"You're in the early stages of a heart attack"

[NickFitz]

wow. This gets me thinking. How many "young" (as in not old) people have heart attacks?

Is this something I want to know the result of or is it better to live in ignorance?

I was told they see a surprising number of people in their mid-30s: they're the ones who started smoking when they were about nine or ten years old.

[EternalOptimist]

I was told they see a surprising number of people in their mid-30s: they're the ones who started smoking when they were about nine or ten years old.

What about 'the passing over' ?

did you have an OOBE ? did you float around, in a beam of intense white light, listening in to agents telephone sales pitches

or did you go straight to hell

[MarillionFan]

I was told they see a surprising number of people in their mid-30s: they're the ones who started smoking when they were about nine or ten years old.

Excellent! I've never smoked. Think I'll have another glass of wine and a cream cake.

Naughty. But nice.

[NickFitz]

What about 'the passing over' ?

did you have an OOBE ? did you float around, in a beam of intense white light, listening in to agents telephone sales pitches

or did you go straight to hell

Dunno, you only get that stuff with cardiac failure - I had a mere myocardial infarction, and remained conscious and alert throughout. Watching the angioplasty in real time on the X Ray monitors was cool

[mudskipper]

What about 'the passing over' ?

did you have an OOBE ? did you float around, in a beam of intense white light, listening in to agents telephone sales pitches

or did you go straight to hell

There was a thing on telly. They stuck pictures on top of the cupboards in the ICU ward, and were going to see if people reporting OOBE could tell 'em what the pictures were. I never saw the result though.

[ThomasSoerensen]

There was a thing on telly. They stuck pictures on top of the cupboards in the ICU ward, and were going to see if people reporting OOBE could tell 'em what the pictures were. I never saw the result though.

that is a great experiment

I'll bet anything noone saw the pictures

[Platypus]

Jesus, RC, very best wishes. [but not in a gay way]

Out of interest, do you smoke?

[NickFitz]

that is a great experiment

I'll bet anything noone saw the pictures

Or it could be that lots of people saw the pictures, but weren't able to report back...

[RichardCranium]

Jesus, RC, very best wishes. [but not in a gay way]

No tongues, OK?

Out of interest, do you smoke?

From about 13 or 14 until I was 39. Once I was working I was on about 30 a day. More if I was drinking. So, the truth is, more. I'd buy 200 every weekend, then top that up when out on the lash with extra packets as required.

[suityou01]

I wasn't expecting to hear those words at 45. Mrs RC was even more upset.

But it's OK really and I'm home again now.



Coming home on the train from an interview, I coughed and suddenly had excruciating chest pain; I couldn't breathe.

Eventually I got my chest out of spasm and breathed in and the pain!

With shallow gasps I managed to regain my composure and after about 15 minutes could phone Mrs RC and whisper that I needed her to meet me off the train in an hour's time.

The pain! I couldn't breathe properly or stand up. She was waiting for me at the station and - no messing- got me straight into a taxi and up to A&E.

I felt a fraud: I was sure I'd just torn a rib muscle when coughing. But the big sign in A&E said:



So I did. She sent me through to A&E proper where they did an ECG. A minute later an orderly lifted the sides on the stretcher and wheeled me into a different area. A consultant was waiting there:

"Mr Cranium, you are in the early stages of a heart attack."

Another ECG machine was used and another trace taken.

"The warning factors are here, here and here" says the consultant, pointing to the traces. "And they are worse in the 2nd trace. I am sending you for emergency angioplasty in Liverpool."

Wheeled into an ambulance and ...



I got the treatment! Blues and Twos through the rush-hour to the hospital in Liverpool.

Tubes and stuff inserted whilst in the ambulance; meanwhile Mrs RC is trying very hard not to burst into tears.

Get to Liverpool, wheeled straight into a team of 7 or 8 specialists who are ready to go and do horrid things to my insides.

I get asked very quickly some questions about the symptoms when the top nob specialist says: "Now tell me all that again, slowly, from the start."

So I did.

"I thought so, Mr Cranium. You're not having a heart attack."

They did some other tests and some ultrasound and something else and decided my heart was in spiffy condition. Except for the surplus-to-requirements hole in my lung or the infection within my pericardium. One or the other.

I asked him how he knew so quickly: "Because, Mr Cranium, I see 12 to 20 heart attacks every day. I know what they look like now."

So they send me back to the hospital I came from for blood tests and X-rays.

To cut a long story short, I'm not dead and painkillers + anti-inflammatories + taking it easy will see me right.

Phew!

To say Mrs RC is relieved is something of an understatement.

All that fuss for a sniffle