How can you deny it, if you have a heart attack you generally end up in a hospital, no real question as to having one if the doctors say you did?







I’m over weight, but I’m active, work a job that required me to keep active. I would never have thought I would have had a heart attack. I guess we all think it will happen to the other guy and not us.

My dad had a quad bypass but he’s 79 years old, not 47.

My blood pressure was in the good range as were all my cholesterol levels. It is supposed to be 200 or lower, mine was 152, well in the good range.

You just never know what’s coming. I do know that I will always have a cell phone with me when out camping or any other activity that takes me away from people. In the past I enjoyed breaking free from people and being out by myself to fend for myself and leave things like phones behind. But a heart attack requires immediate serious medical treatment if I want to stay alive, so from now on I will have it with me. It may not be turned on, but it will be there if needed.

I have a variety of pain meds including asprin as they all have their uses.

It's too bad we often wait until we have a bad experience before we become more pro active. I carry anti-histamine but I didn't until my dad learned the hard way he was deathly allergic to bee stings and nearly lost his leg over it. Had he not been in the back yard when it happened, he could have lost more than that.

So far I have never had a reaction to bee stings, my brother and I (were being stupid) use to knock them off the house all summer long with the garden hose. We would then stand there and kill them when they hit the ground. Needless to say the bees didn’t like us much and retaliated.

So could he. He'd been stung many times previous to that (He was in his early 60s at the time) and had never had a reaction. Now he's allergic to just about anything which 'stings' and has to carry at least one double ended epi-pen.

I always think about that when we go fishing by the North Saskatewan River and have to climb down a steep wooded face for 10 minutes to get to the river. Climbing out of that and getting to help would be hard even with the epi-pen...they only give you about 15 minutes of grace per dose.

If that's me one day, I'll be able to reach for the Reactine and get my butt to the hospital while my leg swells to 3 times it's normal size...only more slowly than it would have had I not been prepared.

I don't have any aspirin anywhere, even at home. Even popping just one gives me a rather serious pain in my stomach.

I think you folks may be interested in this article on the results of a new survey that just came out about how many Americans recognize the warnings signs of a heart attack. You have to recognize the possibility of a heart attack to take, or offer, an aspirin, after all.

Actually, before reading the article, mentally list the most common symptoms of a heart attack in your mind, then check your answers against the article. Don't be surprised if you don't get all of them.

OK, for the non-medical folks here...
-81 mg of aspirin (aka "baby dose") is the normal once-daily variety. Going higher in dose hasn't shown any improved efficiency. The prevention benefits are identical.

-During a heart attack, 325 mg (aka, 4 baby aspirins) is the dosage. However, the hospital is going to put a lot more meds in you: oxygen, morphine, nitro, heparin, etc. Aspirin just buys a little time.

-Allergic reactions can't, by definition, occur until you've had at least one contact with the offensive agent. That is, most people aren't allergic to bees/peanuts/shellfish/etc the first time. Your body has to recognize the offending object, and over-reacts to it using pre-made antibodies. You can't make an antibody until you've been exposed to something once (just like no one is immune to chicken pox without having first caught it, or had the vaccine!)

-Aspirin probably is worth the weight of carrying. Just don't expect it to stop chest pain by itself.

I prefer ibuprofen, seems to work better for joint and muscle pain, and acetaminophen, the OTC pain reliever least likely to cause adverse reactions, over aspirin but carry aspirin simply because of it ability to thin the blood. Single dose foil packets make it easy to keep a short supply on hand. Even in a pocket kit where space is tight.

I carry a bison capsule filled with 325mg Aspirin on my key ring. I "always" have my keys with me, and there fore have aspirin. I had a heart attack in 2002, and my surgeon and primary care physician both at different times told me that prob. saved my life.
As a former WEMT, we had a standing protocol of administering 325mg aspirin when any patient exhibited any heart attack symptoms.

If you think you or someone else is having a heart attack, as soon as possible, pop 1 aspirin, chew and swallow.