to hear about your friend, Bruce. But the utter lack of specificity when it comes to women's symptoms makes it very hard to be as proactive as men. Why the hell don't we come with better error codes?

Because women are better at detecting nuance and subtly, they don't need better codes?

or because the manual would be the size of the Gutenberg Bible.

I'm so sorry , bruce.

Thanks for the reminder.

This.

I also am sorry to hear about your friend Bruce; and this is something that worries me from time to time, both for myself and also for my mum. But the truth is, if I sought medical advice every time I experienced the listed symptoms for heart attacks in women, I would pretty much have to set up a permanent camp at the Doctor's.

I'm sorry to hear about your friend.

The pain thing can be deceptive. I had a heart attack myself very nearly a year ago and afterwards friends and family would ask me about the pain which I was happy to tell them was uncomfortable rather than sheer agony. Only later, when recalling my first discussions with the staff at A+E (ER) did I remember a doctor asking me to rate the pain on a scale of one-to-ten. Eight or nine was what I told them. Morphine is a wonderful thing!

We have the big "fuck cancer" meme going on here in the Cellar (and I wholeheartedly agree since a friend is losing her fight with it) but it's easy to forget that the number one cause of death for American women is coronary heart disease. It's not even close.

http://www.americanheart.org/present...dentifier=4786

I'm sorry to hear about your friend, Bruce. My condolences to the family.

Morphine is an excellent choice for heart attack victims. It decreases the hearts need for O2 as well as controlling the pain.

:yelsick:Call 911 I am having a heart attack..Or just a sleep disorder..hmmm...asthma?
There are more symptoms listed at www.mayoclinic.com. Hot flashes and anxiety is also indicated. Upper body pains are also included and may not coincidence with chest pressure. The symptoms are broad.

I am sorry about your friend Bruce. I am also very glad this has been brought to my attention. I will be sure to publish this lnfo elsewhere.

Seven years ago, I went to the ER at 3am will all these symptoms. 'Twas gallstones, combined with a panic attack about having a damned heart attack! :yelsick:

I have some of those symptoms: they're what prompted me to go to the doc and the subsequent CT scan which showed nothing.

It's scary: women worry about seeming to be a hypochondriac, but you feel like you just know something isn't right, but when immediate tests don't produce any results you start to think you might just be losing it. Of course, in my case, that's highly possible, but still...

Very sorry to hear about your friend Bruce.

Unfortunately, add that to the fact that many (particularly male) health professionals assume a level of hypochondria in women anyway, and 'bothering' them over feeling many of these symptoms seems a really bad idea.

God, fucking tell me about it. It's my experience that most doctors are dicks to begin with, but even moreso to women.

Like the time I showed up in the university clinic covered from head-to-toe in a vicious rash, and the doctor took one look, laughed out loud, and said, "Just stop using that fancy new body wash you bought with all the perfumes, you'll be fine."
"I didn't change soaps."
"Well, lotion then. Whatever it was. One of those hundred things you girls put on."
"I haven't used anything new in the last 3 years. But thanks for the tip. Can you actually look at my rash now?"

Or hey, how about the time I passed out in the Texas heat, and rather than looking at my hydration or blood sugar or anything more serious, the paramedic just kept asking if I could think of any stressful events that had happened recently, like maybe a fight with my boyfriend, or a fight with my boyfriend, or maybe a fight with my boyfriend?

is a CT scan an appropriate screening for heart disease? /doubt/

They seem to be even worse with mothers who go to them with their children. I lose count of how many times mothers I know have talked about having to basically fight to get the doctor to actually examine their child.

Happened with my SiL. She'd taken Amelia (then about 2 years old) to the docs with a cold. Doc said all was fine, give her calpol. Then my SiL wasn't happy with the way she was looking and took her back to the docs, who basically told her it was normal to be over concerned with the first child, and really there was nothing to worry about. Sorry...I say he said these things to my SiL, what i should have said was that as soon as my bro was there at the second visit he directed everything to him and would barely make eye contact with my SiL.

Six hours later Amelia was being rushed to hospital with paramedics trying to rescusitate her, after she stopped breathing because she 'd gone into a febrile fit: back arched and stiff as a board, teeth clamped down onto protruding tongue, turning blue.

Oh, no...I didn't mean to imply that. I just meant that the symptoms and an office assessment led my doctor to want to eliminate anything amiss such as a tumor, or bleeding issues from my car accident that went unnoticed in the ordinary x-ray I was given after that accident.

So I think...ok, no brain tumor. When women (well, when I) keep pushing for a diagnosis I wonder if I'm not a complete hypochondriac. I don't want to be that person. And yes, I worry that the doc is thinking I'm a hypochondriac. Yet, as was pointed out, many women just feel something is wrong. But, out of a myriad of possibilities, what exactly?

I was pushing for perimenopause and all I got was lousy anxiety. :o

well, yay for no brain tumor! hope for no heart disease! and . . . anxiety has better drugs than menopause eh?

I went thru quite a few pediatrician/fam practices before I found one that I didn't want to kick in the teeth. This one frustrates me because she works like 3 hours a week, but if you do manage to get an apt. with her she's awesome. The other docs in her practice do a good enough job at well visits, so we stay.
I like my gyno a lot too.
In general, I prefer female doctors and male nurses.


Sorry about your friend Bruce, just awful for someone so young.

Thanks for the reminder Bruce and I'm so sorry to hear about your friend, what a shocking way to lose someone.

I have just talked Mum into going to the Doctors.
She is having chest pains and shortness of breath.
I think it's stress related, but even that needs to be looked at - she is so angry all the time. Counselling (if she can get it - I'm still waiting!) or drugs would help in that case, but regardless a diagnosis is needed.

This.

We drive past 2-3 pediatricians offices to get to the decent ones that we go to now.

Sorry about your friend Bruce.