There was no blood but a clinic waiting room full of patients, so I grudgingly let them live even though they won't see Mom until tomorrow.

Yesterday I had lunch with Miriam at a Thai place, and she had some sort of mushroom salad. But she couldn't find any mushrooms in it. Eventually we noticed that the "noodles" in the salad had these little things on the end that looked like mushroom caps. They kinda' tasted like mushrooms too. Anyone know what these are?

An anger-inducing article: HEART DISEASE IN WOMEN: A LIFE-AND-DEATH GENDER GAP

Some stats, and lots of anecdotes of women with heart disease whose symptoms were misdiagnosed, overlooked, ignored, etc.

That's not news. (I'm not pooh-poohing you for posting the link, tommyrot; I'm just boggling at the idea that it's "news" that medicine is extremely gendered.)

tommyrot, those sound like enoki mushrooms, or something closely related to 'em. [link]

I'm not pooh-poohing you for posting the link, tommyrot; I'm just boggling at the idea that it's "news" that medicine is extremely gendered.

Yeah, I'm hoping maybe the article could be forwarded to those who need to read it.

tommyrot, those sound like enoki mushrooms, or something closely related to 'em.

Yeah, that's what they looked like.

We'd never seen mushrooms like that before.

WANT! (Jilli, if you're around, you must click the clicky link. Assuming you don't own these already.)

[eta: I'm especially fond of this one]

Yeah, I'm hoping maybe the article could be forwarded to those who need to read it.

theman@establishment.com?

I'm not pooh-poohing you for posting the link, tommyrot; I'm just boggling at the idea that it's "news" that medicine is extremely gendered.

Yeah, I'm hoping maybe the article could be forwarded to those who need to read it.

I, more than anyone I know (except my brother) have BIG HONKING heart disease risk factors. What I hate -- and what terrifies me -- is that reading about warning signs of a heart attack is so goddamn vague.

"Unusual" fatigue? Seriously, how do I quantify that? I'm tired all the time.
Sleep disturbance? I take Ambien for insomnia -- what KIND of "sleep disturbance" am I looking for?
Chest discomfort? Um. Can you define "discomfort"? Seriously. I have discomfort in about 5 different body parts right now.
"Weakness"? OH MY GOD PEOPLE.

I guess my problem -- and this is probably just VERY specific to how my brain processes things, how I learn -- is that I really really REALLY need SPECIFIC examples of what these symptoms look like.

I absolutely understand that no 2 patients are the same, and so the symptoms will never manifest in exactly the same way in any 2 given patients. What Suzie Cardiac experiences might not be what I experience. I understand and accept that.

But still, with the understanding that the symptoms can manifest in an array of ways, ANY clarification would help me. Anything at all, to just narrow it down.

I figure I'm a walking cardiac time bomb, but if you tell me to "know the symptoms" and then tell me "sleep disturbance," all you're going to do is freak my shit out and make me worry that every little thing means a heart attack.

It scares the crap out of me, which I've maybe never admitted before. And so I want to know what should legitimately send me to an ER and what's just plain old fatigue, you know?

What I hate -- and what terrifies me -- is that reading about warning signs of a heart attack is so goddamn vague.

Not to mention the vast majority of those are also symptoms of just about EVERYTHING. So if you're experiencing fatigue and indigestion, you may be having a heart attack, or you may have just eaten Thanksgiving dinner.

(Lists like this are why DH is not allowed to Google for medical symptoms when he's feeling unwell. Hypochondria and the intertubes are unmixy things.)

So if you're experiencing fatigue and indigestion, you may be having a heart attack, or you may have just eaten Thanksgiving dinner.

And if you happen to really be having a heart attack but ALSO did just eat Thanksgiving dinner, then you might assume it's just the turkey. Because nothing ever exists in a vaccum. I have fatigue, sometimes worse than others. I also don't sleep enough, which I attribute the fatigue to. Which is probably right, UNLESS I just happen to ALSO be having a heart attack.

My dad described it as feeling like an elephant was sitting on his chest (unfuckingbelievably heavy pressure as well as extreme difficulty breathing). So I figure I'd recognize that. But, because I'm a woman, I might never have that symptom, but only have the weird-ass vague "sleep disturbances."

If it has to happen, I'd rather have the elephant feeling, because that seems fairly goddamn clear-cut.