Nurse who had attack now knows to heed the signs

Cardiac rehab helped one woman get over her fear.
By TRACEY D'ASTOLFO
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
On the morning of July 24, 2002, Mary Lou Lazor awoke feeling tired and achy. She had spent the day before pulling up wet carpeting and removing debris from the flooded basement of her home.
At 8 a.m., the 53-year-old nurse felt what she described as an "elephant sitting" on her chest. Her life changed drastically at that moment.
"I knew exactly what it was, and I tried to convince myself that it would go away," she recalls. "I worked in the emergency room and I always kind of laughed at people who said it felt like an elephant sat on their chest, but that's exactly what it felt like."
Lazor called 911 when the pain got worse, extending down her left arm. She felt light-headed.
Blood shut off
She was rushed to the hospital, where the cardiologist determined that she had Prinzmetal angina -- chest pain due to a spasm of the coronary artery, which had shut off the flow of blood to the left ventricle of her heart.
The doctor told Lazor that this was the best kind of heart attack to have and that damage was minimal. He said cardiac rehabilitation wasn't necessary in her case. She was started on medications and told to resume her normal activities and "not to worry."
"That wasn't easy. No one could tell me why it had happened, what had caused it or what I could do to prevent it from happening again," she said.
Lazor said there is no history of heart disease in her family, she has always stuck to a healthful diet and is physically fit.
She did suffer from tachycardia, an irregular heartbeat, when she drank caffeine, but occasional stress tests to monitor this condition showed no irregularities.
Cardiac rehab
Lazor said she lived in fear of a recurrence until the priest at her parish, who had recently suffered a heart attack, persuaded her to go to cardiac rehabilitation. After getting her doctor's OK, Lazor started rehab.
"A year later, I still go. I spend three hours, three days a week working out. I have an irregular heartbeat and have had chest pains twice that required nitro to stop them, but I don't panic anymore. I have moved on and am able to live with less fear," she said.
She said going to rehab helped her get past her fear. She notes that many patients live in fear of the symptoms' happening again and can be paralyzed by this fear.
They despair and do nothing to help themselves.
Different symptoms
"I think that all women should be aware that symptoms for women are different than they are for men," she said. "They have to kind of go on their instincts if they feel there is something wrong, to keep after their doctor, telling him that something doesn't feel right. We have to sometimes say, 'Hey, please check it out.' Better to have it checked and find out you're OK, than to ignore it and then it becomes something worse."