I had similar symptoms, and blew them off as well.
In my case, I kept having "heartburn" in the evenings, especially when laying down to go to sleep, and even asked my doctor about it. He ran some tests, and they came back clean, but he did not do the heart enzymes as I was having no other symptoms. Finally, I had the "big one" and it still felt like really bad heartburn. Still thinking it was a stomach issue, I went to bed, and told the wife we would go have it checked in the morning. Big mistake!
We went to the emergency room the next day because while I no longer had pain, I felt very bad, and had no energy. Fortunately for me, the doctor on duty that day was actually retired and working part time, and had seen this exact thing numerous times before. I knew I was probably in trouble when he overheard my wife describing my symptoms to the admitting nurse, spun on his heel and called for a crash cart
To cut the long story short, in my case, my left anterior was blocked so much they couldn't get a true reading, practically completely, the next two were around 90 - 95%, and for some odd reason the fourth was fine. The contrast only pooled when they injected it except for the fourth. I had to have an auxiliary pump installed to keep me alive until they could do the emergency triple bypass the next day, and they weren't greatly optimistic of my odds of surviving the surgery. The discomfort I felt in the weeks leading up to the big one were believed to have been a series of smaller heart attacks. I made it, but over time one of the bypasses failed, causing me to have another heart attack, this time due to it severely damaging a large section of my heart.
Sorry to bore you with so much detail, but I wanted to give a little background to emphasize both the OP's and my points: In the weeks leading up to my first heart attack, the heart attack itself,
and the second heart attack, at no time did I have the "normal" symptoms of a heart attack, it felt like just some bad heartburn, and for the big one, I felt a little short of breath. No pain radiating into the left arm, etc. Even my doctor didn't see it. Looking back, I had a major clue that I overlooked that I want to share.
Obviously, I am no doctor and this is not medical advice. When I had the "heartburn" I would grab some Tums, Maalox, or whatever, and it didn't go away. I think that should have been of much more concern to both me and the doctor.
For Danny76, better to have it checked and find nothing, than do what I did!
I'd also recommend to anyone over 40 to find a good cardiologist, and have a workup done. They can spot things your general practitioner won't, and have the specialized equipment as well. Make it a part of your annual physical.
