Also remember that heart attacks in women can exhibit markedly different symptoms, e.g. without any chest pain or arm numbness, often misjudged until too late.
https://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/Conditions/HeartAttack/Warnin...
What do you do if you've had symptoms for weeks/months?
Until you've been diagnosed with a heart attack, the word "mild" does mean much. People over the age of 35-40 have many chronic mild pains
If you've had symptoms for a few hours that are untreatable by medication (like I said), then you call your doctor. Your doctor will tell you whether or not to come in. If it's chronic old-person pain, your doctor will find that out, and tell you next steps.
If you've had symptoms for weeks/months, well, I guess that's probably not a heart attack, good job? Still should have gone in within the first day.
You're spot on with your previous post, but just wanted to add a note to anyone reading that if you've been having intermittent chest pain or discomfort for weeks/months, it still could be a heart problem (or reflux or a host of other things) that needs to be checked out. You could have a partial blockage of a coronary blood vessels (the blood vessels that provide blood/oxygen to the heart muscle itself) that provide insufficient blood flow, either when you're active, or randomly.
(this is not medical advice!)
TLDR: It's probably not a heart attack if you can pinpoint the pain, if the pain gets worse on a deep breath, the pain is related to movement of your shoulder or arm, or if it only lasts a few second.
You should call a doctor if the pain is mild but consistent and is untreatable by pain killers, and remains regardless of if you're resting or not.
You should call 911 or get to a hospital immediately if your chest pain is "crushing" or "squeezing," and especially if it is accompanied by ANY ONE of the following: sweating, shortness of breath, nausea/vomiting, pain that spreads from the chest to the neck, jaw, or one or both shoulders or arms, dizziness or lightheadedness, fast or irregular pulse, severe weakness, inability to walk.
So yea you don't go to the hospital for every pulled muscle, but do your best to memorize the above symptoms of escalating seriousness, and you should be ok.