First off, I know I did it wrong.
Let me preface this by saying I know I handled this really stupidly. I was 37 years old in the summer of 2015, and I was bored on a summer afternoon. I decided I would head over to the local amusement park and go on some rides. Just about as soon as I got in the car, I felt my chest hurting, almost in my throat. It was like someone was grabbing me behind the sternum. "Nah, this is nothing." I thought. So I drove about 25 minutes to the park, and still it was hurting. "Nah, I'm only 37. This is nothing." Then my left armpit started hurting. "No way. This isn't that. I'll go on a few more rides." The whole time, thinking "Nah, I'm 37, and healthy. This isn't my heart. I'm fine." After 4 hours on roller coasters, I went home, ate something, and started thinking "Man, this is really bugging me, but no, I'm too young. I'm fine." So, I went to bed and got up the next day, and finally acknowleged the pains, the cold sweats, the lightheadedness, and the upset stomach. I finally admitted "I don't feel good, and I think I need to go get checked out." So I had someone drive me to the hospital, and sure enough, I was having a mild heart attack. They kept me over the weekend and catheterized me on Monday morning. They woke me up during the catheterization to tell me that I had an artery (Right Coronary Artery) that was 100% blocked. They put 3 stents in (a total of 70mm of stents) in that artery. Not sure why they woke me up... it's not like I was going to deny treatment.So to summarize, it was surprising that my heart was higher in my chest than I thought. It's behind the center of your sternum, and feels almost like it's in your throat. The "left arm pain" that people feel was right in my armpit, like you're grabbing the hollow under your pectoral muscle near the armpit. When you get the symptoms, go get checked out.
