I know this is way off topic for GBT forums but I just can't help but relate my very serious encounter with chest pains. This forum feels much like a family to me, and as you know everyone wants to share their experiences with family. Probably everyone who reads these forum discussions is involved with regular physical activity of some sort.
How many of us have grown up with the understanding that a key symptom of a heart attack is a severe pain in the chest, particularly the left side, or in the left arm, or left side of the neck? I can tell you that is a very dangerous limitation of awareness. Over the past several months, maybe even more than a year now, I have experienced various degrees of chest pain while exerting myself, such as while walking, shoveling snow, etc. But I did not get those pains during the usual activities of building this house. That I find scary now. Those pains were only about a 2 to 5 on a scale of 0 to 10, with ten being excruciating tear jerking pain, and were always in my right shoulder. My thought, "They're not on my left side so they must not be heart related." That thinking was pure bunk and wrong, wrong, wrong! My cholesterol level has never been above the normal range for average male white American, but was higher than the medical community wants to see in diabetics, of which I am a low level one. Generally I have been quite healthy other than being maybe 10% overweight. That contributed to my thinking it can't be heart related.
I called my doctor and told him I thought I was experiencing a side effect to a new cholesterol drug I had just started. After describing the chest pains he said, "No way, get in here now." After an exam he scheduled me for a nuclear stress test for last Thursday, 7/30/09. After the test the cardiologist said I had some blockages and I better check in to the hospital for an angiogram that afternoon, which I did. They found three blockages, two at 60%, and one at 90% which they repaired with a stent. We'll monitor the other two and see if they can be kept stable or reduced with medication. There is no way to know how close I was, or was not, to having a heart attack, but it would have occured eventually. I feel quite fine now, thank God.
The lesson from all this, and what I want everyone on the GBT forums to realize, is ANY chest pain that comes on from exertion such as walking, running, shoveling, etc., very likely is a warning of some problem with your heart. Forget about the left side theory, it's bunk. If you ever experience such a pain get it checked out, the sooner the better. You just may be a walking heart attack-in-waiting. Proactive attention may well keep you around these forums for many more years than otherwise may be the case!
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