Hi everyone,
My husband is 43 years old. Over this past weekend, he developed gradually worsening chest pain and then developed nausea and vomiting. He finally couldn't take it anymore and went to the ER, where he was admitted for a chest pain rule out. He is diabetic and overweight and has a family history of cardiac disease (his mother had her first heart attack right at his age). His EKGs and troponins were all completely normal, but his magnesium was critically low at 1, so they repleted it with IV magnesium. He had a Lexiscan stress test this morning, which showed that he, in fact, suffered a heart attack. His ejection fraction on the right was 55% and on the left was, I believe, around 45%. Tomorrow morning, they are taking him to the cath lab to see exactly what is going on and to see if they can do anyhing there to help him. If they can't I guess the next step is a bypass, which we are praying won't be necessary. Both my husband and I work in healthcare, but we are not cardiologists and we are not experts by any means. Has anyone been through this before? I'm a complete mess and worried sick over this. My husband is my best friend and I just want him to be okay. Can anyone offer any words of advice or encouragement?
Im sorry to read of your husbands illness and hope that the doctors will be able to find the best way to treat him and he will soon be back to full health and strength. I'm sorry I can't offer any medical advice but am thinking of you both. xx
I'm very sorry to hear about your husband. I sincerely hope he gets the treatment needed for a full recovery.
I can sympathise about being unsure of the symptoms. I suffer from pain in my chest on and off which at times can be frightening but which is probably due to costochondritis. I have had a couple of episodes of tachycardia but the last one was so bad my husband called an ambulance and tyey found I was in atrial fibrillation. My sternum and front left ribs hurt most of the time. Costo can also lead to arm pain so again it can mimic heart attack. I hope your husband can get by without the bypass but you maybe need to help him keep his weight and diabetes under better control. The current advice on diet to UK diabetics is rubbish. The old fashioned advice of carb restriction works much better.
I too can sympathise about being unsure of the symptoms. I suffered from pain in my chest on and off which at times seemed nothing to worry about and this went on for a couple of years! Eventually I was diagnosed with angina which became unstable and I had to have an urgent bypass op, Although a bit older than your husband I can encourage you to be positive and trust the cardio team who these days are pretty good at their job! Best of luck with this. Roy
I forgot to say please let us know how your husband is doing Thinking about you both.