My 45 Year-Old Husband's Heart Attack Looked Nothing Like What You See on TV

Last Friday my 45-year-old husband had a heart attack.  Thankfully he survived and is on the road to recovery.  I'm sharing our experience with you because his heart attack looked absolutely nothing like what I thought a heart attack would look like.

I've seen many people have heart attacks on TV shows or in the movies.  People gripping their chests, moaning softly and collapsing to the ground.  I've learned about heart attacks during education sessions at conferences or during CPR training at work.  The picture painted was someone having discomfort in their chest possibly radiating through their left shoulder and down their arm.  Maybe its because of the pictures painted for me on TV, but the image in my head was always of a dull pain.  The person's face scrunched up in discomfort.  A little bit of moaning or wincing.

That's not at all what my husband looked like on Friday.

I came home from work to find my husband pacing in the hallway.  He said that he had shoveled snow and then taken a shower.  His asthma had acted up so he took a puff of both his inhalers, but he was still having trouble catching his breath.  We thought that maybe if he laid down for a little bit he could relax and catch his breath.  When he laid down in bed his nose began running.  Sitting up, he blew his nose and instantly had an  incredibly intense headache.  Intense doesn't even describe the pain.  He felt as if his head was going to explode.  He was sitting on the bed gripping the sides of his head with both hands rocking back and forth moaning loudly.

He asked me to warm up his Rice Bag (a flannel pouch filled with rice that we heat up in the microwave to serve as a heating pad).  That took five minutes.  I brought it to him.  He was laying on our bed in the fetal position rolling around still gripping onto his head.  We laid the Rice bag over his head.  Suddenly he popped up into a sitting position throwing the Rice Bag across the room.  He started screaming, "It hurts!  It hurts!"  What hurt?  He told me that it felt as if someone was stabbing his left shoulder with a knife.

My husband has suffered through years of chronic pain which at times has been intense stabbing pain.  There have been times when he's sneezed or twisted slightly and an intense pain has popped up in a random part of his body.  So at this point I'm assuming that he had pulled a muscle or pinched something or thrown his back out by rocking on the bed.  His pain has been bad before.  I tried to get him to lay back down and prop him up on some pillows so that he was not laying flat.  That did not help the pain at all.  He couldn't stay still.

He decides to go sit in his recliner in the basement.  On his way to basement, with me following, he stops in the kitchen.  The pain is now moving down his left arm.  That's the first moment that I think this could be a heart attack. I asked him if I should call 911.  But our minds go back to all of the times that his body has hurt before and the times that we've gone to the ER and it has been nothing.  We decide that we shouldn't call.  This has to be a pain issue.

We get to the basement.  For a few minutes things are very chaotic.  My husband is bouncing from the recliner to the couch back to the recliner tossing pillows and remotes and blankets continuing to scream and wail in pain.  He can't get comfortable.  The pain is not going away.  There are brief moments of calm during which I again suggest calling 911, but he's worried about the cost, about it being nothing and about the fact that we're supposed to be going out for dinner with our daughter.  The calmness passes and he returns to screaming in pain.

At this point he is laying back in his recliner, still screaming and crying.  I'm trying to plug in the heating pad and prop him up with pillows.  His conversation is beginning to not make full sense.  I get him to pause and look me in the eye.  With wide eyes he screams at the top of his lungs, "I don't know what is happening to me!"

That's the moment that I grab my phone and call 911.

The 911 operator told me to have my husband stay still and wait for the paramedics.  Instructions which I communicated to my husband who is now sitting in his recliner breathing heavily and sweating.  I run upstairs to open the door and move the 20 bags of groceries I had carried in from the car 15 minutes earlier and are laying on the floor in the kitchen and family room.

Next thing I know, my husband, who has never been one to follow directions in these situations, is upstairs trying to pack a bag, grab his phone charger and change his clothes.  I get him to sit on the couch while I put on his socks and shoes and we wait for what seemed like forever, but I know was only a few minutes.  He is still in a lot of pain shifting from side to side, but he is much calmer.

When the paramedics arrive, they check his vitals.  His blood pressure is high (which is to be expected with how much pain he was in), but everything else seemed normal.  The paramedic feels around his back and shoulder where my husband said the pain was originating.  Their initial thought was a pinched nerve from shoveling, (My next thought is, "Crap, he's going to kill me for calling 911 and its only a pinched nerve.) but that they would take him to the hospital just to be sure.  They ask if my husband is able to walk to the ambulance.  He says yes and out the door they go.

I put on my shoes, gathered my purse and a book, put away the frozen food items and casually made my way out to my car which is parked on the street.  The ambulance has pulled up to the curb directly in front of my car.  I can see a lot of movement in the back of the ambulance and assume that they are hooking him up to some monitors.  I send several text messages to family.  I picked a play list to listen to during the drive.  And then one of the paramedics gets out of the ambulance and approaches my car.  I roll my window down.

"We have a change in plans.  Your husband is actively having a heart attack.  He's already been given medication and is being monitored.  We're going to be going to Forbes instead of East.  I'll be going with lights and sirens so please don't try to follow me."

Did I just hear him right?  Was this really happening?  My husband is only 45 - how is he having a heart attack? But in fact he was at that very moment having a heart attack.

The ambulance took off with lights flashing and siren blaring.  When I arrived at the ER, I had to wait awhile, but I was soon escorted back to where my husband was laying a gurney hooked up to many wires and beeping machines. There were a lot of people in the room.  A LOT!  I was told that I had made the right decision to call 911 and in fact we had caught it early which was a very good thing.  At this point, my husband was stable and we were waiting for the Cath Lab to be cleaned.  The Cath Team had literally just finished with another patient and were waiting for us.

My husband and I both said multiple times in the ER, "I didn't think it would hurt this bad."  One of the nurses had the line of the night - "Well, it is called a heart attack and not a heart tickle."  So very true!

There is so much more to tell of this story, but I'm going to stop here for now.

My reason for sharing our story is to let others know what a heart attack can look like.  I don't know what image you have in your mind.  Obviously, not all situations are going to be the same; however, as I've said before, this is not AT ALL what I pictured.  I thought we were dealing with a pain flare up . . . until my husband looked me in the eye and screamed, "I don't know what is happening to me."  That is the moment that continues to play over and over in my mind.

People have told us that it was a good thing we called 911 when we did.  That we didn't wait to see if the pain subsided.  That I didn't attempt to take my husband to the hospital myself.  There were many reasons why we were hesitant to call, but in that moment of pure chaos I just knew we needed help.

My prayer is that you never have to deal with a loved one having a heart attack, but if you do may you feel a little more prepared should his or her symptoms resemble those of my husband.

Thumbs Up following a successful trip
to the Cath Lab!

We are thankful for the care we received at Forbes Hospital!