This description comes from a nurse who experienced a heart attack. It helps to know these things. xx, T

Did you know that women rarely have the same dramatic symptoms that men have when experiencing heart attack? You know, the sudden stabbing pain in the chest, the cold sweat, grabbing the chest and dropping to the floor that we see in the movies.

I had a heart attack at about 10:30 PM with NO prior exertion, NO prior emotional trauma that one would suspect might have brought it on. I was sitting all snugly and warm on a cold evening, with my purring cat in my lap, reading an interesting story my friend had sent me, and actually thinking, 'A-A-h, this is the life, all cozy and warm in my soft, cushy Lazy Boy with my feet propped up.'

A moment later, I felt that awful sensation of indigestion, when you've been in a hurry and grabbed a bite of sandwich and washed it down with a dash of water, and that hurried bite seems to feel like you've swallowed a golf ball going down the esophagus in slow motion and it is most uncomfortable. You realize you shouldn't have gulped it down so fast and needed to chew it more thoroughly so you drink a glass of water to hasten its progress down to the stomach. This was my initial sensation -- the only trouble was that I hadn't taken a bite of anything for several hours.

After the feeling subsided, the next sensation I felt was little squeezing motions that seemed to be racing up my SPINE (hind-sight, it was probably aorta spasms), gaining speed as they continued racing up and under my sternum (breast bone, where one presses rhythmically when administering CPR).

This fascinating process continued on into my throat and branched out into both jaws.

“AHA!!' Now I stopped puzzling about what was happening -- we all have read and/or heard about pain in the jaws being one of the signals of an MI happening, haven't we? I said aloud to myself and the cat, 'Dear God, I think I'm having a heart attack!'

I lowered the foot rest dumping the cat from my lap, started to take a step, and fell on the floor instead. I thought to myself, 'If this is a heart attack, I shouldn't be walking into the next room where the phone is or anywhere else ... but, on the other hand, if I don't, nobody will know that I need help, and if I wait any longer I may not be able to get up.'

I pulled myself up with the arms of the chair, walked slowly into the next room and dialed the paramedics ... I told the operator I thought I was having a heart attack due to the pressure building under the sternum and radiating into my jaws. I didn't feel hysterical or afraid, just stating the facts... She said she was sending the paramedics over immediately, asked if the front door was near to me, and if so, to un-bolt the door and then lie down on the floor where they could see me when they came in.

I unlocked the door and then laid down on the floor as instructed and lost consciousness. I don't remember the medics coming in, their examination, lifting me onto a gurney or getting me into their ambulance, or hearing the call they made to St. Jude ER on the way, but I did briefly awaken when we arrived and saw that the radiologist was already there in his surgical blues and cap, helping the medics pull my stretcher out of the ambulance. He was bending over me asking questions (probably something like 'Have you taken any medications?'), but I couldn't make my mind interpret what he was saying, or form an answer, and nodded off again, not waking up until the cardiologist and partner had already threaded the teeny angiogram balloon up my femoral artery into the aorta and into my heart where they installed 2 side-by-side stents to hold open my right coronary artery.

I know it sounds like all my thinking and actions at home must have taken at least 20-30 minutes before calling the paramedics, but actually it took perhaps 4-5 minutes and both the fire station and St. Jude are only minutes away from my home, and my cardiologist was all ready to go to the OR in his scrubs and get going on restarting my heart (which had stopped somewhere between my arrival and the procedure) and installing the stents.

I have written in so much detail because I want to help women to know what I learned first hand. Be aware that something very different is happening in your body, not the usual men's symptoms but unusual sensations that didn't tip me off until my sternum and jaws got into the act. It is said that many more women than men die of their first (and last) MI because they don't know they are having one and commonly mistake it as indigestion so they take some Maalox or other anti-heartburn preparation and go to bed, hoping they'll feel better in the morning when they wake up ... which doesn't happen.

Your symptoms might not be exactly like mine, so I advise you to call the paramedics if ANYTHING unpleasant is happening that you've not felt before. It is better to have a 'false alarm' visitation than to risk your life guessing what it might be.

2. Note that I said 'Call the paramedics.' And if you can, take an aspirin. TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE! Do NOT try to drive yourself to the ER -- you are a hazard to others on the road. Do NOT have your panicked husband drive you ... he will be speeding and looking anxiously at what's happening with you instead of the road. Do NOT call your doctor -- he doesn't know where you live. If it's at night you won't reach him anyway, and if it's daytime, his assistants (or answering service) will tell you to call the paramedics. Your doctor doesn't carry the equipment in his car that is needed to save you. The paramedics do, principally OXYGEN that you need ASAP. Your doctor will be notified later.

3. Don't assume it couldn't be a heart attack because you have a normal cholesterol count. Research has shown that an elevated cholesterol reading is rarely the cause of an MI (unless it's unbelievably high and/or accompanied by high blood pressure). MI's are usually caused by long-term stress and inflammation in the body, which dumps all sorts of deadly hormones into your system to sludge things up in there.

Pain in the jaw can wake you from a sound sleep.
Let's be careful and be aware. The more we know the better our chances for survival.

A cardiologist says if everyone who reads this sends it to 10 people, you can be sure that we'll save at least one life.