At two in the morning, Clare woke up in pain. It seemed her chest was being squeezed and twisted. She stayed in bed, fearful and anxious, hoping to outlast the dull pain. But it didn’t go away. It spread to her neck and arms. It went on for what seemed an hour, but was probably much less. At moments, she didn’t think she’d see tomorrow. Eventually, the pain stopped and she fell asleep exhausted and didn’t wake until late the following morning. She had had an angina attack.
This was not the first time, but the attacks were happening more often. She used to have these once every few weeks, now they were happening several times a month, usually when she slept. During the day, she didn’t have these attacks, but was short of breath, especially on her increasingly brief walks. She was usually fatigued. Her ankles swelled, too. Together these symptoms pointed to heart diseases.
Nine months earlier, in February 2023, after repeatedly complaining to her doctors that she was short of breath and experiencing pains in the chest, her cardiologist in Canada ordered an echocardiogram (echo). An echo uses ultrasound to make pictures of the heart in order to determine its health, particularly pumping strength, function of the valves, and more. An echo is different from an electrocardiogram (ECG), which studies the electrical signals of a heart.