part 1

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I started writing this blog post sometime in July but could not bring myself to post it. I’ve finally decided to go public with my health condition. It is important to get this message out. If it can help even one person take their heart health seriously, I will have achieved my goal.

Much has transpired this past month. For most desi’s the biggest is the Indian cricket team winning the T20 Cricket World Cup. But for me this isn’t the most important event. It is the fact that I am here sitting and penning about my harrowing, and quite frankly, life altering experience. What I went through during the past one month, warrants a blog post. Not just because of my experience. It has been nothing less than traumatic. But also for all my age 40+ women friends. We need to be aware, we need to know, we need to act. I’m lucky to be here to write about this. But if any ONE of the things that happened hadn’t happened, in that exact sequence, I wouldn’t be here today. I wouldn’t be here today.

What the hell happened, Lopa? You ask – I had a massive heart attack. Yes, a HEART ATTACK! Just for reference, I’m a 49 year old woman who is fairly fit and eats fairly healthy. Before I get into my experience, I want to underscore that the symptoms a woman experiences during a heart episode can be drastically different from what a man experiences.

Early one morning sometime in the first week of June, I wake up to a little discomfort. I can’t go back to sleep even when I try. But this is quite a common occurrence for me. Insomnia is so common amongst us perimenopausal women, isn’t it? So, I decide to get up and take the dogs out to the backyard. As I do that a painful stabbing pain shoots through my chest. It lasts for a few minutes. I ignore it. I can’t dwell on it. I have a million things to do.

How it pans out

With house guests, my husband’s incessant work travel and the son’s graduation party to plan, there is no time to fall sick. I go about doing all that I need to. All the while, I realize the burning in my throat is getting worse when I eat. So, I start eating less. When that doesn’t help, I switch to eating only soft foods, thinking it will help. I attribute all my symptoms to a relapse of GERD (gastro esophageal reflux disease). I was diagnosed with GERD eight years ago. So when I continue to feel food getting stuck in my esophagus, I ascribe the severe chest pains to hyper-acidity. I also ascribe it to the lack of proper peristalsis of the food pipe. HOW WRONG I AM!

This goes on for over 20 days. In the meanwhile, I attend parties, do groceries, cook, clean…heck I even work out. The pain comes and goes and comes and goes. When in pain I double over and wait for it to subside and then go about my day. Just in case you are wondering why I don’t go to the doctor….well…I DO.  I visit my primary care and a gastroenterologist. No doctor even gives us an inkling that it is my heart. I even undergo an endoscopy (cos we think the symptoms are all gastro related). They put me under and hook me up to a heart monitor during the endoscopy. But nothing indicates that my heart is giving up. All vitals remain normal.

The Day of

July 1 – Chest pains start at 7 am. It is just my son and I at home. My husband is in Florida. The pains are getting more intense. They are also longer in duration compared to the past 20 days. Today, it just won’t go away. I call the doctor’s office. My gastroenterologist can give me a muscle relaxant which, I hope, will give me relief. My first call to the doctor is around 10 am in the morning. I finally speak to him at 5.15 pm all the while in pain. After hearing me out, the doctor asks me to go to the hospital. He tells me to get a complete heart work up as he will need to “rule out” the heart to further investigate my gastro issues. 

I am still unsure of whether I need to go to the hospital. But with the doctor urging me to go, my friends insisting and the pain not subsiding, I decide to go in. Thank god cos if I didn’t it could prove to be fatal.

Read about what ensues at the hospital in my next post…