After a recent scare, I reflected on my "kick the can down the road" attitude I have about taking care of myself! Join me on the wild ride of cardiac symptoms in women and the crazy things we tell ourselves that keep us from seeking appropriate care!
Trying to get healthy and stay healthy is f-ing hard! Everybody struggles with some aspect of it, no matter what they look like or what they tell you. There is no magic formula - a healthy lifestyle is a choice we need to make daily. Join Amy as she supports, informs, and entertains you on your journey toward health.
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[00:00:01] Hey, I'm Amy Chang. I'm a nationally board certified health and wellness coach and this is Healthy AF.
[00:00:07] In this podcast, I'll be bringing you all things health.
[00:00:11] From the newest health strategies to how to tackle those personal roadblocks that just will not let you move forward.
[00:00:18] So buckle in. We're going to be inspired and instructed and Dad Gum, we're going to have a little fun on Healthy AF.
[00:00:25] Hey everybody and welcome to this episode of Healthy AF. This is kind of a special episode.
[00:00:35] I know it's been Movement May and I have loved Movement May because you know movement is one of my favorite things to talk about.
[00:00:43] And I had an entry into the health care system this month and wanted to share my experience.
[00:00:54] I think that it's a story that many of you can relate to and I hope that it gives you some usefulness in your life.
[00:01:04] We're going to talk about today signs and symptoms of heart attack in women.
[00:01:12] I didn't have a heart attack, which is the good news, but that's the end.
[00:01:18] That's the end. We'll start at the beginning. I had a fabulous trip to Mexico.
[00:01:23] I think I've mentioned it before and you may have seen it on my social media.
[00:01:27] Had a fantastic vacation in Mexico and when I got down there, I realized I was a little bit dizzy.
[00:01:32] Not bad, just a smidge. In fact, I thought it might be the remnants of like an inner ear fluid from a sinus infection that I had a little while before.
[00:01:44] I'd gotten on the plane, all the pressure changes. So I was pretty sure that it was just that.
[00:01:51] So I spent some time in Mexico, came home. The next day I traveled up to Hickory to see my mom and give a women's empowerment event that was a ton of fun.
[00:02:01] The whole time I'm just kind of dizzy. Not bad. I can push through, right? Nothing can stop me.
[00:02:09] I'm moving through and I get home from mom's and by this time it's been almost two weeks.
[00:02:16] I'm still noticing it. Sometimes it's worse, sometimes it's better.
[00:02:22] And finally, I'm saying to myself, I really need to go get that checked out.
[00:02:28] I mean, surely there's something they can do about this ear.
[00:02:31] I've been kicking it down the road, kicking it down the road.
[00:02:36] And finally, I went to a meeting, an early morning meeting and it was really bad.
[00:02:42] Hard for me to concentrate. Felt like I was falling off the couch when in actuality I wasn't moving at all.
[00:02:47] So I went to the urgent care and lo and behold, the urgent care said, Wow, your heart rate is 38.
[00:02:54] Let's send you to the emergency room.
[00:02:59] So I drove over to the emergency room, walked in and said, Hi, I'm feeling dizzy and my heart rate is 38.
[00:03:06] We're going to bring you right back. And I said, All right.
[00:03:13] So now please remember that I have a nursing background and the majority of my nursing practice was spent in cardiology,
[00:03:20] in the acute setting and also in the cath lab.
[00:03:24] Okay, so I have a very deep cardiac nursing history here.
[00:03:30] They bring me back to the podcast. I mean podcast.
[00:03:33] They bring me back to the emergency room and I'm sitting on the stretcher just like hanging out,
[00:03:38] you know, just feeling the same way I felt for the last couple of weeks.
[00:03:42] And meanwhile, a flurry of activity.
[00:03:47] They grab a 12 lead EKG. They throw in a IV.
[00:03:52] They get my vital signs, of course they pull blood and they grab a chest X-ray.
[00:04:00] And the entire time I'm like, y'all, I'm good, man, I'm good.
[00:04:05] And then somewhere in me that little that little nurse came up and said, Hey, ding dong.
[00:04:14] You're a 51 year old white female complaining of dizziness and a low heart rate.
[00:04:23] Of course they're doing this. They're treating this like a heart attack.
[00:04:30] And then I got to thinking, shit, what if I'm having a heart attack?
[00:04:41] And there were some tears, just a few. And it was scary.
[00:04:46] Yeah, it was really scary.
[00:04:51] I mean, when I looked at my family history and all the diagnostic tests that I'd had recently,
[00:05:01] you know, I just turned 50. So I did all my diagnostic 50 year old tests, right?
[00:05:05] Which included a calcium scan for my coronary arteries.
[00:05:09] So, and that was clean and shiny. My coronary arteries look great.
[00:05:13] But what if I were having a little bit of a heart attack?
[00:05:21] Did I really know the signs and symptoms?
[00:05:26] And I thought in my head, you know, women present differently.
[00:05:29] And so I thought, well, okay, let's look at my symptoms.
[00:05:35] I've been having this dizziness. I was a little bit more tired at the gym.
[00:05:41] I really couldn't concentrate very well.
[00:05:45] And there was that little bit of nausea in my tummy.
[00:05:49] Not enough to really get upset about, but just enough to make me feel a little uneasy sometimes.
[00:05:59] And I thought, holy shit, if I were your nurse, I would be saying we need to check you out for MI.
[00:06:09] So I said to myself what I've said to so many patients.
[00:06:16] Yeah, I know you don't think you're having a heart attack.
[00:06:21] Might even be pretty unlikely.
[00:06:25] But here's the thing. Your heart can drop you.
[00:06:29] So you just need to have it checked.
[00:06:31] And so I stayed in the hospital. We did all the tests.
[00:06:38] I was not having a heart attack.
[00:06:41] My heart was a little wonky. And in fact, I've got this shiny new heart monitor.
[00:06:46] It's going to be my friend for the next 30 days just to check and make sure.
[00:06:51] The reason I'm doing a podcast on this is that I've spoken to several of my friends, particularly women friends,
[00:06:59] and we do this thing. We do this thing that's like, well, I don't think it's...
[00:07:08] It's not that bad. I don't think it's anything serious.
[00:07:14] And then we hear things like when you have a heart attack, your chest hurts.
[00:07:18] Well it might. Your left arm has radiating pain. Well it could.
[00:07:25] In women, it could just look like an overall feeling of like, something's not quite right.
[00:07:31] I just don't feel good. It could be my back hurts.
[00:07:38] It could be my throat just feels a little odd. Right?
[00:07:45] It could be fatigue. It could be a little bit of nausea or a lot of nausea, feeling weak, getting sweaty, feeling hot.
[00:07:56] So here's my lesson for the week.
[00:08:03] Every time I feel icky, I'm not going to kick the can down the road.
[00:08:12] I'm going to take myself in and get checked whatever I need to get checked.
[00:08:19] Now that doesn't mean that I want to go to the doctor 24-7, but that does mean I need to do a little bit better job.
[00:08:30] Better job of listening to what the nurse Amy Chang would be telling the patient Amy Chang.
[00:08:36] Because she was clearly saying, girl, you need to take this seriously and get this checked.
[00:08:44] You know it's funny the thoughts that go through your head when you're sitting on the stretcher and everybody's treating you like you might fall out at any moment.
[00:08:53] And it also dawned on me like, hey I've got three kids who are young adults and I want to be around for them.
[00:09:01] I don't want their story to be that of, yeah, mom didn't feel well for two weeks but she ignored it and then we lost our mom.
[00:09:15] I didn't want that to happen.
[00:09:17] So that was a really big pill for me to just get over my pride and get over my arrogance that I knew that this was fine.
[00:09:27] Because it turned out that I wasn't having a heart attack, but also it wasn't fine.
[00:09:32] I do need to have my heart checked and just because I'm healthy, I'll put air quotes around that, healthy and fit and exercise doesn't mean that when my body is telling me something I can ignore it because nothing's wrong.
[00:09:48] And I can give myself some grace for poo-pooing it and for being in a pattern that I've been in a long time about taking care of myself and how quickly I need to take care of myself.
[00:10:05] And you can give yourself grace too.
[00:10:07] So I hope that gives you a little something to chew on.
[00:10:11] Make sure you get yourself checked out and remember, signs of heart attack for women do not always look like the signs of heart attack we've heard about our whole lives for men.
[00:10:21] Know them, get yourself to a hospital if you start having them and expect them to give you the full service, 30 minutes or less assessment for heart attack.
[00:10:33] Stay well, share, like and subscribe this podcast.
[00:10:36] I appreciate you and we'll see you next time.
[00:10:42] Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the Healthy AF podcast.
[00:10:46] I hope that it has helped you create a new possibility for your health and sets you into action to go get it.
[00:10:53] If you want more information or if you want to connect with me, visit my website at myhealthylifed.coach.
[00:11:01] And don't forget to hit the subscribe button so that each new Healthy AF episode will be sent directly to you.
[00:11:09] Let's take you from where you are to where you want to go.