Bobby Fisher pains
Bobby Fisher
A couple nights ago, I started experiencing chest pains. In fact, they started right around the time I was setting up this blog. It has been a day and a half, and the pains persist.
The first night, my wife suggested the probability that it was merely indigestion (or, more accurately to my symptoms, heartburn.) She offered me antacid tablets, but I generally try not to take medicine unless necessary. If indeed it is simply a case of heartburn, I can easily survive this mild discomfort I am experiencing.
After 24 hours (last night), my wife got nervous and started calling me every hour or two to make sure I was still alive and had not suffered a heart attack. According to her, if it was gas, the heartburn probably would have subsided by now. In fact, she suggested that after work I should drive myself to the emergency room to get checked out. I quickly disagreed; If you have ever been to an emergency room (especially at 23:00), you know exactly what I mean. The emergency room is for people missing limbs.
According to the WebMD article on heartburn symptoms:
- Got it: A burning feeling in the chest just behind the breastbone that occurs after eating and lasts a few minutes to several hours.
- Got it: Chest pain, especially after bending over, lying down or eating.
- Don't got it: Burning in the throat — or hot, sour, acidic, or salty-tasting fluid at the back of the throat.
- Don't got it: Difficulty swallowing.
- Got it: Feeling of food "sticking" in the middle of the chest or throat.
Reporting these symptoms to your doctor is usually all that is needed for your doctor to diagnose heartburn.
Now, compare that with the WebMD article on heart attack symptoms:
It is possible to have a "silent heart attack" without any symptoms, but this is rare. Most people have chest pain and at least one other symptom, such as:
- Don't got it: A feeling of choking or a "tight throat," a lump in the throat, or a need to keep swallowing.
- Don't got it: A cold sweat.
- Don't got it: Nausea.
- Don't got it: A sense of impending doom.
- Don't got it: Difficult breathing or breathlessness.
- Don't got it: Palpitations, feeling your heart beat rapidly or irregularly. (Palpitations are very common and are usually harmless in a healthy heart, but they may signal coronary artery disease if brought on by exertion.)
- Don't got it: Numbness or discomfort in the arm or hand.
All that said/read, I was going with an extended bout of heartburn, so I had planned on taking those antacid pills . . . not so the minor pains subside, but so my wife will know that it's just heartburn and nothing else. Before I could do that, however, my wife called the doctor to see if I should go in and get checked out. The nurse I spoke with said that it was muscular (thus neither heartburn nor a heart attack. She suggested I take Advil or Motrin to keep the inflamation down.
Case solved.
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January 7th, 2005 at 22:40
Stop being silly and take the **** pills!
January 9th, 2005 at 01:04
No you got it all wrong…. pills are silly, I mean really people these days, so willing to put any small capsule in their mouth because some company (and at least 7 years of reseach) says it will cure your current ailment, that is truely silly. Not that I care because I have a life, sort of………………..
January 10th, 2005 at 21:42
As luck would have it, the chest pains were gone by the end of the day, and muscle soreness migrated to my neck and shoulders. Perhaps I'm having a neck attack now . . .
January 12th, 2005 at 09:16
Well it's nice to know you'll be around for a bit anyway. Careful about those Neck Attacks, they are just as deadly as a heart attack. My uncle Murry died from a Neck Attack. He was driving along and saw this really pretty girl on the side of the road and he turned his head so quick he got a neck attack and drove into the back of a garbage truck and died. The officials said he was dead before he hit the truck do to the initial neck attack. Sad really, don't you think?