At the risk of scaring any readers, not really.
Mine started like a chest tightness. I walked into the room and sat on the bed. I started hyperventilating like I had some indigestion. Short, shallow breaths. I had a pain in my chest like a fire - like a red-hot sword had been stuck in my heart. It burned, how it burned. And it was a strange pain and I knew it wasn't like anything I have ever had. Not like a broken bone, or a torn muscle, or like a cramp or a cut. This was fire.
I sat on the bed and said "I think I am having a heart attack." Wow, what an understatement.
So I was in ICU for five days, two of which I was in a coma.
I also had a tamponade, and they had to take me back to theatre and remove the clotting around my heart. My BP was 50. So open again, undo the sternum wire, and then clean it again and wire it all back up. Add 2 more hours onto the surgery. I think 10 in total.
I spent two weeks in the ward and discharged.
That was 11 months ago. I think I am doing okay. But things are different. I am different. I can't put my finger on it. But my eyes are open.