Keep Us in Your Thoughts
UPDATE: 3pm :
Good news! Mom’s home. The doctors found no blockages, and are now thinking this is some kind of upper-GI thing - which would not explain the results of the enzyme tests, etc. (She had a heart attack, but…?)
This doesn’t make much sense, so I definitely need more information on what’s going on, but that’ll wait until Mom’s feeling up to explaining it to me.
Still the procedure went well, and Mom is back home. Yippee!
- - -
Now accepting: good wishes, positive thoughts, prayers, lit candles, blessings for health and speedy recovery, crossed fingers, and/or bunny feet.
My mom had a “silent” heart attack about two weeks ago - give or take. Her only symptoms were some shortness of breath and swelling of her lower legs. (Women don’t always have the classic “crushing chest pain radiating to the arm” signs of heart attack that men do.)
Since the EKG and stress test and enzyme test and cardiac catheterization show “myocardial infarction” - medicalese for heart attack with muscle damage - Mom’s going in tomorrow morning [Monday] for an angioplasty and stent insertion. I’m worried, but not as much as I could be. Mom has always lived a healthy lifestyle - no smoking, no heavy drinking, not overweight, excellent cholesterol, etc. The doc says she’s the healthiest cardiac patient he’s ever seen.
Of course, this is our mom, so she says she’s “just fine” but considering “Oh my!” is her standard phrase for anything worse than a severe laceration needing stitches but not quite reaching the level of amputation, “just fine” could be a tad misleading. 
Also rating high on the “reasons I’m not a panicky mess” list: our local hospital might be in the middle of nowhere, but it’s one of the Solucient 100 Top Cardiovascular Hospitals. [pdf alert]
Currently we’re joking about her going in for a “Roto-Rootering” and urging other women to pay attention to those “nagging” signs of heart attack.
Here’s my PSA, from the National Heart, Lung, & Blood Institute:
Women account for nearly half of all heart attack deaths. Heart disease is the number one killer of both women and men.
There are differences in how women and men respond to a heart attack. Women are less likely than men to believe they’re having a heart attack and more likely to delay in seeking emergency treatment.
If you have: overwhelming fatigue, sudden shortness of breath, and swelling of your lower legs/ankles, nausea/vomiting with or without chest pain - please call 911 or contact your doctor immediately! [ For more information.]
I’ll be out for most of the day tomorrow, but thanks in advance!
