Women Signs

[deb1965]

I am a 42 yr old women and I have been having an illness for the past 7 to 8 years.  Some times I would get ill for expample this year I was in the ER room at least 7 times and had 2 hospital stays of 2 or more days each. Now the only difference is that I had a heart attack.  

I had many episodes where I would be nauseas, vomitting, in a cold sweat and have a major pain in the back of my neck and my chest.  Each time my doctor would send me to the ER and they would stabilize me and send me home.  The doctors have not been able to determine why I got these vomitting spells, but the GI Dr. states no GI problem.  

Could these vomitting episodes be related to a possible heart attack for the past several years?  
Have you heard of any other women with these symptoms?  

[Celeste77]

Thank you! I appreciate hearing back from you and it really does help.
I think the cath would be best for her especially with her history of diabetes.
I'll have to throw it out there and see how she feels about it. I know it sounds abit selfish, but for my own peace of mind, I'd love to see her go through with it. Even with the cardiologist's reassurance after all the tests, I am still worrying and cringe when the phone rings after 9 pm.
I find that the older I get, I'm not only worrying about my daughter and granddaughters, but about my parents as well!

Be well and again, thanks!

[franners]

Before I had my first stent I really had no symptoms that I had recognized. I had a stress test initially in 2000 when my 54 year old brother died suddenly of a massive MI. He had a stress test about three weeks before and was told it was negative.I am not sure it was a nuclear stress though. My stress test at the time was negative. My second stress test was done when my second brother in 2004 went in for a routine physical and decided he should have a stress test,  he had just retired from the SWAT team and the local sheriffs dept, he failed his stress and when they cathed him they found he had heart disease but had alot of collaterals. So they did another thallium stress test on me which showed had some ischemia,they cathed me and found 70% of my distal LAD was occluded, I had a stent which as I  wrote above occluded in less than 3 years. The only symptoms i had at that time I was just really tired, but I was working 12 hours in a busy emergency room. I did feel much better initially after my first  stent. I did have a stress test about 8 months before my  first stent occluded which was read as normal, later to find it was 90% occluded at the proximal branch. Personally, I would rather have a Cath and really feel comfortable with the results. Hope this helps.

[Celeste77]

How scary!... thankfully you are diligent. We do know our bodies best and it always amazes me that docs pass off our symptoms so easily. I do hope your feeling better.

My mother had the nuclear stress test, ekg's, and enzymes constantly checked after the first attack last Wednesday and I just pray that it was enough. They kept her right in the ER for 12 hours and after the testing, diagnosed her with indigestion/anxiety attacks.
She's had 2 more episodes in the last week. She describes it as dull pain in the stomach area under her breast, a feeling of fullness with random radiating, tingling sensations and a sense of anxiety.
It comes on for hours at a time but seems to be relieved with maalox and an ativan.
Do you think she should pursue the gold standard and have the cath? After hearing about many womens symptoms like yours, I'm still a bit anxious for her...and wonder just how accurate the nuclear tests really are for women...any thoughts? How did they find your occulsion the first time?

[franners]

I have not had a heart attack but have two stents in my LAD which is considered the widowmakers heart attack. My stymptoms were very vague when my stent in my LAD was occluded 90%.Basically i lost my appetite and had lost 12 # over 5 months-just felt full and bloated,when did eat very much my heart would race. My doctor never appreciated my complaints until I actually had an episode of chest pressure with shortness of breath. At that  point my stent was occluded by 90% and they restented me.After 6 months with a drug eludid stent it is already occluded by 40%. My baseline now is if i really start looseing my appeitite and feeling bloated they will have to look at my heart again with a cath.

[Celeste77]

Sorry to hear about your MI. Nausea and vomiting, cold sweats are fairly common MI symtoms for women according to my cardiologist. Just recently my mother had the full cardiac workup just because of these symptoms. I would talk to your cardiologist about it.

A woman’s heart attack symptoms are more likely to be unrelated to the classic crushing chest pain. These include:
Jaw, neck, shoulder, upper back discomfort
Upper abdominal or stomach pain
Shortness of breath
Nausea or vomiting
Cold sweating
Lightheadedness, dizziness or fainting spells
Unusual or unexplained fatigue