• Be aware that something very different is happening in your body not the usual men’s symptoms but inexplicable things happening. It is said that many more women than men die of their first (and last) MI because they didn’t know they were having one and commonly mistake it as indigestion, take some Maalox or other anti-heartburn preparation and go to bed, hoping they’ll feel better in the morning when they wake up … which doesn’t happen.
  • ‘Call the Paramedics.  And if you can, take an aspirin. TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE! Do NOT try to drive yourself to the ER you are a hazard to others on the road.  Do NOT have your panicked spouse drive who will be speeding and looking anxiously at what’s happening with you instead of the road. Do NOT call your doctor — he doesn’t know where you live, and doesn’t carry the equipment in his car that you need to be saved! The Paramedics do, principally OXYGEN that you need ASAP.
  • Don’t assume it couldn’t be a heart attack because you have a normal cholesterol count. Research has discovered that a cholesterol elevated reading is rarely the cause of an MI (unless it’s unbelievably high and/or accompanied by high blood pressure). MI’s are usually caused by long-term stress and inflammation in the body, which dumps all sorts of deadly hormones into your system to sludge things up in there.  Pain in the jaw can wake you from a sound sleep.