If you haven't noticed with all of the candied hearts, chocolate hearts, heart cards, heart balloons, and red roses, February is Heart Month. However, it's not the kind of Heart Month that you might be thinking of. Since 1963, the U.S. government, with the help of the American Heart Association, has officially labeled February as Heart month; a month in which education and healthy heart habits take center stage.
It's a little known fact that more women suffer from fatal heart disease then men every year; over 400,000 to be exact, and most of those women didn't even know they were at risk. The reason for this is simply because heart attack symptoms in women and in men are very different.
Heart Attack Symptoms in Men
- Chest pain or discomfort that can feel like a squeezing pain in the chest that lasts for more than a few minutes.
- Discomfort of pain in one or both arms, neck, jaw, back or stomach
- Shortness of breath
- Abdominal discomfort
Heart Attack Symptoms in Women
- Unusual fatigue
- Sleep disturbance
- Shortness of breath
- Indigestion
- Anxiety
- Shortness of breath
- Weakness
- Unusual fatigue
- Cold sweat
- Dizziness
As you can see, the symptoms in women are incredibly complex and easy to miss. According to the National Institute of Health, heart disease takes the life of one woman every minute in the U.S. And for those who are lucky enough to catch the risks before it happens, or to live through the traumatic event, surgeries and chronic pain remain in their path.
Chronic Pain After Heart Surgery
Whether you're going in for knee surgery or heart surgery, there will be some pain management involved during the recovery stage. In the grand scheme of things, pain management after surgery is incredibly important to help you get back on your feet faster, get active faster, and thus speed up the recovery process.
After all types of surgery, the most common pain is stiffness in the muscles surrounding the affected area. With heart surgery there can be some muscle or incision discomfort, itching, tightness, and/or numbness along the incision. If bypass surgery was necessary, you might experience pain in the areas of the legs where vein grafts were performed. However, the shortness of breath, weakness, dizziness and cold sweats that you felt before the heart attack should be diminished.
To manage post-surgical pain you will more than likely be referred to a pain specialist who can bring together a team of experts to control the amount of pain you will be in after surgery. Pain management might include medication, physical therapy, nutrition advice, and much more. Heat and cold therapies might be advised, as well as appointments with a massage therapist to help your body relax and loosen after surgery.
Psychological Affects of Heart Surgery
It is not uncommon for survivors of heart attack and heart surgery to experience changes within their thought process after the traumatic event. Like any life-altering experience, living though heart disease can change a person.
The most common emotion after heart surgery is sadness and depression, which could easily be the result of not knowing what to expect or not being able to do simple, everyday tasks without getting fatigued. Up to 15 percent of patients with cardiovascular disease and up to 20 percent of patients who have undergone coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery experience major depression, according to a study published in the American Heart Journal.
Unfortunately, depression plays a key role in the recovery process and the risk factors for having another heart attack. Depression can affect mobility, sleep habits, eating habits, prescription continence, and much more.
Depression has been proven to be a such a risk factor in cardiac disease that the American Heart Association (AHA) has recommended that all cardiac patients be screened for depression using simple screening questions and an easy-to-administer survey called the Patient Health Questionnaire.
Whether you've survived heart disease and lived through heart surgery, the emotional and physical effects stay with you throughout your life. Pain management, including psychological, physical, and nutritional therapies, are your best options to avoid another attack.
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