My sister had a heart attack.

My brother called me last night to tell me my sister was in intensive care in the hospital after having stent placement to remove a 100% blockage in an artery that goes to the back of the heart. They removed a blood clot too.

I called her today on her cell phone because all the lines in the coronary unit at the hospital were busy. I was surprised but happy when she answered the phone. I asked her what happened and she told me that she had been doing some beadwork three nights ago and her chest started hurting. She attributed it to sitting in one position for too long. The pain was in the middle of her chest, not on the left so she didn't think it was her heart. She went to bed. The next day it was still hurting but she went to work anyway thinking she would work through it and be okay. At some point it hurt bad enough that she went to see a staff nurse at her place of employment. Her blood pressure was high but what did that mean? She went back to her desk. The pain then got a whole lot worse so she drove to her doctor's office. Her doctor sent her to the hospital in an ambulance. She had had a heart attack.

It's a reminder that women's symptoms of a heart attack are very different from men's. For one thing, they aren't as clear cut.