A woman who experienced a heart attack has revealed the five warning signs she noticed in the lead up to the medical incident.
Nikki suffered a heart attack aged 46 at the end of last month, with her symptoms beginning about a week before the event. She’s used her TikTok page, martyandnikki, which she shares with her husband, to share her story and educate others about potential indicators.
In the TikTok video, she stated that she has no prior medical conditions. Below are the five warning signs Nikki experienced:
Sore shoulder
She explained: “So about a week ago I started waking up in the morning [with a sore left shoulder], where it felt like I was sleeping on it wrong which I actually [thought might be] a ‘frozen shoulder’ from perimenopause.” Nikki also mentioned that her shoulder was sore again the day before her heart attack.
Nausea
On the day before the heart attack, she felt nauseous, but it only took her “about 15 minutes to get over that” before she continued with her usual daily activities. On the morning of the cardiac event, she woke up with a sore shoulder and felt nauseous again, so she made herself some coffee and sat back down.
Chest tightness
After sitting down, Nikki began to feel as if her chest was “kinda tight and like someone was squeezing it.” This then led to another common heart attack warning sign.
Pain in other parts of the body and sweating
Nikki experienced a pain that travelled from her shoulder down her arm, prompting her to tell her husband, Marty, not to leave for work as she wasn’t “feeling that well”. She decided to take a shower to see if it would alleviate her discomfort.
Concerned, Marty offered to call an ambulance, but Nikki wanted to try a hot shower first to see if it would help. After the shower, she felt better and, having a doctor’s appointment at 10am for another issue, she told Marty to go to work, assuring him that she would inform the doctor about the incident and follow his advice if he suggested going to the emergency room.
Nikki recounted: “I took a shower, by the time I got out I felt better. I actually had a doctor’s appointment for 10am for something else and I said ‘go ahead and go to work because I’m going to be at the doctor’s office later anyway so I’m sure he’s gonna listen to my heart. I will tell him what happened and if he sends me to the emergency room then I’ll just let you know when you can just meet me there.’
“So I did go to the doctor’s office at 10am, I told him everything that happened and he said at that point that sometimes there can be like a warning where your body kinda corrects itself and that if it happens again I should go straight to the emergency room but he didn’t feel like I should go to the emergency room right then because I wasn’t experiencing any symptoms and they probably weren’t gonna be able to see what was going on.”
After leaving her doctor’s appointment, Nikki decided to grab some lunch but quickly began to feel unwell again. She recalled: “By the time I went from the restaurant to maybe a couple doors over to a store I probably was experiencing a full heart attack at that point.
“The arm pain was radiating all the way down. My chest felt like it was being squeezed as tight as you could squeeze it. I started to feel sick again.”
She then messaged Marty to let him know the symptoms had returned and that she was just one street away from the emergency room. Faced with a dilemma of whether to call an ambulance or drive herself, Nikki opted to drive, during which she began to experience “extreme sweating” and a “pain was radiating all the way down, almost more as a numbing feeling.”
Upon arriving at the hospital, she mentioned that a male nurse immediately noticed her condition and “within seconds” they recognized she was having a heart attack.
What are the signs of a heart attack?
The NHS lists several key symptoms to watch out for: chest pain, pain in other parts of the body, sensations of light-headedness or dizziness, sweating, shortness of breath, nausea or vomiting, intense anxiety akin to a panic attack, and coughing or wheezing.
The health body highlights that chest discomfort, which can manifest as pressure, heaviness, tightness or a squeezing sensation across your chest, is “often severe, but some people may only experience minor pain, similar to indigestion” and “while the most common symptom is chest pain, symptoms can vary from person to person.”
The NHS strongly recommends dialling 999 without delay if you suspect someone might be suffering a heart attack, emphasising: “The faster you act, the better their chances.”