Grandmothers count time from their grandchildren’s ages and JoJo was 6 months old. That’s how I know it was almost 16 years ago. I had been feeling tired for a couple of days but that’s not unusual if you have multiple sclerosis so I paid no attention. My left arm had been aching for a couple of days but that’s not unusual either. On the third night I ate dinner and decided to take a bath and go straight to bed. I bent over to turn on the water in the tub and that’s when it hit! PAIN like I had never felt before. Pain beyond a 10… beyond an 11... beyond…

I called 911 and within a few minutes an ambulance arrived. The paramedics hooked me up to the ekg and stood around watching it and chatting, their arms across their chests. I began to sweat and feel nauseous. I had difficulty breathing.

“Looks okay to me.”

“Me too.”

“What do you think? Indigestion?”

“Probably anxiety.”

“I don’t think so,” I said.

“What do you think it is?” one of them asked.

“A heart attack and I want to go to the hospital.”

“You look pretty anxious to me.”

“You would be anxious too if you were having a heart attack.”

I knew that appearing anxious is actually normal during a heart attack. Why didn’t they know that?

“We can take you to the hospital ma’am, but I don’t think you’re having a heart
attack.”

They loaded me on a gurney and put me in the ambulance, then stood in the
street with the ambulance door open and discussed my “indigestion” again.

“Could I please have some oxygen?” I asked nicely. You really don’t want to make the
paramedic in charge of your care angry. They gave me oxygen and took me to the hospital.

At the hospital they transferred me to another gurney and a doctor I did not know said, “Well. It looks like you’re having a heart attack.”

Suddenly I didn’t care who got angry. I clenched my teeth. “Get me Dr. Kaufman.
NOW and I mean NOW!”

Dr. Kaufman was at the ER desk and heard me asking for him. Before I knew what was
happening I was in the cardiac cath lab, someone started an IV and I don’t remember much after that.

I remember my son, Christopher, came from California but I don’t remember talking to him. I remember waking once to find my sister, Annie, sitting on the bed beside me and once my daughter, Lori, fed me something. I don’t know what. I remember hearing my nurse talking to me about something and though she was right next to me I could not see her. “Why do I still have pain?” I asked.

“Because a heart attack is a process. A portion of your heart is dying.” She gave me more morphine.

I have no idea how long I was in the hospital but I left there with a new pill to take daily and nitroglycerin spray in case I had pain again. I also left with the knowledge that while heart disease kills more women than cancer it is rarely perceived as a serious threat. A heart attack presents in different ways with women. Some women mistakenly think only crushing chest pain is a symptom of a heart attack and, therefore, delay seeking medical care. Others have found that healthcare providers have failed to recognize their heart attack symptoms by attributing the cause of symptoms to other health problems, such as indigestion or anxiety.

My message to women is: If you think you are having a heart attack, call 911, crush or chew a full strength aspirin with a glass of water to prevent further blood clotting and assert yourself. Seriously!