Just looking for feedback on women ages 40-60 who suffered an acute mi and were told they sustained no permanent heart damage.
Just looking for feedback on women ages 40-60 who suffered an acute mi and were told they sustained no permanent heart damage.
Hi Jody,
Could you be more specific with your question? Are you asking 'were women told they suffered no permanent heart damage, yet know things have altered permanently now?' You might get more helpful information from the women here if you offer a little more of what is bothering you at this time. Someone here has always been through whatever subject is raised. Feel free to speak about what you truly want to know.
Welcome,
Jaynie
me again Jody,
Just have a few minutes. I looked at your profile and see you have a lot in common with most of the women showing up here. I'm sorry you had such a rocky time during your heart attack at 44. There are no words to ever make that right.....And, I agree with your assertion that if you had been a male, ER would have greased the skids to whiz you right into a heart cath lab right away.
I continue to be astonished at how many woman are coming here barely having survived acute heart attacks as they turn into their 40s.....many of the chronically misdiagnosed almost to death. (me too) I am 53 now and went through all the 'other' diagnostic testing women heading into severe cardiac distress are channeled into....GI testing, talk therapy...anything but 'hey, lets get that heart under a nuclear scanner and see what might be going on in there for real.'
I too spent 6 hours on a rock hard ER cart 3 years after acute MI, while they located my cardio's partner and he admitted me for overnight stay and next day cath. I had been ambulanced in because of previous HA history. By then I was 44 too.
Hope this helps in some way,
Jaynie
I personally suffered an acute mi in 2000 and was told the next day that my heart sustained a considerable amount of damage (EF of 23%). After completing 12 weeks of rehab and medication my EF today stands at 30%. I am a Womenheart Spokesperson since 2003 and have had the opportunity to meet many great women who like myself have suffered an MI. Alot of these women tell me they were lucky to
have no damage.
I had a conversation today with a person who has no personal experience with acute mi's and is trying to tell me that ALL people who have an acute mi have muscle damage! Just wanted to go to my best source of info.....the patient themselves!
I have a Support Group for the past four years for women with heart disease and I personally know women who have had heart attacks and tell me they have no permanent damage and their EF is 50-60%. Just wanted some real feedback to prove my point and educate this person.
Thanks so much.
Jody,
You can use me as an example - at the time of my cath in January they told me I was EF 45%. Just did a thallium stress test in late June and my EF is now 65%. Whatever happened to my heart in January is now all better.......... go figure that one!
I just got more of my records today and now know that my EF was 55% in late February when I had an echocardiogram done.
So tell your friend that not all of us are permanently damager. I have the lab reports to prove it too!
Be well,
Laura
You can add me too... I was 43 when I had my first MI. Had second at 49. Have had 11 angiograms and 4 stents place and my EF is still 50. From what I understand that is the lower side of normal but I will take any kind of normal. Hope this helps. Diane
Jody, my question is the terminology. I had on my records a serious heart attack, my LAD was 100% blocked but I was in the ER and being treated ten minutes into my heart attack. I sustained no heart muscle damage no doubt because of the early treatment. Is acute one step beyond serious or are these terms interchangeable. I do not know this.
The way I understand it, if your Troponin level is elevated, you have damage. Troponin is put out by dying heart muscle cells. It may be only a small amount of damage, but it is damage. I had a heart attack at 41 due to Prinzmetal's angina. No heart damage shows up on tests, but the cardiologist said that if my heart were dissected, you would find a tiny area of dead muscle. My Troponin level was 22.
Lisa
Wow that is an interesting piece of info...will recheck my records.
My troponin level was 34.5. I am due to go back for
testing sometime soon. I am sure there will be some kind of damage noted.My cardiologist told me the same things that Lisa explained. There is heart damage when the troponin levels are elevated.
Hugs,
Kathi
I went into SCA and had an MI on 4/26/06; got 2 stents. On May 10th, my cardiologist told me he thought I sustained no damage (so I know that is possible). That cardiologist moved out of our city (much to my dismay) so I saw his partner at my 7/10/06 appointment. He told me I had sustained heart damage and I needed a defribrilator. Had an ICD implanted on 7/18/06 after asking the cardiologist my EF, which he said was 30-35%. Didn't like this cardiologist so saw another one for the first time on 8/30/06. He did a nuclear stress test and at that time my EF was 52%. It was 52% when I had another nuclear stress test a year or so later. My cardiologist says that is "low normal," and that it is highly unusual for someone's heart function to improve that substantially between the 10th and 16th week of recovery. My current cardiologist showed me the actual films of them putting the stents into my heart and he and the former cardiologist have shown me the films showing the damage to my heart. You can see that a part of the anterior apical portion just sits there, but the rest is contracting and expanding. You might ask your cardiologist to show this to you. I still have the ICD even though they would not implant one in someone with 52% EF; I would love for them to take it out when the battery stops, but they don't want to do it since I went into V-Fib when I went into SCA. Anyway, this is a long way of saying I am certain you can have a heart attack without damage, as my first cardiologist would not have made the comment he did if it were not possible.
Hi Jody,
I'm confused now, I dug out my release form and my troponin level was 0.25, which seems a very small number compared to others. I have googled this before, it made no sense to me then either. I was told I was having an MI even though I had no pain at all, the rest followed in a blurr and I had an angioplasty and a stent. I don't seem to have any damage, I've never been able to pin anyone down and force them to explain to me why/how all this happened to me. I know I'm not alone in this either!
Grace x
Grace,
You made me look!!
In my records I show my troponin was at 0.54 in my first blood work.
Later, and this is what they based my MI on, they wrote the following: "Positive enzymes with maximal CK, which rose to 190; maximal MB, which rose to 11.1; maximal troponin, which rose to 1.94"
I'm not researching that one right now but those are my numbers :-) and they are different than yours or anyone elses. Go figure!
Laura
Troponin levels rise in the hours following an MI. At the time of the MI they can be very low. Blood has to be taken and tested later.
If a cardiologist said no damage, I suspect it was because he felt the amount of damage was so small that it would never cause a problem.
In my case, I am stuck taking a beta blocker forever just in case my heart's rhythm would be messed up from the very tiny amount of damage I probably have.
My heart stopped for nearly 5 minutes last June at 3 am due to a spasm, before that I didn't know that my "heartburn" was actually coranary artery spasms. Luckily my husband breathed for me. It took them 2 shocks to get my heart to start. I think that is considered an acute MI. They had me out for 4 days on morhine or something, I don't remember anything except why I was in the hospital instead of playing tennis. I remember them said my EF was about 25%. I had to come back a week later for another hospitalization for another spasm. They gave me very little meds since my blood pressre was 70/50. Then I was back in 6 weeks later. At that time they did a very thorough test. The doctor said that the top of my heart was deadened but my EF was approximately 60.
I'm still playing tennis, though it's weird, I did have a spasm in yoga on Sunday and I had just taken all of my meds. Luckily nitro did the trick. What a weird disease.
That's my story. I had just turned 38 two weeks earlier.
Sandy
Sandy,
So sorry you had such a dramatic spasm! I have been really lucky with mine. I can only hope it continues.
Lisa
It was dramatic, but when I hear what the women on this website went through trying to convince their doctors they were having problems, I am almost thankful. Of course I am very thankful to my husband and the firemen that saved my life.
I ended up getting my dream job at work, so that worked out for me and I am still able to exercise, which again I am truly thankful for.
Sandy
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