by MARILYN C

Created on: July 23, 2009

I never thought I would be a victim of a heart attack. Despite the fact that I was overweight, smoked and had hypertension this was not something I thought I would ever encounter. There was no history of heart disease in my family, which I always thought was a strong indicator of having a heart attack.

In May of this year I started developing chest pains. Not all over, but just in one particular spot. I had two really bad attacks where I went completely white and broke out in a cold sweat. I ignored it and chalked it up to having indigestion or the early onset of an ulcer. I took reflex acid pills and the pain subsided. This went on for over a week before I finally thought that I better seek medical advice. The pain was still in the same spot but it was not as painful as the two attacks I had.

I went to the emergency room to get it checked and to get a pill for my indigestion only to discover after blood tests that I had indeed had a heart attack. Because I let the situation go on for nine days I am not sure when the actual attack did indeed occur. The hospital did not waste any time, but immediately sent me to the cardiac care unit of a local hospital so my condition could be monitored. I was more in disbelief then I was in pain when I was admitted as I felt they had to be mistaken. I was sure that it was indigestion and that it couldn't be a heart attack. I immediately threw the cigarettes away and have not had one since.

I was sent to a hospital in Kingston, Ontario where an angioplasty was performed and two shunts were placed in one vein to open it and increase blood flow. Following the procedure, which entailed the insertion of a tube into my heart through my right leg vein, I was told I could go home the next day.

I was taken off of the heart monitors, but at 12:45 am of the day following the procedure I started developing chest pain. I called the nurse who did in EEG and immediately called in the angioplasty team as there was a problem. Before the team arrived I coded and had to be brought back with the defibrillator. I was taken immediately to the cath lab and they inserted another tube into my heart and discovered that the shunts had collapsed. This is very unusual and does not happen to many people. I was informed that the condition could be controlled by medication as the heart would make its own bypass and not all my arteries were blocked.

I was released from the hospital three days later and sent home, but no one told me the mental

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