Dear All. It’s 3.30am on Monday 27th January and I have some time as I’m awake currently. I’m awake because I’m in hospital. I’m in hospital because on Saturday morning at 4.30am I had a heart attack. The paramedics saved my life for the first time and then the consultant in Stoke where I was taken in a blue light ambulance, saved it again. The nursing teams, auxiliary staff and everyone involved is so brilliant and so kind. (6.43am) (Sorry bloods & blood pressure and a rest. ) The thing I want to highlight is that we aren’t very good at knowing the different presentations of symptoms of cardiac problems in women. It doesn’t always start with left arm pain or jaw pain. It ended up there believe me, and with a crushing burning pain in the centre of my breastbone radiating out over my back and shoulders but that’s not where it started. It started weeks earlier with heartburn and as women can we honestly say that’s something we would take to a doctor? No. Most of us will brush it off and carry on. I know I did. Too trivial, they’re too busy, I’m too busy, “I can’t pitch up there with heartburn how embarrassing wasting their time” But grumbling heartburn if you’ve never suffered from it before, shouldn’t be ignored. I ignored it for the last 6 weeks and here I am. So what I was thinking was I’d post it here and then if any woman with no other symptoms suddenly get heartburn which wont go completely, she could offset her embarrassment at visiting the doctor with my post. Then she can blame me. 10.27am Like many people in my situation I have such love for the NHS. The speed and efficiency of the paramedics, the A&E team at RSH who put two cannulas in my arms so that the hour long blue light trip to stoke was covered “just in case”. The team in Stoke (led by Dr Karim Ratib) and the nurse, who told me gently that I’d had a heart attack and then told me I needed a stent fitted straight away. The immediate procedure, the aftercare ,the time the patience and the dedication, all of it was beautiful and precious and irreplaceable. 10.56am And that’s the word isnt it. Irreplaceable because the NHS is just like the people we all love, absolutely irreplaceable and always there for us when we need them. 💙 Tuesday 28th January. 8.30am Morning all. I’m home again with lots of meds & lots of bruises and so much gratitude for our NHS. I need another stent fitted but this will be in 6-8 weeks. There was mild to moderate damage to my heart from the heart attack but fortunately it wasn’t the part of my heart which carries the love I have for my children, my husband, my family and my friends. I’m going to see Em today because she needs to know what happened from me, so she knows I’m ok, but obviously I’m only giving her enough info to inform not frighten her. I will post this message to you all after that. My big aim right now is to work towards making other women aware of how the symptoms of cardiac problems present so differently in men and women. I’m hoping @wesstreeting as health secretary might help with that. Women matter at every age and women’s health is too important to continue to put ourselves at the bottom of the list. We are so often the glue holding everything together, we fight for those we love and share our concerns and worries with our friends & spouses/partners but not always with GPs in case we’re “being a bother” But it’s time for women to have a “heart to heart” with their GP on that. Don’t leave too late like I did. Huge love, from a moderately damaged heart. Nik xx ❤️ xx