[nostromoa]

I don't display heart attack symptoms well perhaps due to a high tolerance for pain. That said symptoms include some sort of pain, chest (elephant sitting on chest), jaw, in my case a feeling like a baseball pressing into the hollow of my left shoulder. When it started my very first thought was "I am having a heart attack." Which is to say when you have a heart attack its distinct enough from anything else you ever felt on your body you probably recognize it as a heart attack. So don't worry, you will know when you have a heart attack as long as you don't slide into immediate denial. Another sign of a heart attack pain is the pain gets worse and one squirms to try to get away from it (like a leg cramp setting in type squirm)so as it gets worse you will definitely ask to be taken to a hospital unless you are utterly insane. For me it wasn't what I connote as "pain" which has a sense of sharpness to it, it was more like a pressure in an area that was very uncomfortable.

By the way your heart doesn't feel pain itself no nerves for that, which is why there are all these other spots that get reported as uncomfortable or painful because the body "finds someplace else" to express the problem. The other sign is the shortness of breath and gasping...this must be simply because your body is responding to the heart not getting oxygen past the artery blockage (downstream)and is trying to get more oxygen. Note also when you get that second stent they are blocking an artery to insert it so you get a chance to experience the heart attack feeling as per shortness of breath if you missed it the first time.