I frequently saw my father, who died of a heart attack at 59, doubled over with pain. He called it indigestion. I told myself, muscle strain. Muscle strain was a far more accurate diagnosis than I ever imagined. The muscle was my heart.
Luck enters into many events that change lives.
In my case, it was going to a different physician. He looked over my medical records and said that my cholesterol was too high. He noted that my father had died of heart disease and my blood pressure was higher than normal, making me a prime candidate for a heart attack. When he asked me about any pain I had in my chest during exercise, I passed it off as indigestion, but he wasn't fooled. He encouraged me to have a treadmill test, where heart monitors record information while exercising.