Might be worth getting the word out about what happened to Barry. I had a mild heart attack 2 months ago. It didn't feel like one - I'd been having chest pain for about three months, but thought it might be oesophageal spasms (I've had that for a long time, and occasional episodes of reflux). Or at worst angina. Then I got an attack that felt no worse than the previous ones, but wasn't brought on by exertion. Called an ambulance; the EMT guys did an ECG and it looked normal to them, but they took me into hospital anyway. Blood tests showed a mild heart attack.

They did a whole lot of investigations, but the clincher was the treadmill test, hooked up to an ECG. I didn't get very far on it before they called a halt. The nurse looked quite concerned, then asked if I was diabetic. From what the ECG was saying, I ought to have been curled up on the floor moaning, but I didn't feel much at all, just a bit tired and uncomfortable. This sort of masking of symptoms is common in diabetics, and also in women. Dunno why it happened to me, being neither.

The moral is, get chest pains looked at sooner rather than later. If I'd continued to ignore what was happening to me, I'd doubt if I'd have seen the year out. As it is, an angioplasty seems to have more or less sorted the problem.

Good luck, Barry.