My Heart Attack

Feb. 22 2009. It was a day like any other. I had cleaned up the house, taken my son to the Zoo and watched my sister play basketball. After getting ready for bed I cuddled up to my husband when I started to feel a lot of pressure in my chest. It wasn't but 10 minutes earlier that I had swallowed my daily vitamin, so I assumed that it had gotten stuck. After getting up, walking around and drinking more water the pain didn't really subside. The pain subsided enough to allow me about an hour of sleep until I woke up with intense chest pain. I will never forget the way my back felt, the muscles between my shoulder blades were seizing and I had pain going up my neck in my head and up from my chest up into my throat. After about 15 minutes of pain my husband I decided it was time to go to the hospital. We woke up some family to watch our sleeping son as we left for the hospital. We arrived at the hospital at 1am. They took me right in. I proceeded to have an EKG and Chest X-Ray. It was suspected that I had simply gotten my vitamin pill lodged in my throat causing me the discomfort. Both tests seemed to come out fairly normal.
I lay in the ER for about 3 hours before I saw the doctor. After about 3 hours the pain had started to dwindle, not disappear, but I was noticeably more comfortable. At this point my husband I were just extremely tired, the only indicator that was concerning me was that my heart rate had dropped from 50, which I already thought was a little low, to 42-38 bpm. Everyone in the hospital kept commenting on how healthy my heart must be...it was a nice idea but I knew despite my Personal Trainer background that I was no Olympic athlete. At about 5 am the doctor ordered an abdominal ultrasound and some blood work, while assuring me that the problem was most likely a GI issue.
After a lot more waiting my husband and I were ready to go home until the doctor finally returned at 8am to let us know that I was going to be admitted to the hospital. Apparently my d-dimer was up and my troponin levels were elevated. For my age a normal troponin reading would be a .001, mine came in at a .325. It shouldn't be a red flag until your troponin hits a .35 but she was acting on the air of caution, for that I would later be very grateful.
I was moved into the intensive care unit of the ER and then later moved to the Cardiology wing. I must also not fail to mention how many questions I received about whether or not I had been abusing cocaine or recreational drugs...to which I quickly responded "No." Apparently cocaine has been known to cause heart damage, i.e. heart attacks. Well at around 9am I saw the Cardiologist for the first time, he assured me that this was all just a precaution, that I hadn't had a heart attack and that he would send me home at 5pm that day. This all sounded really good until 12pm, about 30 minutes after my 2nd blood draw, when my troponin level increased to a 2.4. Apparently after it passes a 1.0 or 2.0 (depending on the hospital) you are considered to have had heart damage, or suffered a minor heart attack. So at about 3pm the cardiologist re-visited my room, leaving a conference to return to the hospital to apologize for inadvertently lied to me. He notified me that I would need to have an angiogram to determine the cause of this damage to my heart. As it was explained to me, troponin is an enzyme released by the heart after heart muscle has been damaged or killed, due to lack of oxygen. Without boring everyone with more details, I was taken for an emergency CT Scan which was negative for an aorta tear. Then after 2 more blood draws my troponin levels soared on to a 6 and later to an 8. After my 2nd blood test I was started on Lovanox shots and later on a drip blood thinner. Ever since the ER I had been receiving oxygen, which I really needed to be able to communicate much at all.
Feb. 23, 2009. The following day was the angiogram. It wasn't the most fun I had ever had, but I was excited to finally have some answers. It turns out I had a clot in a lower branch of my right coronary artery. They also noticed that I have an extremely rare, never been seen to this point, bulge in my right coronary artery that resembles an aneurysm, but the integrity of the artery seems to be strong, unlike an aneurysm. Ultimately they were able to break up the clot. I was forced to lie down for the next 6 hours without moving the leg they had performed the procedure on. Unfortunately after the 6 hours I starting suffering from orthostatic hypotension and was regulated to the hospital bed for the entire night.
Feb, 24, 2009. Finally the next morning the cardiologist looked me over and told me I would be able to go home. He decided to put me on another blood thinner, Plavix. I was instructed to take a low dose asprin and Plavix daily. Later that day I was discharged to go home; I had never been so excited to leave a place but quickly after having to maneuver to a coach to rest was I appreciative for not having to move the past 2.5 days.

I have written this story and will continue to document my adventure. I wish I would have started this right after I got home from the hospital, but instead I will reference my feelings and thoughts from this day forward. After having my heart attack I was lost as I looked to the Internet for stories, emotional help or the story and struggle of another without any luck I have resorted to sharing my own...