I wanted to share some information that might help for stroke victims and especially their families. I read a book called My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey by Jill Bolte Taylor. She was fairly young and had a terrible stoke. She survived and it took a long time but she made it back and shares her experience of what she felt and all she went through. Then she explains a lot of what happens in the brain. It is one of the greatest books I have ever read. I encourage all of you to get a copy or check it out at the library.

I would like to add something in regard to women having heart attacks. I had one in 1995 and my symptoms were as follows: waking from a sound sleep and my head and neck were soaking wet. I thought a cup of tea would help the extremely full feeling but it didn't work. As I took my cup to the kitchen sink a feeling of wooziness came over me. Luckily I made it to the bedroom and told my husband we have to go to the hospital, something is wrong. Our mistake was not calling an ambulance. Trying to drive me to the hospital was not good. As my DH drove out of the garage I fell to the ground unconcious. When we got to the hospital we found out they did not have the right to do angiograms . The nurse had to send me by ambulance to a large hospital in Boston. Feeling very very full after eating a small amount of food is a sure sign. BTW, I was more or less unconcious almost all the timeand when I woke up they told me Dr. had done an angioplasty. Have had two since then , both with a stent inserted. Ladies please take heed, you only have one life..

Thanks for posting this and it looks like it has had a great response! I had a heart attack in January...it was pretty much as described. I walked up the stairs at work and let my supervisor know (a former paramedic) and he drove me to the hospital. In less than 40 minutes from the beginning I was at the hospital and had the stent put in and was moved to my room in the ICU. I am glad that I had paid attention to everything I have heard about heart attacks in women since my Grandmother died from hers in 2000.
Take care of yourselves, Ladies! You are worth every minute of care. :)

Oh, by the way...I was only 45 at the time.

Thank you for the info and also the clarification on the colesteral level issue- docs get out of sorts at the first raise in it and seem to take it out of context

It would be more helpful if doctors would try to find the cause of the inflammation that causes cholesterol and plaque build up rather than to take drugs to lower it, which cause liver damage and a host of other problems.

A few months ago I started having problems breathing and thought I was getting bronchitis. I already had a runny nose. I get it just about every yr. and I have asthma. We don't have ins. so I just took over the counter meds and waited for it to run its course. About a week and a half later I still was not feeling better, actually worse so my DH took me to the hospital. they listened to my heart and lungs and immediately took me back to be seen. My heartrate was 150. What I thought was bronchitis was a flutter in my heart which could have caused a multiple of other problems including stroke, because it causes clots. Luckily after 4 days in the hospital they sent me home on meds for my heart and I will be fine.

My beautiful brother Mick died last year from a heart attack. He previously had no symptoms and that afternoon though he had food poisioning. Even though he only lived 5 minutes from the hospital, by the time the ambulance was called it was too late. He was 45, way too young to go with 2 young children. :-( It has left an enormous hole in our family and we miss him very much.

Thank you so much for the detailed account. I went to the hospital for what I thought was a cardiac event. It wasn't thank goodness. The only one who thought that going to emerg was dumb was me. Everyone at the hospital assured me that it was, indeed, better to have a false alarm than have a visit from the coroner.
On another note, my 52 year old friend had a heart attack on Christmas last. But because she was having family over for the Christmas feast, she ignored her symptoms. Yup, she was having a heart attack. Had she gone in when she first experienced problems, which was a few days before, they would have found that she needed bypass asap and would never have had the heart attack. Now that she has had a heart attack, she is at greater risk for another.
So, don't ignore strange symptoms as suggested in the inital thread.

How sad for you but how touching that you were doing something loving for him and he was happy to the end. We should all be so lucky to go in peace, near those who love us.
God bless you and my you have your own peace at the end.