Nothing Funny About Chest Pain At 50

apartment flood update: after renting her own steam cleaner and cleaning the carpet, and the maintenance crew rehanging the doors and reassembling the baseboard heater, it appears that life can go back to normal for my daughter. Of course, that hardly means things have calmed down around here ...


After attending my nephew's birthday party on Saturday night, I went home, played with my dog a little, and then settled down to sleep. About an hour after drifting off, I was awakened by the most intense pressure, pain and burning in my chest that I have ever felt. My mind wavered between indigestion and heart attack - and knowing that my family heart history is not the best - I opted to call 911. Soon I was surrounded by police, rescue squad personel and paramedics. My blood pressure was uncharacteristically and abnormally high - so I was whisked off to the emergency room. Three nitro pills later, I was at least able to slow down my breathing. Morphine administered in the ER brought the pain down to an almost non-exsistent level.

There is no fooling around when a 50 year old woman goes to the hospital with chest pain. There is testing, monitoring, x-raying and blood drawing that happens instantaneously. I will never complain again about going to the ER with a sprain and waiting for attention. If the staff is attending to a heart patient the way they attended to me, I won't mind waiting. The immediate conclusion was that I wasn't having a heart atttack at that minute, but may have just had one, or was gearing up for one. What followed was four days of intense monitoring (during which time I did have more instances of pain), an echocardiogram, a stress test which showed that I might have an area of the heart not getting enough blood, and finally, heart catherization.

The idea of heart catherization has always filled me with fear. The idea of putting a tube up through my femoral artery to my heart to release contrast sounded like pain to me. I've never trusted the "we give you a local" line, or the "we give you something to relax you" line. Me, I want to be out like a light. My family laughs at me, how could someone who had 3 C-sections dread surgical procedures the way I do? Let's just say, I had general anesthesia for the sections, but was awake for a later liver biopsy. Guess which procedure made my scream like a banshee and curse like a sailor?

However, now that it has been done, I have to say, the doctor and staff who performed the catherization were friendly, reassuring and gentle. Nothing was done until it was certain that the area to be opened was numb, through and through (no one was that certain of numbness for my liver biopsy). Tranquilizers I had been given actually DID calm me, but left me with a nice awareness of what was going on. And, truthfully, once I saw my heart on the monitor, I was completely fascinated. The contrast showed my arteries, the interior of my heart, and how the blood pumps in and out. The only sensation I had was some warmth, which was warned about ahead of time. Actually, I'd like some of the blood-warming stuff in the middle of winter. Feeling it travel through my body made me aware, as I have never been, of how fast and efficiently the heart pumps blood through the body. The test was over quickly, the cathether removed, and a special dissolving plug inserted in my artery. I would need to lay flat and still for about three hours, and then, treat the area with care and cleanliness - just as any surgical site. So, I can't drive for three days, shouldn't bend or lift anything. Today, the day after, I have no pain in the area at all. But the best part of the test was hearing the cardiologist pronouce my arteries as "pristine." I felt like I had just been given the Pulitzer Prize for heart catherization results. And the pains, oh they are real enough, but are most likely related to something gastric - an area of my body that has always given me trouble. As long as I know my heart is healthy, I can deal with it.

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the police, rescue squad and paramedics from Jamesburg, New Jersey as well as the staff of St. Peter's Hospital in New Brunswick, New Jersey, especially those in the ER, the Telemetry Unit and the Cardiac lab. You all made a very scary experience more bearable.