Know the symptoms, treatments for angina

Grandma was around 85 or 86 and still mowing her lawn. This was back in the ’60s and she had a push mower. She also had a neighbor kid who my uncle paid to mow the lawn, but as soon as he was done she re-did it because only she could do it right. You know women like her, or maybe you are one.

Anyway, one day she had a pressing pain in her chest. She felt a little icky. That was her word for it, “icky.” My mom took her to see her healthcare professional right away. After diagnostics, the doctor said she had angina.

He explained that angina occurs when the heart doesn’t get as much blood and oxygen as it needs because of a blockage of one or more of the heart’s arteries. The blockage was causing pain in the chest that my grandmother was describing as a squeezing feeling. Doc said that some would describe it as a suffocating or burning sensation.

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