Posted on 03/01/2019 8:41:22 AM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Jen Hummel, 35, has always been a runner. After spending her high school years running cross country, she kept it up recreationally, balancing training runs and races with taking care of her two young children.
For me, its the best exercise and gives me time to think, she says.
But in early December, she started to experience pain and discomfort almost immediately after shed start running.
I had pain going down my arms and in my chest. It would come up in my chin, she explained. Ive always been someone who can push myself, but after Id get up to five minutes of running, I had to stop and walk.
She thought maybe it was bronchitis or a chest cold. Since it was close to the holidays, she figured shed better schedule a doctors appointment to make sure she wouldnt get anyone else sick. But thats when her doctors realized it was much more than a cold.
After I talked to my doctor about my symptoms, he ran an EKG, and it was a little bit off, she said.
A Surprise Diagnosis
Her doctor advised her to go to the emergency room to get some chest X-rays taken, since they thought she may have a blood clot. The X-rays came back fine, but the doctors were still concerned: They kept her overnight so a cardiologist could see her first thing in the morning.
He decided to perform a coronary angiogram, a specialized test that uses X-ray imaging to check out your hearts blood vessels, which become visible thanks to a specialized dye injected into your blood first.
(Excerpt) Read more at runnersworld.com ...
Wow! Unbelievable!
“he ran an EKG, and it was a little bit off, she said.”
Ya think!!??
That mostly affects men.
Jumping to the conclusion:”When they finished her procedure, they showed Hummel that she had a 95 percent blockage in the left anterior descending artery of her heart. When that becomes completely blocked, it can cause a particularly lethal heart attack referred to as a widowmaker.”
Heredity....you can’t out run it. Trust me, I know.
LAD artery. Same with me in 2015. Started having chest pressure ONLY when I really overexerted. After the 3rd incident I finally decided to tell my wife. After she stopped yelling at me she made me make an appointment with a cardiologist for the very next day....Day after that I had a heart cath, angioplasty and a stent for the LAD 90% blocked.
Medical Underwriter here.
Very unusual case, but shows CAD can happen to anyone. Lean build, normal cholesterol profile, normal BPs, no family history, good exercise, young female - and still - BAM.
You think you have no risks, no symptoms? Get your physical anyway.
Blockage in the same artery killed my brother, FReeper Holger Dansk, about 13 years ago. So my surviving brothers and I get our hearts checked on occasion. The imaging technology these days is amazing. I’m in the clear, but you better believe that if I have these symptoms I’m not going to be stupid and “tough it out”.
In looking back on our family history so many died of “Acute indigestion”.
In 2006, I also had chest pains and the doctor suggested it was “acute indigestion”. After doing minor exertions I would get a stabbing pain, like someone driving an ice pick into a spot in my heart.
After a couple of more weeks of indigestion medication, and no relief, it was found to be a near Widomaker, even though I was on blood thinners for an artificial heart valve. I now have a heart stent, and a larger dosage of blood thinners.
So, IF they say it is “indigestion,” GET ANOTHER OPINION, FAST!
My oldest Brother had one of those stents placed in an artery around 30 years ago. He always had heart problems after that.
The last time I saw him, I recall his looking a little blue. A year or so later he died of a heart attack. It was July 4, and he was under his Daughter’s vacation house working on the plumbing.
I am still a little bit angry that they had him working under that house in the middle of Summer knowing his heart problems.
My appendix had been ruptured for over a week before my wife insisted that I get my abdominal pain checked out. She said my complexion was changing color and she thought I had appendicitis. The people I had seen during my career with appendicitis were complaining of excruciating pain where mine seemed manageable. So I didn’t think that was the problem.
It turns out that a high tolerance for discomfort is not always a good thing. Nasty goo had been leaking into my abdominal cavity and causing all sorts of bad things to happen along with creating a bad infection. The surgery lasted for hours while they removed all my guts and washed them and my abdominal cavity out. My incision went from hip bone to hip bone. The surgeon told my wife that I was very lucky to have survived.
In her case, wouldn’t it be more appropriately named a “Widowermaker”?
The ECG could have been entirely normal in the same context. Something for people to realize.
but they werent obvious enough to make her immediate think something was wrong with her heart”
I have zero medical training but her symptoms SCREAMED you’re gonna die!
Yep. The heart cath is the only way to be 100% sure.
Somebody asked that in the Runner’s World comments section and got all sorts of acrimony for it.
Her husband might be female.
A doctor once told me ... “You cant out run your genes or your fork”.
Meaning that if you have bad genes or eat too much, running may help for a little while, but they WILL catch up to you.
Ditto. Mine was 2011. I was working in the back yard, and suddenly couldn't catch my breath. I never had the radiating pain thing, but I just couldn't breathe.
I went to the doctor, who took a chest x-ray and did blood work for heart attack enzymes, and said I was fine.
I told him NO, I WAS NOT FINE.
He scheduled me for a stress test, "just to allay my concerns." Two weeks later I had the stress test which had me run on a treadmill, then flop on a table for a sonogram of my heart. The doctor didn't like that one chamber wasn't pumping as hard as it should, so I went immediately to have a heart cath.
I came out with a stent in my LAD that had a 95% blockage.
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