Posted by Essie at 12:36pm Mar 6 '10and you don't get relief from them very very soon (I'm amazed they didn't send you home with nitro...) take an ambulance to the emergency room. Did the doctor give you a reason he wasn't prescribing nitro??? I've never heard of someone with stable (or unstable) angina not having nitro prescribed and carried on them at all times.
Time=viability of heart muscle. Our hospital aims at having someone through the doors, and up into the catheterization lab, and a stent placed within 90 minutes of symptom onset/them calling EMS. It really is very important to not wait.
Don't drive yourself, and don't have [private] drive you, either. Take an ambulance. There's nothing that can be done to keep you alive in your car. There are medications, machinery, and supportive techniques that can keep you alive long enough for them to get you to the hospital and open the blockage if you're in an ambulance.
How long for that cardiologist appt?
Nitroglycerin is a vasodilator. It literally causes the coronary arteries to become bigger in diameter, allowing blood to get past a partial blockage. The rule with nitro is that if you take 1 and have no relief, you take another in 5 min. Repeat up to 3 nitro, then get your ass in an ambulance. Aspirin doesn't do anything to improve the current situation, it's meant to be prophylactic.
If you were a family member of mine, I'd be on the phone with your doctor giving him an ear-full. What does he expect aspirin to do? and what's the rationale for not providing a script for nitro?
Time=viability of heart muscle. Our hospital aims at having someone through the doors, and up into the catheterization lab, and a stent placed within 90 minutes of symptom onset/them calling EMS. It really is very important to not wait.
Don't drive yourself, and don't have [private] drive you, either. Take an ambulance. There's nothing that can be done to keep you alive in your car. There are medications, machinery, and supportive techniques that can keep you alive long enough for them to get you to the hospital and open the blockage if you're in an ambulance.
How long for that cardiologist appt?
added on 12:42pm Mar 6 '10:
Like I've said below, aspirin prevents platelet aggregation (keeps clots from forming) to block arteries. It doesn't do a damn thing to dissolve clots, nor does it do anything to dilate blood vessels to increase blood perfusion to the ischemic (oxygen starved) tissue.Nitroglycerin is a vasodilator. It literally causes the coronary arteries to become bigger in diameter, allowing blood to get past a partial blockage. The rule with nitro is that if you take 1 and have no relief, you take another in 5 min. Repeat up to 3 nitro, then get your ass in an ambulance. Aspirin doesn't do anything to improve the current situation, it's meant to be prophylactic.
If you were a family member of mine, I'd be on the phone with your doctor giving him an ear-full. What does he expect aspirin to do? and what's the rationale for not providing a script for nitro?
If the symptoms return - Essie