On the way to dropping the kids off at school, you begin to feel some discomfort you haven’t felt before.
Thinking that it is just indigestion from that breakfast you woofed down this morning, and soreness from holding popsicle sticks for four hours while working on your child’s science project, you press on.
After coming home, you go to lay your baby down for a nap and feel a pain in your shoulder. Could this be something serious? One woman would tell you yes, from experience pretty close to the chest.
Twitter user @gwheezie has had a tweet blow up after she had experienced a heart attack, warning women that symptoms in women for a heart attack differ from men.
Not realizing at first what was happening, @gwheezie went about her daily business until things got really bad, nearly taking her life.
She only survived because she called 911 when she started sweating and vomiting, knowing that something dangerous was underfoot.
After being rushed to the hospital just in the nick of time, @gwheezie discovered that she had an almost completely blocked artery, writing:
“I want to warn women our heart attacks feel different. Last Sunday I had a heart attack. I had a 95% block in my left anterior descending artery. I’m alive because I called 911. I never had chest pain. It wasn’t what you read in pamphlets. I had it off & on for weeks.”
The pain ran across my upper back, shoulder blades & equally down both arms. It felt like burning & aching. I actually thought it was muscle strain. It wasn’t until I broke into drenching sweat & started vomiting that I called 911.
— gwheezie (@geewheezie) December 9, 2018
The “nurse and older woman”, as she described herself in another tweet, said she originally just thought she had some minor muscle pain from helping her friend clean out their barn.
Ignoring the symptoms as acute, the Twitter user “took Motrin” and “put a warm pack” on her shoulders.
Then to add insult to injury, the distressed nurse drove 6 hours to help her mother who is 90 the mere day before the heart attack occurred, possibly exacerbating the issue.
The nurse’s pain wasn’t typical of what you would see in movies of an individual dramatically grasping their chest and falling to the floor.
She tweets that the “pain ran across my upper back, shoulder blades & equally down both arms. It felt like burning & aching. I actually thought it was a muscle strain.”
The pain ran across my upper back, shoulder blades & equally down both arms. It felt like burning & aching. I actually thought it was muscle strain. It wasn’t until I broke into drenching sweat & started vomiting that I called 911.
— gwheezie (@geewheezie) December 9, 2018
Since posting her horrifying journey to social media, the post has accrued over 70,000 likes, and almost 40,000 retweets, spreading the word about women and heart attacks.
Medical News Today reports:
“Women are less likely to survive their first heart attack than men. This may be because the symptoms differ between the sexes. Women are more likely to have a “silent” heart attack or display unusual symptoms.”
Experts say that female biology may inherently have risk factors that make heart attacks more prevalent.
Women with certain diseases that are not present in men, such as polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), are more at risk for experiencing heart complications.
Research shows, according to Medical News Today, that women generally have symptoms for several weeks before a heart attack, citing a study that shows 80% of women had at least one symptom a month before their episode took place.
Don’t ignore what your body is telling you. If you have been experiencing neck, back, jaw or shoulder pain get it checked out.
Tightness in the chest and shortness of breath may be from indigestion, but it could be a sign of something much worse.
A symptom that people may be less aware of is fatigue or trouble sleeping. If before you were clocking in a solid 8 hours of shut-eye, and all of a sudden seems like you can’t get a good six in, your heart may be to blame.
We are not medical professionals, and suggest that all information and symptoms be discussed with a qualified healthcare provider.
With around 735,000 people in the United States suffering from a heart attack every year, according to the Center for Disease Control, it is not something that should be taken lightly.
In one of @gwheezie’s closing tweets she writes that she was “lucky” to have survived, and that the medics acted quickly to save her life.
I was lucky, I had no idea what hospital to go to, the female medics who picked me up took me to a hospital that does cardiac caths, i had 4 stents placed an hour after I got to the er. That was Sunday. I was discharged thurs & at my daughters house & back to tweeting.
— gwheezie (@geewheezie) December 9, 2018
If you are a mother, it is a good idea to go over with your children how to call 911 in an emergency, and what constitutes an emergency.
A child may feel the need to call 911 when they see they are out of popsicles, or their brother falls off his bike, so clarifying with kids is pertinent.
Moms are often under a lot of stress with daily activities and responsibilities. It is easy to ignore symptoms you have because you “don’t have time” or “don’t think it’s that bad.”
You are worth taking a few moments out of your day to ensure a long life with your family. Don’t become another statistic. Talk with friends and family about heart attack symptoms in women and be aware of what your body is telling you.
Pleas let us know in the comments section if you have ever had an unsuspecting heart attack, and what symptoms you experienced beforehand.