Intro
About two weeks ago, my family’s life took a sharp, unexpected turn. My father had a heart attack just moments before boarding a plane home. Thankfully, he’s recovering well now.
What we went through was a crash course in catching quiet symptoms, asking better questions, and trusting when something doesn’t feel quite right,even when the signs don’t look like what we’re told to expect.
How It Started
We had just wrapped up a family trip to Cape Cod. The night before his flight, my dad started violently vomiting and having nonstop diarrhea. The rest of us had eaten the same food and felt fine. It was clear something else was going on.
We called his doctor in Florida. She didn’t suspect a heart attack but gave us one crucial piece of advice: don’t give him over-the-counter anti-diarrhea medicine.
She recommended going to urgent care first thing in the morning just to be safe. A lot of people might have gone for a quick-fix from the pharmacy. I’m grateful we didn’t.
At urgent care, they ran an EKG. It showed that his heartbeat was so erratic they called an ambulance on the spot. He didn’t want to go, but we pushed for it. That decision saved his life.
What the Doctors Found
At the hospital, further testing revealed that two-out-of-three of his main arteries were over 90% blocked.
Though an angiogram was indicated sooner, he didn’t get one until he had the heart attack.
He needed to have two emergency stents put in. The day after the procedure, his appetite returned.
Doctors ordered him to remain in the Boston area for at least seven more days to recover, because the plane cabin pressurization was too risky immediately after the procedure.
After 4 days in the hospital, we found a little hotel to call home while he continued his recovery.
One Last Hiccup
A few days later, he had another bout that landed us back in the ER. Fortunately, it wasn’t serious and just his body coming down from the stress and adjusting to the new medications.
The Quiet Warning Signs
Looking back, the signs were there for at least six months:
- Gradual loss of appetite
- Randomly suddenly feeling very cold
- Increasing nausea with meals
- Episodes of fatigue followed by rebounds of energy
- High anemia that wasn’t improving with medical injections
His doctors in Florida had run an EKG months earlier, but it came back “normal.” It’s important to remember that EKGs only measure the heart’s current electrical activity, but they can’t detect artery blockages. His symptoms were dismissed as “just getting older,” but something was very wrong.
What We Usually Expect vs. What He Had
When we think of heart attacks, we usually picture chest pain and left arm pain. But heart attacks don’t always follow that script, especially in women and some older adults.
Common Heart Attack Symptoms in Men:
- Chest pressure or tightness
- Pain radiating to the left arm, neck, or jaw
- Shortness of breath
- Cold sweat
Common Heart Attack Symptoms in Women:
- Nausea
- Unusual fatigue
- Dizziness or lightheadedness
- Back or jaw pain
What my father had didn’t fit neatly into either of these lists. His symptoms were quieter, but real and very telling.
Why This Matters
It would have been easy to miss this. All of his doctors did. His symptoms didn’t scream “emergency” and were repeatedly dismissed.
His story could have ended very differently if we hadn’t asked more questions and pushed for the right care.
Home Now
We stayed in Boston an extra week until he was cleared to fly home. He’s now safely recovering in Florida, doing cardiac rehab, and feeling so much better. Even his blood work, which showed high anemia, is starting to normalize.
Though he still needs to take it easy and do cardiac rehab, all other “unexplained” symptoms have disappeared, and his energy is returning.
Quick Resources
Please Take and Share This Info
If something feels off, whether it’s in you, a loved one, a patient, or a client—don’t brush it aside. Push for answers. It might not show up in certain standard tests.
The body’s always communicating. Doctors are only human and details can be missed. Sometimes it’s up to us to notice quiet signals before they become louder emergencies. Pass it on!
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