Can you read your heart?

Well, here we are ~ The First Monday in May

My dad's in the hospital. He went to the doctor for his scheduled check up on Friday, and had some chest pains that day, so he mentioned it to the doctor, who set him up with tests on Monday. He had more chest pains, very slight, on Saturday, so he went to the emergency room and the doctor decided to keep him. They went ahead and completed all his tests, found he had a blockage and are inserting a stint this morning.

I saw my dad last Monday He was laying down and had covered himself with a blanket and had been resting for awhile. I told him he looked really pale. And he did look really, really pale to me, almost ashen. I don’t have that great a relationship with my dad, though I think albeit unspoken we are both working on it ~ my point in bringing that up is that ~ I wonder, had my mother looked that pale, I would have been more forceful in asking a battery of questions? ….oh well …

He said to me, ‘well, I’ve been sick! And I played golf today!” I couldn’t tell if he was annoyed with me or not for mentioning his pale appearance, as his voice tone is never a clear indicator to me what he is thinking about anything I have said. (I remember standing there and thinking to myself, ‘he really doesn’t look good.’) But, I just said to him, ‘well, as long as you’re taking care of yourself…’ and I drifted off the rest of my sentence.

It sounds routine, the stint procedure, and it sounds as if he will be the better for it after it is done. I’m sure he will be fine. He does eat well, and he plays golf twice a week, and even though my mother says he doesn’t do all that much, this may be the reason why. Perhaps he has been more tired from the blockage, and healthy people sometimes don’t think they are having trouble with their heart.

I looked up all the symptoms for a heart attack and even though they sound simple; I think they are not. I think they can be ignored or over looked very easily by anyone of any age. A word to the wise on that one: We really need to be in tune with our bodies to know when something might be wrong.

Some warning signs of a heart attack are pasted below. I did notice though that not all the symptoms listed on all the sites are listed here:

The American Heart Association and other medical experts say the body likely will send one or more of these warning signals of a heart attack:

• Uncomfortable pressure, fullness, squeezing or pain in the center of the chest lasting more than a few minutes.
• Pain spreading to the shoulders, neck or arms. The pain may be mild to intense. It may feel like pressure, tightness, burning, or heavy weight. It may be located in the chest, upper abdomen, neck, jaw, or inside the arms or shoulders.
• Chest discomfort with lightheadedness, fainting, sweating, nausea or shortness of breath.
• Anxiety, nervousness and/or cold, sweaty skin.
• Paleness or pallor.
• Increased or irregular heart rate.
• Feeling of impending doom.

Some links for information:

http://www.heartinfo.org/hrtatkang.html

http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4595

http://www.holistic-online.com/Remedies/Heart/heart_attack_identifying.htm

On that third link, they mention indigestion, if that is unfamiliar to you as a symptom for your body. And that symtom is not listed in the list by the American Heart Association. See what I mean? In my opinion it can get confusing, and I can see why a heart attack, or heart problems, can easily be overlooked.

Take care ~ be aware of yourself. If you can't read your body, start now to get to know yourself better, body, mind and spirit.