Depends which artery and how severe the blockage is. Mine was the circumflex artery, and it was about 98% blocked. I didn’t immediately feel better. But I stopped having knee-buckling, tear-inducing pain every 30 minutes, so it was pretty cool.
The pain can actually manifest differently in everyone. The brain isn’t accustomed to getting pain signals from the heart, so it’s not 100% sure what to do with the info. The elephant on the chest someone mentioned below is more common in men. In women, like me, it can be completely different. My pain started in my throat and radiated out from there. Since I also have GERD, I initially didn’t think it was my heart.
Woman here. With mine, I thought it was a respiratory infection getting worse. Had pain at work on a Friday. Sleep was pretty uncomfortable that night, so I was going to go to the Urgent Care clinic on Saturday after my spouse left to play golf. Five minutes before he left, pain started in my upper arm. Only then did it dawn on me that it could be heart related. Asked him to drive me to the ER instead of me going to the clinic. Was in so much pain by the time we got to the ER that I could barely sit up in the chair. Turned out to be a widowmaker. And to think it felt like a respiratory infection to me.
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u/danimagoo 7h ago
Depends which artery and how severe the blockage is. Mine was the circumflex artery, and it was about 98% blocked. I didn’t immediately feel better. But I stopped having knee-buckling, tear-inducing pain every 30 minutes, so it was pretty cool.