Re: OT - Mad Men


"Karen" <karens@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message

May I ask how old your father was when he had his heart attack (seems he
would have been fairly young). I'm about to turn 41 in 3 weeks. My
father
had a heart attack almost 4 years ago (he was 62 at the time). He ended
up
having bypass surgery and I will always remember the doctor coming out
afterwards saying they had to do 5 bypasses on him (he then went on to
comment that they had never done 5 bypasses before on a patient...and this
is a top 3 cardiac unit in Canada). I'm scared to death of having a heart
attack myself and I've heard stories of it happenning to people in as
young
as in their 40's.

Dave - Toronto

Dave, my Dad had just turned 45 three weeks before he died.

Wow....see, I think that's far too young to be dying of a heart attack.

We suspect he had had a first attack before the big one that killed him

I think that's probably the case with many people. I would not be surprised
if many folks out there have had heart attacks and didn't realize it only to
have another down the line and not survive. Scary thought actually.

because my mother remembered him complaining about "indigestion". When
she looked through his clothes pockets after his death (she was
getting some of thhis things ready to be cleaned and put away or
given away), she found rolls and rolls of Tums, an obvious sign he was
having problems. The night he died we were at a family friend's
get-together with a bunch of other couples and he complained about
"indigestion" again. Since the hospital was only two blocks away,
someone suggested my parents stop in at the ER before he headed home
for the night. To my mother's surprise, he agreed. He walked in by
himself, and twenty minutes later he was gone. I stayed back at the
party with the rest of the kids while they went to the hospital and
didn't even know my Dad was sick.

I was at my cottage over Thanksgiving 2 years ago and suddenly while
showering I keeled over with a sharp pain in my back that went through my
chest (litterly could not stand up straight). I had my aunt drive me to the
hospital in Ottawa (an hour away from my cottage in Quebec) and they hooked
me up to machines within 10 minutes of walking into Emergency. Turned out
it was a pulled muscle. However, I think it's best to err on the side of
caution and have things like that checked out ASAP so as to help prevent
suddenly kicking the bucket.

There was a very strong history of heart disease on my father's side of
he family

Yeah, that's what's got me concerned as I know it runs in the family. When
I think of my father requiring 5 bypasses it scares the bjesus out of me as
I'm fairy certain it will happen to me at some point. My eating habits are
terrible (I'm single and I love my microwave and frying pans) and I have a
high level of stress involved with my job (I take it more personally than I
should). All of this will no doubt catch up with me at some point.

-my paternal grand dad died of the same thing at age forty two.

Wow!!

A male cousin died at thirty seven and another at thirty eight.

Holy smokes, that's crazy!! I've never heard of anyone in their 30's dying
from a heart attack.

All of them died very suddenly. Some of the female relatives
developed heart disease later in their lives, but it was never as
insidious as the men. Needess to say, I'm on the alert with my own
heart health. When I reached forty five, I got extremely jumpy. I've
discovered through testing that I have some minor heart issues that I
must keep an eye on.

I saw a report on the news recently that said that heart disease is becoming
more prevelent in women than men these days (which kinda shocked me as I
always thought it affected much more men than women). You don't hear of too
many women having (or dying from) heart attacks that often. I do remember a
colleague in my industry (I'm an export agent working for a large logistics
company)...she was found dead in her car on the side of the road one day
supposedly of an attack (she was in her early 50's which is still too young
imo).

But here's the good news: The cardiac procedures and testing available
now were not around back in 1961. Men with heart disease had no
chance if they developed coronary thrombosis. If they survived the
first one, they usually didn't survive subsequent attacks. I'm
actually pleased to know bypass is available to help all potential
victims of this. Had all of the medical help been around back in the
early '60s, my father might have lived a lot longer.

I went for a stress test 2 years ago and they found very minor clogging (so
minor that my doctor didn't prescribe any meds for me or anything). I
intend to go back for another stress test very soon.

Good luck to you father ... and to you, as well :-)

Thankyou, and I hope I wasn't being rude in asking about your father. I
think it's important to get the word out to people that yes, it is possible
to suffer a heart attack when you are young (very young as you have
described your other family members.....37/38 yrs old....WOW!!!).

Dave - Toronto


.

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