I think you're very lucky to have found out before having a heart
attack. Thanks for an interesting story. I'll look forward to the rest
of it. :-)

--
Cheri

Debbie Ames wrote in message
<0fOdnZ_2Y4XCFSDenZ2dnUVZ_t2dnZ2d@adelphia.com>...

Anecdote about the catheterization -- I can't watch when blood is drawn,
it just freaks me out (I only have one spot where blood comes out
easily, and I'm so afraid someday it won't work!). Well, despite what
the docs are gonna do to me, I was eagerly awaiting the test, just so I
could watch my heart beating. There's some dude who keeps asking me if I
want an anti-anxiety med during the procedure, he says it'll make me
forget what's happening. I sez no way, if I have to have this test I
wanna see and remember. After the cardiac doc told me I needed a bypass,
I turned to the other dude and said "I'll take that anti-anxiety
medicine now, please." I was crying and shaken, still in denial.

So anyways, I'm in hospital a week later getting prepped for heart
surgery. In the CCU (cardiac critical care unit) afterwards I have this
doc come in and put a chest tube in my right lung, seems my lung
collapsed. I remember that so well, even doped up, because the sucker
hurt like, well, childbirth didn't hurt half as bad!

I find out later from my kid that I was serenading the nurses and
cracking jokes in the recovery room, this I don't remember, drat. I
think it's my response to fear, hehehe.

Of course, during the hospitalization I'm on insulin, simply to allow me
to heal. (I hadn't maintained good control over my bg -- over the
previous years I'd be good long enough to show the docs that I could
lower my bg to healthy levels, then go right back to doing exactly what
I wanted.) It's not that I didn't know what to do, I consider myself
fairly educated about this disease, I just didn't (and don't, hence the
anti-depressant) care. Sometimes I felt as if it's the coward's way of
committing suicide, and I've told more than one care-giver that I was
just waiting to wake up dead from a heart attack. Anyway...

Two days after I was in my room another doc visits me and sez "I have to
pull out the chest tube and put another one in, because your lung isn't
inflating, and you're not draining." He's kidding me, right? I'm
supposed to go through the same pain as before, only without the
morphine, or whatever drug they had me on in the CCU?? Oh, yeah, grin
and bear it. I'd rather have all my teeth pulled without novacaine than
go thru that again!!

I do all the things I'm told, I walk as much as they'll let me, try to
eat, but just throw up until I'm taken off the painkillers, and try so
very hard to maintain a healthy attitude. I find out from a student
nurse that my lung collapsed during surgery, the surgeon nicked the
pleura (sic). Great! I just want to go home.

My mom came to stay with us, to help take care of me. She stayed 2
weeks, until I could dry myself after showering and make my own meals.
And make them I did. I was at this time on a: low-salt, low-cholesterol,
low-fat and low-carb diet. I could eat broiled chicken breast and green
leafy veggies. (I actually think my mom went home because she hated
cooking without salt, I really do!!)

At one time I ate by my meter and I know carbs cause me awful spikes, so
learned how to combine foods to avoid said spikes. Doesn't mean it don't
happen, just means I know how/what to do.

Six weeks later I have my follow-up visit with the cardiologist. He's
amazed, because he'd never had a patient who had his hands in their
chest have a perfect EKG afterwards. Sez I, I've never had an EKG show
something abnormal except the nuclear one, so don't go by the EKG. He
said I could go back to work the next day. :-( Which was kinda OK
because I am the breadwinner, and I hadn't any income for those 6 weeks.
That was/is wicked scary.

Tried to get help thru the state before I had surgery, couldn't do
anything except for food stamps. I have never, ever asked anyone for
help, and it was demeaning to sit in a chair and practically beg for
assistance. At least I tried!

So here I am a little over 2 1/2 months out of surgery. I've lost 15
pounds, stopped smoking the night before surgery (went 2 whole months
smoke free I did!), and am trying to eat right and maintain good bg
control. I've started cardiac rehab, work part-time and seeing a
therapist. So there is light at the end of my tunnel.

Hope I wasn't too boring.

Now KJ, to answer the rest of your questions (if you've read this far!
hehehe) -- I honestly don't know if high or low glucose levels can mimic
heart problems, but sweets, I wouldn't take the chance. If the test
results come back fine, ask how many women have false positive readings.
And if you just don't feel right, fight for yourself. Make the medical
community take you seriously until proven otherwise.

There's an organization called WomenHeart for women with heart disease,
and their site lists the symptoms for heart attack that women have. I
don't know if it's kosher to put the URL here, but I'm gonna do it, dang
it! Won't do it again if y'all tell me not to. But from their site:
 "WomenHeart is the nation's only national patient advocacy
organization serving the 8,000,000 American women living with heart
disease and provides them support, information and advocacy. We aim to
improve their quality of life and healthcare, to include early
detection, accurate diagnosis and proper treatment."

www.womenheart.org

{{{{{{{{{{to all of you}}}}}}}}}}

Debbie

Debbie, you are wonderful!

I have been through many of the same things, in a different context,
which perhaps I shall share with you at a later time.... The important
thing is that you get what you need now. I had that nuclear test,
where a person is placed on a treadmill, after dye is injected. I have
been catheterized.. Believe me, I know what it must have been like!

Anyway, the important thing is that you are still here, and you still
have a purpose and work to do.

Please keep in touch, and let us know what is going on with you.

Will, T2