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MY MIRACLE : Spontaneous coronary artery dissection

Helen63
0 Recommendations

Hello,
I would like to share my story. I will try to keep it short.
I was 43 years old at the time...a mother of 3 grown children and the worlds most beautiful grand daughter

In Sept of 06 on a wed morning I got up and had plans to go hot tubing before heading to work.. ( I was in pretty good health a bit overweight but not obese 5'6" about 185 and I did smoke) I was on my way to the hot tub and started to feel a bit of nausea.. I thought "hmmm maybe I better eat something?" I stopped and got a coffee and a few doughnut holes. When I got to the hot tub the nausea had increased quite a bit ..after being in the tub about 1 hour I flew to the bathroom and started vomiting violently for at least 15 minutes...now the pain was coming from the upper chest right between my breasts. I got dressed and went into work..I was in the Pharmacy for about 1/2 hour and ended up in the bathroom vomiting again..I was sitting on the floor at work and my pharmacist said to call my doc (we thought maybe the stomach flu, acid reflux or something) I drove myself about 15 miles to my doctors office and by this time I was crawling into the office feeling like I was giving birth to "Alien" through my chest..they put the EKG on me and all hell broke loose my PA says to me "you are having a heart attack of some kind" I was like "What the hell are you talking about" ended up at local hospital via ambulance 10-15 people pulling and poking at me I was starting to freak out) someone said Cath-lab to me and I started to have a anxiety attack (I have been a State Certified Pharmacy Tech for 9 yrs now) so I understood everything they were talking about ..I had to force them to give me Versed because I was flipping out and did not want to be awake when they put in the Cath...when I came to the cardiologist said to me "I have to send you to the Heart Center at Spectrum Health because I do not know what to do with you ...You have what is call "Spontaneous coronary artery dissection aka SCAD( my right coronary artery was twisting and ripping, inner was ripped, middle was in process of twisting ) he said we must hurry because if middle finishes twisting and proceeds to rip you will die" There was no blockage of any sorts at all... I was totally stunned and in shock because I still had no idea why. I was place in ICU at Fred and Lena Meijer Heart Center here in Grand Rapids MI ..I became a freak show to all of West Michigan Heart. No one had ever experience a SCAD patient that lived..They were pumping blood thinners and tons of other stuff through my IV and the blood was flowing right back out at the site of the Heart Cath..(what a mess) for 6 days I was a special guest in ICU ...they went back in through the Cath on the 6th day with intention of placing a Stent but to their total shock ..IT WAS TOTALLY GONE...healed without a trace....Now they really had no idea what to do with me..I was a freak (LOL)..
After extensive research into my medical, mental, and life history they came to the best conclusion they could...Years and years of suppressed stress and anxiety from a 20 year marriage of mostly "hell" (divorced now 4 years) and keeping it from everyone by wearing this "mask" of a perfect marriage and sticking my head in the sand...my body could no longer take it...They say "Stress can Kill" they mean it....
I now no longer smoke and most importantly I no longer allow anyone to walk all over me and I say what I feel when I have to and I have lost 55lbs (YEAHH ME!!) ....I have had a few moments of some high anxiety and ended up back in ER but there were no signs of it happening .....so I live each day to the fullest I can and pray it will never happen again...
Thank you for listening and if anyone has any insight or ideas on this please let me know
HUGS
Helen

Explore topics in this discussion:

Artery dissection Anxiety Heart disease Pain Acid reflux Heart attack Aspirin Stent Stress

5 replies

NewAllie

Wow helen, What a story! The cause you mention heard so frequently here and also felt by me. What a miracle. I'm so glad you're around to share it. Love, Allie

laurahc

Hi Helen,

Wow, you have a miracle story indeed!

I had a heart attack and right coronary artery SCAD back on March 30th, treated with six stents. No risk factors, no family history, but did have a lot of work stress the Friday before my Monday AM heart attack. What you said about stress is so true!

Congrats on your weight loss and all the other positive changes you've made, and thanks for sharing your story.

best wishes,
Laura

Sunshyne

Helen,

Thanks for sharing your story. I am glad that you are able to tell it. SCAD is a very rare disorder that needs to have more awareness. Sadly, my mother passed in 2002 from SCAD and ever since I have been trying to find as much info as I can about it. I do know that she was under a tremendous amount of stress prior to her passing. I will definitely be living my life to the fullest and do my best to live as stress free as possible in her name.

All the best,

Sunshyne

Ecksunbeam

Dear Helen,

I don't know a thing about SCAD, but that is quite a story! A Miracle, indeed!

You've answered a question for me, however, that I've had for nine years. When I had my HA, my family told me there was so much blood on the sheets I looked like an accident victim. I have never been able to figure out where all that blood came from.

I find your connection between SCAD (or any HA) and an abusive marriage quite interesting. I personally feel there is a strong emotional/metaphorical component to heart disease that is not addressed as adequately as it should be. When we are experiencing symptoms, I think everyone needs to ask themselves, What is going on in my life (and what do I need to change) that is contributing to this? It sounds to me like you literally BLEW!

Thank you for being so honest and forthright. I wish you a happy life.

May the Blessings Be!

Sherrie

mmuff

Hi Helen
Your story sounds pretty similar to mine where I experienced symptoms and tried to talk myself out of it being very serious and finally decided to drive myself to my sisters about 1 1/2 miles away. By that time I was on my way I had planned to go to the fire dept if she wasn't home but she was and after taking a tums and an aspirin with no relief she drove me to the ER. My symptoms by that time were heart burn/pressure in my chest and I was feeling very tired and the strangest of all was my elbows were very achy like arthritic feeling. they whisked me into a room and did an ekg. When the nurse went flying out of the room I knew I was in trouble. Soon there were people all around me and a dr telling me I was having a heart attack. The cardiologist told me I was being life flighted to a hospital in boston. Once there they did a cath and saw the same thing an exploded/unraveling artery. The Dr doing the cath ended up calling in the head of cardiology because he had not seen anything like it before. They did not wait to put the stents in however. They immediately put three in to repair part of the damage, they would have had to put six to repair the whole tear. When I went back three weeks later for another cath to check the healing progress I was all healed. Your story makes me wonder if I needed these stents in the first place. I see all these stories on here and see how differently we are all treated because we are anomalies(freaks as you said). It is so uncommon what happened to us it is a scary thought to think they don't have an idea of what to do with you.

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