Let me tell you a story...

[P3nT4gR4m]

It's about a guy, early forties, going for a walk with his dog and his partner. It's a nice day, sun is shining, bit windy but there's no need to wrap up. They're going up the local woods, taking the dog on it's usual walk. They've been to a party the night before where they both drank way more than the recommended dosage and crawled back home around four AM.

It's a steep hill, through farmland, up to where the woods begin. Good excercise. Really gets the blood pumping, especially on a day like this. So they stop for a rest at a park bench at the top. The guy is glad of the rest because, truth be told, he really aint feeling to clever. There's a tightness in his chest and a throbbing pain in his arm that feels like it's coming from the bone.

Tightness in the chest and sore left arm is one of those heart attack symptoms he thinks to himself but that's just paranoia. Truth is this motherfucker is bulletproof but still, it's not going away like it's been doing recently. In fact it's getting worse. She laughs at him, thinking he's hung over and feeling like shit. He turns away, clutching his chest where he can feel the tighness and his heart, not pumping like it normally does after a workout but sorta flapping.

Now he's getting nervous but the girl is still laughing and, he doesn't want to spoil it with something as stupid as this. And then he begins to wonder if it really is stupid. If it gets much worse it is going to feel like a heart attack and it is getting worse. The dog, which has been runnning about, doing it's usual exploring this, seems to sense somethings wrong and comes over and starts licking his face and whining a bit.

The girl is still laughing and that's when it crosses his mind. "Holy shit, this might be it" And he still doesn't want to tell her, to make her stop laughing cos, fuck it, if this is the end he wants the last thing he hears to be her laughter. He's spent more than a decade with her, much of the time trying to make her make that noise. It's musical, lights up the room. Lights up his heart.

Speaking of the heart he's still not quite sure if that's what's wrong, surely heart attacks just knock you out, sort of thing. He remembers a video game he used to play years ago. A sort of heart surgery simulator. The first part of the game involved diagnosing the patients. Some of them needed heart surgery and some had gallstones or trapped wind. Trapped wind symptoms in the game were very similar to heart attack as he remembers. Maybe it's just a renegade fart.

The girl is still laughing but now it's getting to the stage where he can't hide it from her anymore. Now he's actually starting to panic. heart rate increasing, chest getting tighter. He forces himself to take shallow breaths, reasoning that hyperventillating will just increase the revs and if the engine is damaged that isn't a good idea. She's noticed now. The laughing stops. Not abruptly but kinda tails off awkwardly. Like "You're fucking with me, right?"

He wishes he was. He even tries to pretend he is but she's not buying his bullshit anymore. He concentrates on relaxing, shallow breaths, let the tension go away. It's beginning to work. So they sit there for another five minutes or so, till he feels like he can stand up and then they turn back and walk the mile and a half back home. He feels himself going into shock but it's very mild. Almost more of an adrenaline comedown really. They talk about it. He's going to get it checked as soon as they make it back home.

But by the time they get home he's talked himself out of getting anything checked. It wasn't a heart attack, otherwise walking home would have killed him, right? It was trapped wind or some other fucking thing. Felt like shit but then he's still half drunk from the night before maybe it was just the mother of all hangovers?

Right?

[Requia ☣]

There's a lot of other heart problems it could be.  Arrhythmia comes to mind.  I had a neighbor who had that, put off going to the doctor for so long he got brain damage, not to mention the accumulated damage to his heart from all the 'events' as his doctor put it.

[Payne]

Better to believe it is a heart attack, and find out that it isn't after a check up, than to force onself into believing it can't be and be wrong (or worse or believe it won't be if one just doesn't get oneself checked out, something that either himself or herself could be guilty of in this story).

'Course I can't really give you any tips for the story writing, having never had first hand experience of a heart attack or serious heart problems, bar a tricky thyroid problem my mother had a number of years back.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

GO TO THE FUCKING DOCTOR PENT. I am NOT FUCKING KIDDING GO TO THE DOCTOR.

[Shibboleet The Annihilator]

You can have a heart attack and not die. You may have had a heart attack or you there may be some other sort of problem.

Get yourself checked out, doing so might save your life.

[Doktor Howl]

Pent, you either had a mild heart attack, or a panic attack.  A simple blood test will tell them which one it was.

In the first hour after a heart attack, almost all damage can be avoided.  Most people don't bother, if it's not bad.

After that, they figure it's too late, and leave it be.  It's usually the precursor to the big one that kills them.

Go to the fucking doctor.  Today.  Odds are it was a panic attack, but you really have to know.

[P3nT4gR4m]

Yeah I'ma go to the doctor. I'll feel like a complete fucking pussy when it turns out to be nothing but I guess the alternative is not feeling like a pussy, for a very long time.

Did a bit of reading on symptoms and they don't really match up, tho - pain was on my left side apparently heart attack is "central"

I've had panic attacks years ago it was nothing like that. I'm still going with indigestion or some shit but I want to get it checked anyroad. Was meant to be going kayaking tomorrow, too. Fucking nuisance

[MMIX]

Fucking nuisance

yes, and snuffing it can be downright inconvenient . . . 

[Jasper]

The story would have been so much more enjoyable if it were a fiction.  Glad to hear you're goiing to take care of it.  It would ruin my day if you died horribly.

[Doktor Howl]

Yeah I'ma go to the doctor. I'll feel like a complete fucking pussy when it turns out to be nothing but I guess the alternative is not feeling like a pussy, for a very long time.

Did a bit of reading on symptoms and they don't really match up, tho - pain was on my left side apparently heart attack is "central"

I've had panic attacks years ago it was nothing like that. I'm still going with indigestion or some shit but I want to get it checked anyroad. Was meant to be going kayaking tomorrow, too. Fucking nuisance

Also, hiatial hernia is a possibilty.  In addition, heart attack symptoms present differently from person to person, and panic attacks may also get more severe with age.

[Faust]

Yeah I'ma go to the doctor. I'll feel like a complete fucking pussy when it turns out to be nothing but I guess the alternative is not feeling like a pussy, for a very long time.

Did a bit of reading on symptoms and they don't really match up, tho - pain was on my left side apparently heart attack is "central"

I've had panic attacks years ago it was nothing like that. I'm still going with indigestion or some shit but I want to get it checked anyroad. Was meant to be going kayaking tomorrow, too. Fucking nuisance

I once got the arm thing and extreme pain in my chest but it was because of lack of oxygen which turned out to be a severe asthema attack. I got pumped full of adrenaline and was told I was incredibly stupid for letting it get that bad.

Either way as the others have said: Go to a doctor, getting it checked as soon as possible is really important. Go tonight if you feel up for it.

[BADGE OF HONOR]

Um.  You thought you were going to die.  Go to the doctor.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Yeah I'ma go to the doctor. I'll feel like a complete fucking pussy when it turns out to be nothing but I guess the alternative is not feeling like a pussy, for a very long time.

Did a bit of reading on symptoms and they don't really match up, tho - pain was on my left side apparently heart attack is "central"

I've had panic attacks years ago it was nothing like that. I'm still going with indigestion or some shit but I want to get it checked anyroad. Was meant to be going kayaking tomorrow, too. Fucking nuisance

I'll tell you something; I have always had some odd chest sensations that felt like a fish flopping around, often accompanied by lightheadedness and sometimes shakiness. I went to a doctor for it years ago, who referred me to a cardiologist, who had me wear a Holter monitor for two days... which shoed not one single event. The cardiologist all but called me a hypochondriac to my face. I was ashamed, because I thought it was all in my head and I was making much of nothing. Then, about five years ago, during my Yule party, the palpitations were so severe that I went in the bathroom and listened to my heart with a stethoscope my friend loaned me for a costume party... and I could hear my heart go; "beat, beat, beat, beatthunk... beatbeatbeat, beat, beat" over and over again. I called my doctor the next day and he told me that the next time it was happening I should drive directly there, so I did, and he hooked me up to an ECG which charted perfectly exactly what was going on; a harmless, yet annoying, arrhythmia.

My point is, don't worry about feeling like "a pussy" if it turns out there's nothing wrong with you. What happened, happened, and your doctor needs to know about it WHETHER IT'S LIFE THREATENING OR NOT. They might not be able to diagnose it exactly; that doesn't mean nothing happened, or that your doctor doesn't need to know about it.

[Triple Zero]

yes. what everybody said, go to the doctor!!

i got a holter too a couple of years ago to check if i didnt need a pacemaker (wooooo that wouldve sucked) turns out i got an elongated Q-T time. it doesn't do shit. but now I know and that's awesome. plus it makes me feel speciul.

sometimes when I have a chest pain, it turns out I somehow sprained or twisted a chest muscle. combine with hyperventilation, stress and, indeed a bad hangover (those are the worst), and/or smoking weed and/or drinking caffeine (esp. energy drinks not coffee) and it can all go fucked up like that, kind of like you described, although not as bad, but including the numbness in the arm. though more often just the fingers and also my lips for some reason. my mum used to have hyperventilation pretty bad and says it is probably that.

if you find out that it is nothing serious bad heart condition, it could be stress and tensed chest/shoulder muscles. or something. anyway, if it happens more often, a Good Thing that Actually Helps is getting the girl to give you a shoulder/neck massage. calms you down, feels good and softens the muscles and improves flow of blood and stuff.

BUT most important is to GET IT CHECKED OUT cause yeah it might be something bad. and what Dok said, the earlier you get to it, the less damage it will do and if you do it too late, then at some point it will be really bad and you have to give up loads of awesome things in your lifestyle, like salt in your food or something.

[Lies]

I don't wanna sound like a broken record, but, uh, Doctor.