Edit: Got her to an urgent care to be safe. Whatever it is is bad enough that she had to log out of her remote job. Thanks.
Would you be able to describe the atypical symptoms of a heart attack that are not chest tightness or radiating pain to the arms?
My immediate family has a history of heart disease, heart attacks, and strokes. I am trying to guage how concerned I should be for my sister(39 smoker). Being in the upper 90s with no AC my first thought is that she is having heat related symptoms. She is experiencing vertigo, tunnel vision, feeling nauseous, and feels as though she will faint. She says she doesn’t feel exceptionally hot, perspiration seems normal. Water intake good. She’s out cooling off in a car as I try to cool the house down.
She says she is unable to describe the sensation of what is happening, other than it doesn’t feel like she is too hot, or that it’s low blood sugar from not eating or something. I’m hoping she just needs a cool down and I’m overreacting.
If you’ve experienced a heart attack, do her symptoms concern you? The plan now is to see how the next couple of hours go.
Comments
If there’s even a question of having a heart attack – it’s worth getting evaluated by a physician. Go to the ER.
My first felt like an iron band around my chest. Couldn’t take a deep breath at all. Felt slightly nauseous, a bit unsteady on my feet. No radiating pain in arms at all. My doctor told me by phone it was indigestion. It wasn’t. Go to the ER.
My aunt had “really bad indigestion” that doctors now think was some sort of “cardiac event”.
I’ve had similar symptoms before, but don’t know what it was. Has she eaten anything? Doctors have guessed low blood sugar when I’ve described symptoms.
No radiating pain in arms at all, no chest pain. Bad stomach pain, as if my stomach had cramps. Now have four stents in my heart. Would have died if I hadn’t gone to ER. Not worth taking a chance, go to ER.
I had bad indigestion, but ignored it for a long time. I got short of breath and passed out. Go to the ER.
I had a scad heart attack, which stands for spontaneous cardiac artery dissection. In a nutshell, I had a fragile heart artery which tore and the damaged membrane blocked the artery and caused a heart attack. For me, it felt as if someone very heavy was standing on my chest. It was an incredible feeling of pressure right between my breasts. It was more of a crushing pain than a shooting pain.
If she’s been sitting in upper 90s for hours I think heat exhaustion or stroke is possible (disclaimer, not a doctor). She’s probably been perspiring a lot and if you don’t replenish any salt/electrolytes I’ve heard that could make one dizzy.
Also if you get heat stroke you sometimes don’t feel hot anymore, you might get chills. But I agree with the other commenters who said it could be a heart issue too and it’s worth going to a hospital!
Not quite the perspective you were looking for, but my brother (53) had a heart attack in December. He said he felt light headed after having a fast food meal with salty fries. He wound up having a quintuple bypass. He had been diagnosed with “exercise induced asthma” years before. Now they suspect that was actually due to the lack of oxygen getting to his blood stream thanks to the buildup in his vessels. If y’all have a family history of heart issues, it’s time to establish care with a cardiologist. Another brother (46) did that after the other’s heart attack, and wound up having a triple bypass. No heart attack though.
As my mom always says, “if you have to ask, you should go to the er”.
GET HER TO A HOSPITAL ASAP, PLEASE.
As far as my experience:
I had one at 33 due to un undiagnosed heart defect. Unlike many others, it came on very suddenly, and on a low-key Saturday night at home.
Both of my arms felt unbearably heavy, and I felt something like pressure in the spaces between my shoulders and collarbone. Breathing wasn’t “asthma attack” hard, but definitely harder. I was told my skin turned gray-green. I felt very woozy, a bit nauseated, and all I wanted to do was lay down and go to sleep.
Awful sidebar: Husband took me to ER and used the magic words, “symptoms of heart attack,” so they rushed me back. Staff then proceeded to feed me Ativan after Ativan, while scolding me to calm down; it’s just a panic attack. Even let a phlebotomist “practice” her EKGs on me, three times, and attributed the abnormal results to her inexperience. Then my troponin test came back, and suddenly everyone was scrambling and backtracking.
Go to the ER. My best friend’s mother was having each of those symptoms and urgent care sent her home with indigestion. Thankfully her husband took her to the ER and she was having a heart attack and needed open heart surgery.
It is also worth nothing that the symptoms she is having could also mean she is having a severe gallbladder attack, and that also could need emergency surgery. I went to the ER 6 weeks ago and said I was concerned I was having a heart attack, but it was a massive gallstone that needed emergency surgery to prevent rupture and all sorts of other awful complications.
Get evaluated at urgent care for sure or at least get her blood pressure checked…
I know nausea can be associated with heart problems. Get to the hospital. Are there any cooling centers in your area?
The pain moved up through the left side of my chest up into my left shoulder, then into my entire jaw. It was intense sudden pain and terrifying.
No matter where you’re feeling the pain, man or woman, go to the ER! If not a heart attack it could be a clot of another kind, or a myriad of other things. Suddenly excruciating pain is rarely a sign that everything is peachy keen!
I have pain between my shoulder blades and feet a little nauseated and somewhat weak and spacey. Getting any cardio activity made it worse.
Always err on the side of caution and go to the ER.
I had symptoms like you described for your sister and it was a hypertensive emergency with my BP at 218/110.
Not a heart attack but still something that can cause long term damage if not treated.
I can’t add much other than to say that Women often present substantially differently than Men when it comes to heart attacks. My Grandmother saved her sister’s life recently when they were playing cards late one night, and her sister had some indigestion and dizziness, and my grandmother suggested “I think you’re having a heart attack”.
Lo and behold once she gets to the hospital – she absolutely was having a heart attack.
So, as someone else said. If there’s even a question, ER immediately. It could save a life.
Don’t wait. Let the doctors figure it out.
My elderly aunt suffered multiple HAs because she didn’t want to make a fuss. She said she felt tired and nauseated each time. That’s it.
It can be subtle but she didn’t have to suffer. I wish she hadn’t been so self-effacing.
When I was in my 20s I was still living at home with my mum, and my grandma lived there too
One night mum and I were in the kitchen chatting and my grandma had gone to bed about an hour earlier. As we chatted I noticed she had gotten out of bed and gone to the toilet about three times. When she got up the fourth time I said to my mum “I don’t think she’s feeling well”. When she came back we both asked her if she was feeling sick, possibly from something she ate. Grandma said she felt something like heart burn with pain in her upper stomach, but not full on nausea and no diarrhoea. Mum then asked if her arm was hurting and she said no to that too. She said she felt like maybe her shoulder hurt a bit. She was extremely restless and clammy. She was cold to the touch but I could see sweat all around her hairline, neck and chest
Mum immediately said she was having a heart attack, but grandma denied it. We immediately took her to the ER in her pajamas. when we got there we were informed that she was in fact was having a heart attack and had a stent put in asap
Definitely tell her to see a doctor, I’ve been to the ER a couple of times concerned I was having a heart attack. (I have good insurance.) They ran the usual tests and sent me home. Eventually, I found out it was due to low electrolytes in the heat of the summer.
So, first give her a couple of gatorades. If it doesn’t help almost immediately, then see a doctor. It doesn’t need to be the ER. Your normal doctor can do an ekg, but the ER will probably have more experience than a primary care physician.
39 seems young for cardiac problems, especially in a female, but it is possible.
Just go the ER
I’m a physician. Just general advice: unusual, significant symptoms that persist = go to the ER. From what you described, could be a number of things, some benign, some not so much. I think it’s reasonable to wait a little bit to see how it evolves, but don’t push your luck.
So, I (52F) haven’t had a serious cardiac event, but I’ll share some tips that various health professionals have shared with me over the last 30 or so years:
At various points in the past 30 years I have been diagnosed with a functional murmur, generalized anxiety disorder, depression, PTSD: all of which can mimic heart issues.
This all being said, if you have a concern, drop into a minute clinic or urgent care and ask them to take your blood pressure and pulse-ox. If your oxygen saturation is higher than 95 or so, you’re likely okay. (If you’re in pain but not having a heart attack, you’ll likely have high blood pressure but normal oxygen saturation.) If you’re in need of more care, they’ll certainly recognize it and advise appropriately. If you have medical insurance, you can also call their nurse line for advice.
I hope you feel better. Feeling scared about symptoms is absolutely no fun at all.
Disclaimer: I am not a medical professional. Friendly amateur advice is not a replacement or substitution for folks with medical degrees.
Take her to the ER. It’s always better to be safe than dead. (Signed, someone who went to the ER last night with severe upper abdominal and chest pain that ended up being gallbladder-related instead of heart-related)
10% of people that have heart attacks have no symptoms at all, I have had 2 and the both presented differently, back pain for one and sickness for the other. The only way to tell if you have had a heart attack is with a blood test.
I’m not saying you should go to the hospital but that is the place filled with professionals who can help will all symptoms and ailments, some of which it sounds like your sister is experiencing.
Not me, but my mother. For her, the big ones were:
Intense lethargy the week before.
Neck pain along the jugular before the chest pain hit.
She woke up that morning just completely bathed in sweat.
Women are less prone to drop dead widowmaker heart attacks, but we have quieter symptoms and heart attack symptom lists don’t talk about the ones women are more likely to show. So we’ll be more likely to die from it because our warning symptoms look like other things.
I just had the elephant sitting on my chest thing. It was beneath my left breast. I couldn’t get a deep breath, and my body decided to offload cargo so I walked to my bathroom and pooped. I washed my hands and walked back to my rocker and sat again. It must have lasted for 3-4 minutes. It didn’t really hurt but I’ve always preferred to breathe than not breathe. I had to make myself call the doctor the next day.
I had just one stent put in, but the artery was 90-some percent blocked. I will say that when they wheeled me out of the stent operation I could breathe. I felt like I could breathe more deeply than I’d been breathing.
OP, I have a chronic condition that sometimes mimics heart attack symptoms. I’ve had to go to the ER for it, but you know what? They never once told me I was overreacting. It is always always better to rule out something serious if you have the means to do so. That’s what the ER is for: to rule out (or in) life threatening illness. GO TO THE ER!
Edit: It could be heat stroke or similar as well which, guess what, is ALSO worthy of an ER visit. Please go.
At 41 I had one. It woke me from a complete sleep about 430 am. It felt like a seriously strained muscle in my left upper shoulder blade /back. I thought it was a pulled muscle. 7 hours later I was short of breath, nauseated. Went to ER finally. Was diagnosed about 1030 that evening because I didn’t present with typical symptoms. I had 2 stents put in the next morning.
Go to the hospital. Explain your family history and request an EKG and blood test. Now.
No events personally, but I had an anxiety attack that presented with mild chest pain. I went to the ER and was hooked up to an EKG and had blood taken. The dr treating me offered atavan because I seemed anxious, which helped more than anything else.
I was fortunate they ran the tests with no push back. Turns out my anxiety was all it was. My family Dr who I saw a few days later said I absolutely did the right thing in going to get it checked out.
While so many things could cause these symptoms you cannot rule out a serious condition like a heart attack without labs and an EKG. Heart attacks present differently in everyone but particularly women present with symptoms you are describing. The scary thing about heart attacks is they aren’t that dramatic. Many symptoms are mild and vague but often feel concerning or strange.
Get to an ER now. Being a smoker over age 35 puts her at a much higher risk for a heart attack.
My Mom had severe pain in her back. She told us she thought she was getting a kidney infection. Then she started vomiting – I’m talking she couldn’t keep a sip of water down. She went in to the ER, and said that once they ran her EKG, there were a LOT of people in the room. She was in the cath lab within an hour of coming into the ER. One stent, and she was told if she were staying in town, she’d be having triple bypass (doc was being conservative, when she got home, local doctors determined she was safe to be monitored with meds).
She later said she remembered feeling really tired, and having trouble lifting her left arm above her head.
EKG will show if currently experiencing a heart attack. Protein test for Troponin will show if you recently had one.
Once I was finally seen by a provider and had blood drawn they treated me better and kept checking my protein levels. It’s hard to describe the pain I felt. It was not resolved by hot shower, ibuprofen or time. It felt deeper inside if that makes sense. Typical muscle strain feels closer to the skin. I never had the left arm pain that is typical for men to get.
My MIL had the back and kidney pain, and then nausea and throwing up. At that point, her daughter called for the ambulance. She tried to finish washing the dishes before the EMTs told her absolutely not, we are leaving NOW.
I was SOOOOO TIRED. And anxious. I was visiting family, had to keep pushing through, don’t want to disappoint. You know the drill.
1st wave was insane anxiety, huge feelings of dread, and I woke up so sweaty. This sweat was not from me. It was thick and gross.
2nd day/night: went to one of those mystery dinner shows. Drank a lot of red wine. Felt a little better. Still tired, also developed pain along the back of my neck and into my left shoulder.
3rd day: go to breakfast at aunt’s house. She forces 2 Tylenol down my throat and tells me she didn’t think I’m hungover, something else is going on.
Go to hotel room to take a nap. Finally decide to go to the ER.
They rushed me in as soon as i walked in the door. Got sent to the cath lab. No stent, it was the tiny vessel. Hurray.
I can’t believe I’m seeing this now. I lost my friend this afternoon. She had an aneurysm and heart attack and she’s gone in 24 hours. She was in her 30s. She thought she was intolerant to something that was giving her severe abdominal pain. If anything is out of the ordinary please please go to the hospital
I don’t wanna scare you, but maybe I do a little bit… This just happened to my aunt, she went to urgent care and even went to the hospital and was cleared of having a heart attack. They ran several tests and they were all negative…. So when she had chest pain two weeks later, she ignored it and died on the couch of a heart attack. Please try to convince her to get an extensive work up and see cardiology quickly.
The thing about women, our heart attacks can look like anything, including general malaise. If she’s had heart attack before that’s a pretty strong indication to take her somewhere. Yes I’m a doctor.
Elizabeth banks did an awesome advertisement about heart attacks in women. I recommend you google it.