As I've helped people set up their Apple Watches over the years, I have tried my best to explain the out of the box health features they provide users: fall detection (It has helped one person I know when she needed medical assistance after a serious fall.), exercise monitoring, sleep tracking, noise level monitoring, arterial fibrillation detection, and heart rate monitoring.

I never expected some of those features would so directly matter to me.

On 31 January, I had a heart attack (As the title says, I'm fine.). It was something of a fluke event involving a blood clot in a fairly clear artery — clear enough that the plaque levels in the dramatically named "widowmaker" wouldn't have warranted medication had anyone measured them on the 30th.

Thanks to The Sanger Clinic in Charlotte, NC, I'm still in the game.

While this may be TMI for some, I considered it important to stress Apple's ECG disclaimer on the watch and on its website:

Note: Apple Watch never checks for heart attacks.

I had read that disclaimer before but had never fully processed it. While I was, like any other typically foolish male, trying to determine if I should walk to the campus medical center for help or to my car to drive myself to the hospital (I know, I know. I did say foolish.), I checked the ECG.

And, as advertised, it did not detect the heart attack I knew I was having.

I understand the need for information and desire for control at such moments — the kind of need to pretend to be that kind of doctor and/or be just enough of a comic book hero to get in a car and handle things myself. But that need doesn't magically change hardware capabilities.

I can vouch for the Apple Watch and the Health app's utility in Cardiac Rehab. Please don’t confuse that utility as an effective diagnostic tool for conditions it wasn't designed for. And don't take an ECG reading in order to fuel your denial.

Do what I did and get help — whether your favorite soundtrack is ready or not.