cardio doc claims i had a "silent heart attack"?

Question

i got a report from the lab after some discomfort that i showed a past myocardia infarction. i didn't even know what that meant. didn't ask and doc didn't take a moment to explain. assumed i understood. i chanced to look it up on the web and was surprized. asked my family doctor who had failed to read the report as well. i had felt pressure from time to time but never had intense pain they say comes with a heart attack. cardio man and gp said it must have been a silent attack while i was asleep. docs have that thin red line like cops have the thin blue line. i now do not trust any of them. they have sneaky looks and i sometimes suspect they carved me up with a four-way bypass and a subsequent mountain of pills and bills and they were partially or altogether motivated by economics of a heart speciality heart hospital. i met one caring old nurse in icu.. also got a "care bear" as a parting gift. grandma died well. mother is close. now me.

Answer 1

Wow how paranoid are you? You are thinking that your doctors would actually refer you, and perform an open heart surgery without it being indicated? Do you think it is useful to be so distrustful of your health care providers? I know doctors move quickly and don't take time to explain things. Believe me, when you already are working very long days and nights and not keeping up, taking more time with each patient is difficult to do. Nonetheless, doctors got into the business because they are there to help. Ask questions if you don't understand. Do your own research and inform yourself about some of the basic workings of your own physiology. Its one thing to answer questions but sometimes as a health professional, you need to lay a whole ground work with a patient before your answer would make any sense to them. This is very time consuming. So learn about yourself and how your heart works if you don't already know.
Try this link for reliable information
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/heart-disease/HB99999

Now to answer your question about the "silent heart attack." We do see this with patients frequently. There are EKG changes that are consistent with certain parts of the cardiac muscle no longer working. Other tests (e.g. echocardiograms, myograms) can give similar results. My personal feeling about this is that this is either chronically occluded small vessel disease or a congenital defect rather than a full blown event like we typically think of with a heart attack. This makes the most sense in that over time small vessels become more and more blocked, progressively starving the heart muscle of oxygenated blood. Eventually an area of the heart dies off. It happens so slowly that there never is pain, shortness of breath, sweating, etc. When the area of heart muscle dies, there are changes in monitoring devices like EKG's giving rise to the diagnosis of a "silent heart attack." Whatever the source it means that there is a part of your heart that no longer contracts and pumps blood like it should. At minimum this predisposes you for congestive heart failure...which has a high incidence of mortality or morbidity. If I were you, I would listen to the medical people. Your life and quality of life will depend on it.

Good luck.

Answer 2

1

Answer 3

Patients treated by cardiologists have a lower in-hospital mortality for acute myocardial infarction -- Casale et al...
... of Studies Comparing Myocardial Infarction Mortality for Generalists and ... Every, and Participants in the National Registry of Myocardia ...content.onlinejacc.org/cgi/content/abstract/32/4/885 - More from this site
Lung Disease (PDF)
chronic productive cough for the past 5 years. Denies hemoptysis, wheezing ... Past Medical History. Myocardia infarction, age 43. TURP for prostate cancer ...www.echt.chm.msu.edu/blockiii/Lung_Disease.pdf - 61k - View as html - More from this site
http://www.crlcorp.com/testDetails.cfm?facilityID=ILS&testID=80
... Any preceding condition (at some past time) Note: Even moderate levels ... To detect recent myocardia infarction (MI), together with creatine phosphokinase ...www.crlcorp.com/testDetails.cfm?facilityID=ILS&testID=80

Answer 4

Silent heart attacks do happen. This is a fact. You can have death of parts of the heart muscle from them.

You have a right to a copy of all of your medical records.

You have a right to have your questions answered. Write them down and take them with you to your appointment. Hand a copy to your doctor. I fax my questions the day before an appointment.

Depression and anger often strike following heart surgery. You sound like you are suffering from both. Consider a support group or counselor. Please.

Answer 5

Well Miss Foggy Jones: You my dear had a Heart attack: welcome to the club, of people the have made it and, lived. Many didn't. I had six bypasses, Ha Ha! Beat you dear. It happens. Yes, you can get your records but, why would you want them? you wouldn't have an idea in hell what they said. Thank God and the doctors, instead of giving them hell, that God gave them the insight and the brains, to save your ungrateful soul. Give them Thanks. I did, I fell to the floor. I went through two tours in 'Nam and through two rain filled tours of rain filled fox holes, rat infested, nookie's to come home and almost die. Thank God for the doctors that saved my sorry butt, Yes, you can have a silent heart attack in your sleep, that doesn't mean you shouldn't thank the doctors that saved your sorry butt.