Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection

SCAD heart attack 2022

October 17, 2023

It started in the summer of 2022, I was feeling extra tired at work as a Resident Care Assistant, I had some blood work done to see if something was going on but mostly normal. Earlier in September while out on my bicycle, I was coming back from a 12 mile ride and my arms suddenly felt tired and weak I wondered if I could get back to my car, I didn’t feel good after I got home so I went to the Med Express but they thought it was asthma related and put me on a course of steroids

I felt worse a few days later I quit taking them and went to the ER they diagnosed me with acute bronchitis and put me on antibiotics and more steroids I was off work for a week so tired I wanted to sleep all day.

I went back to work for three days the third day I was planning on riding my bicycle after work with one of the nurses and I didn’t feel well so we decided to cancel the ride plus I had terrible acid reflux so I took tums all day and when I got home from work I just wanted to lay down. At 3 a.m. on the 22nd I woke up in pain in my left side chest and pain in my throat and teeth and went down both arms. I had my husband drive me to the Emergency Room.

One of the doctors seen that I was in just a week and a half ago and tried to brush my symptoms off as nothing to worry about my EKG was normal but my troponin level came back elevated and they knew I was having a heart attack they came back higher and higher each time.

I was taken to the Cath Lab and the cardiologist seen it was a SCAD and my LAD was shredded, he said it would be to dangerous to stent so he treated it with medication and rest.