Other men with SCAD?

Hello! I hope you are doing well. My husband had a SCAD yesterday. I was doing my reserch and found your comment.
We don't know yet the root cause in my husband's situation. The doctors are telling us someting about an autoimune or connecting tissue disease.
But I'm sure a recent emotional stress was the trigger.
Can you tell me more about your SCAD event?
Thank you!

@miramar1234 wow, glad you found my comment. What I’ve learned is that SCAD is little understood by most doctors. Having said that, most of the knowledge around it pertains to the people that tend to have them: Middle aged Women. I am blessed to have a cardiologist who knows a little more than the average one about it and he told me (and my research supports it) is that men are far less likely to have a connective tissue disease that causes it than women are. My research also indicates that it tends to be a “perfect storm” scenario that will cause it: strong emotional state along with a violent or aggressive physical act and stress. All at once. I know for myself that moments before I had mine that perfect storm described me to a “T”

I’m not saying he doesn’t have one of those diseases, but if you can say the above is true for him, I suspect it was just the same sort of thing. I think it’s the closest thing to “dying from a broken heart” that there is. Please stay in touch.

Hi @miramar1234 and @andremathieu, and welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect. I am glad to see you connect, though so sorry that it takes Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection (SCAD) in common.

I want to provide an overview of SCAD you may want to review if you haven’t already.
- Mayo Clinic SCAD Overview
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/spontaneous-coronary-artery-dissection/symptoms-causes/syc-20353711
My understanding is treating SCAD focuses on restoring blood flow, managing pain and preventing it from happening again. It makes total sense that you want to understand more about what caused yours. I am tagging @bosse because he has mentioned SCAD and may understand more about how it differs in men.

@miramar1234, how is your husband doing? @andremathieu, how are you? What is next?

Thank you for writing @jlharsh

How am I? It depends on the day. Physically, I think I'm good. Unfortunately at this point, my battle lies between my ears. I have a lot of anxiety about the unknown future. I have had great BP readings since the incident, for the most part. One of my coping mechanism for anxiety had been nicotine on and off for years. Until it was on full time. The truth is last summer I wasn't thinking about SCAD at all anymore, really. Then late summer early fall I had to stop the nicotine for other reasons and my anxiety and withdrawal spiked my BP and I've been obsessing about it ever since. I have been reassured that all is well, but I need to work on controlling the anxiety side of things as that is probably my #1 enemy (and a potential precursor to more trouble). Its one of the reasons I reached out on here - as talking to people that understand what it is like to deal with a condition like this helps with the struggle. I exercise daily (an hour or so), I eat healthy, I am a normal/good weight. I SHOULD NOT have any risk factors, but when I went in with SCAD they almost sent me home because I didn't appear that I should have any risk factors then, too... Until the troponin level started coming up...

@andremathieu
Thank you for being open about difficulties managing day to day. It sounds like you are finding a comfortable place your mind can rest will help your SCAD concerns and overall health. I imagine getting away from nicotine as a way of coping is difficult, but something you will be able to have some control over to live your best life. Good news!

I have not fit in any boxes, so completely understand when you say you should not have any risk factors and didn’t appear like you should at the ER either. I hit a circulation crisis five years ago after going in circles with my own care. Now, I have a great care team and gaining confidence as I learn more about my own situation. I am learning what I can control, taking the next best step to live my best life!

You are already doing so much to help yourself, now just need to figure out how to sustain, easier said than done. You mention talking to others (including women) that have had a SCAD event. You may have seen another new discussion, if not I am tagging @wefo64 who has had one recently and may have thoughts for you.
- Recent SCAD Connect Discussion
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/recent-scad/
It sounds like nicotine is a hurdle you want to address. Maybe it would help to create a discussion in the Smoking & Quitting Support Group. As you wait for others to comment you could join to see what conversations are happening there, if you haven’t already.
- Smoking & Quitting Support Group -
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/group/smoking-quitting/
I am happy to share anything that may help you. I would like to stay up to date as to how you are doing. You encourage me, I am gaining momentum to address what is in front of me.

What is next for you, has your doctor made recommendations? What is the next, best thing in front of you?

@jlharsh thanks for the response. The next best thing for me is remaining steadfast with diet and exercise. So far, so good. My Dr. has told me there is nothing to treat: no issues at all except slightly high LDL Cholesterol which I'm now on a statin for. So in his mind, all is well and the only thing he's treating me for (despite my history) is the cholesterol. Like I said, its my mind that gets in the way.
I hope you can continue to fight your own good fight. Like I said, just having connections helps me not feel alone about things. Thanks for that!