Heartburn Heart Attack

Q: My wife recently had a heart attack caused by angina. She is fine now and taking a medicine to help her angina. Also she carries nitro tablets if she has an angina attack. Since she has an hiatal hernia she gets heart burn occasionally. She is very concerned that she cannot tell the difference between heart burn pain and angina pain. She is also affraid if she miss interprets the heart burn pain and goes to the hospital complaining of angina. She will be embarrassed and feels it is a waste of everybody's time and money. How can she reliably tell the difference between heart burn and angina? can anyone in the group help me please?

A:I don't know. Since angina symptoms manifest so differently how could anyone determine the difference for sure without going to the ER and checking it out. Even if she pigged out on food that was sure to give her heartburn, why would she risk being wrong and possibly dead? If she went to the ER ten different times with the same symptoms and nine ended up being heartburn and only one ended

up being angina, wouldn't it be worth those nine embarrassing episodes anyway, who cares....better safe IMO than sorry. What price for health would be wasteful? Course, I would expect she has been educated how to take her nitro and when to go to ER. I don't think nitro will relieve heartburn ever but it can help with angina. Why do I say all this? Cause I am one of the ones who said, it's not that bad of a pain...I don't think I need to go to the hospital wouldnt call 911 but drove instead to my daughter's workplace, a pharmacy, and got her to drive me to the hospital....stupidity runs in my family....apologized to every nurse and doc who saw me for being a knee jerking sissy