Hey John in Minnesnowta

Great news! Now go drink some slick 50 to keep the old ticker going smooth and reduce friction :D

So what were the signs? Are/were you a stress junkey? (high strung) I sometimes wonder about the difference between stress (tightness) and heartburn and something more serious....

I never enjoyed stress, but had a considerable amount of it until by luck my life settled down fifteen years before I had this heart problem last year.

The doctors said mine was a genetic predisposition. It skips around generations. My mother's side of the family had no signs of heart issues for all the generations recorded. My father's side - well the men all died too young to know. The doctor made the point by asking, "Next, John, is anyone on either side of your family bald?" and I said, "Come to think of it, No. Never, all the way back to 1865." He laughed and said, "See how it works?" (I am balding).

Heartburn - a sign of heart failure can feel like reflux, but it doesn't last as long. In my case the pain became so bad that I could not walk half a block. I'd rest half a minute, it would go away. Then come back in another half-block. That's not heartburn or reflux.

The most distressing fact is this: I know three men who died of heart attacks in 2006. Two were younger than I. None had any symptoms of heart problems (while I did). All died of their first attack.

Now I am no doctor, so what I say next could be so wrong - but those three guys who died also toyed with a little cocaine from time to time. I wonder it masked their heart conditions until they hit the big one that killed them on the spot.

Me - no drugs, no nothing. Life is too short as it is.