February 18, 2018
My husband and I were building a rock wall the day before I had chest pain. I have always been physically active , normal weight, had normal blood pressure, good cholesterol and to this day my parents are alive and well in their mid 90’s. I went to the ER and had the usual EKG ( normal) and troponins drawn( normal).
Throughout this two day journey I was told no less than 100 times that this pain was not cardiac related. I spent 24 hours in observation and sent home with an appointment for a stress test the next day. I luckily was given a script for nitro which I used heavily during the next day and night as my pain grew worse.
I took nitro just before stepping on the treadmill and told the nurses present that I was having terrible chest pain. They encouraged me to get it over with. The echo tech doing the post treadmill imaging ran out of the room and got the cardiologist who immediately sent me to the cardiology floor to get a nitro and heparin drips prior to stent placement. At this point my EKG was no longer normal and my troponins were critical.
Luckily I’m still alive.