Female Heart Attack

[Colleen312]

Hi.I am a female, 55 yrs old, size 12 so not overly heavy at 5'7and large boned, smoked for 40 yrs, married with 3 kids in their 20's. I work full time for an airline which is a stressful job. My father died 18 months ago, at age 83, after a lifetime of cardiac problems. His first heart attack was when he was 44 yrs old.  He also had SCD 3 yrs ago but was shocked back to life and had a defibulator/pacemaker inserted in his chest.I had a heart attack 3 weeks ago which really surprised me. I thought it was supra ventricular tachticardia which happens to post menopausal women.I waited an hour before going to the ER.  I have great bp...usually 125/something low...ha ha...and normal bad cholesterol of 130. I'd never seen a cardiologist whereas my older siblings all had. Turns out via an angiogram that I had two arteries blocked. The left descending was blocked at 70% and the left diagonal was blocked at 90%. I received 2 stents. Now they are testing me for the Lipo Protein A gene( which my dad had and my sister has) and I will finally have a stress test next week. Hopefully this will tell me if I've had prior damage to my heart. I believe I've had 2 prior heart attacks.  My question is: Is it possible to know if I am a person with the electrical problem that my father had? My father never recieved stents. He had one coronary at age 44, and numerous bouts of congestive heart failure, the sudden cardiac death, one final bout of congestive heart failure in Dec '08 which he never recovered from....which led to kidney failure and a massive heart attack in Jan '09...2 days after my Mom broke her hip. Five months later my hair fell out...ha ha..but I digress. I really need to know if I am saddled with both an artery problem as well as an electrical problem. Three weeks ago my ejection fraction was 40%.
Thanks,
Colleen

[ChatterAlly]

I am afraid to say, that in my case, I have both and more.  The problems I had with SVTs has since subsided for the time being. I have CAD & PAD.  Also have been recently dealing with possible mini strokes.  My tryglycerides are way too high.  Your EF can improve with diet, exercise and lifestyle changes.  My father passed away at 59 to heart disease.  I just haven't been able to accept the fact that I now have it too. Hair loss  is a side effect of some blood pressure meds. You didn't mention any meds.  Well, take care and keep me posted.  Ally

[kay2486]

hi colleen sorry about the problems you've been having,
your dad lived to a good age didnt he?
you need to do an ecg to see if there is an electrical problem

cholesterol is main cause of blockage, we have to be careful what we eat and see how much saturated fats are in the food we have.
some people handle it better others dont, you will have to be careful what you eat now.

how did your older sibling get on with the cardiologist visit?

my dad had heart attack nearly three years ago, hes fine now though hes lost abit of weight because of eating more healthy, that was caused by stress not cholesterol, people think only overweight people who just munch all day will have a heart attack, thats not true because stress causes them too.
you will know more next week
hope your stress test goes ok, hope you keep in touch :)