Women and Heart Disease

More and more women are being looked at a bit closer these days when entering the Emergency Rooms, thanks to the hue and cry of the media and all the dismissals in the past when it came to Women and Heart Disease!

jtu,

I too was very lucky to have the ER doc that I did. I thought I was having problems with my asthma and fibromyalgia when I went to the ER. If the ER doc had just went by the ekg and blood tests I'd be dead or have alot of damage to the left side of my heart. I'm very lucky the doc decided to do the stress test just to make sure it wasn't my heart. My regular doc was honest with me and told me he would have just done the first 2 tests and sent me home. 2 days after having the stent put in I ended up back in the ER and had a very rude doctor that pretty much said the pain was in my head. Glad I didn't have him for a doc the first time I went in. It's really hard for me to tell what pain is from my heart because of all my health problems which complicate things because they mimic some of the signs of heart problems. Barb

I'm so glad that you were both able to get your problems worked out!!

Barb, we can pose some serious questions when we present ourselves to our Dr.'s with several different diseases.  My PCP tells me "I'm a tough nut to crack." lol  They don't know if it's it's asthma, COPD, or angina acting up, though occasionally it could be my GERD!  They have to 'weed' through all the symptoms and treat everything.  Sometimes that's not so easy when we have multiple diagnoses.

Amen about women and heart disease. I went to ER several days before they discovered I had already had a heart attack. The triage nurse took my b/p which was very high for me, knew my risks, and said, "It might be a few hours before you can be seen." I was having pain, but not in my chest or radiating down my arm. Because of her ignoring the possiblitythat it could be heart related, I left to go home because the pain subsided while I was waiting. I feel like she should have done something more. Gosh I'm still ticked about this after a year. My revenge has been to educate other women about heart disease adn their risks.

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Hugs! Teri, good to hear from you!

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I had a hysterectomy, too. Several years before my heart attack. I had the surgery when I was 46 and the HA when I was 54. Just one more thing to add to the risk list, huh? Ughhh.

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Hi Ricky, I know you've got a strong family history of heart disease!!~thank goodness your wife is so healthy!  Tell your sister's hello from me and Happy Easter to you and your family!

Yeah, I know what you mean, Ricky...I wish they'd join us on board just to discuss this!  Give them my email, and tell them to write anytime!!

I'm a therapist, and sometimes anger can motivate you to do something else, like educate others and make changes. I don't sit around and stew about it, but I do want to help make changes in women's (and people in general) lives so that their medical care will not be neglected. You are correct, hanging on to something in anger and not letting it go to do something else productive can be damaging to your health.

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Likewise, Barb!

No, I have never learned how to do biofeedback, but I have heard wonderful things about it, and it's great in conjunction with psychotherapy. Some therapists do teach their clients how to do it. I would like to learn how to do it for myself. I do progressive muscle relaxation, visualization, and breathing with my clients, though.

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