Heart failure

[Barb1]

I had a P and A in 2021 to stabilise my fast heart rate in Permanent AF. Although still in AF, I thought that was my heart sorted.

Last year I had pneumonia and then at Christmas another chest infection, that has taken until now to sort out. As I am still breathless and very fatigued, I had a chest x ray which showed that the infection has cleared but I have heart failure. The GP says probably related to the infection. I see my Cardioologist in 2 weeks.

Has anyone else had someting similar? Heart failure does not have a good prognosis.

[10gingercats]

I would say as a fellow sufferer of heart failure it comes in many shapes and flavours. You will need to find out the facets of what is causing your heart failure to get any idea of how it may affect you .....eg enlarged heart ,fluid around heart and in lungs etc. The latter can be dealt with via meds.mine was knocked on the head completely by meds. and I lost the breathlessness. I am now on a small dose of two meds. to stop the breathlessness returning. When you know what is causing your heart failure the doc./hospital can get to grips with the various aspects .Exercise is also important unless you have been told not to exercise.Even chair exercises can help esp. boxing in a chair arms up and arms down for a few minutes regularly a couple of times a day.

[Barb1 in reply to 10gingercats]

Thank you. Although I have always exercised, I am finding it so hard now.

[DawnTX in reply to 10gingercats]

thank you for what you wrote because I am about to get pace and ablate although at this moment, I have serious questions to ask. I will not be shocked if he tells me, I am already in heart failure from what I am reading up on everything he is doing with me is for people with heart failure. He said I have had enough I just has my heart. He is very concerned about my quality of life etc. I am going to ask him straight out. Am I already in it? Because my cardioversion just failed afraid he is walking lightly around me. Normally he’s a little too honest lol but that is what I like about him. As I have said many times, I had no idea how serious a fib is until I had it. In Florida they had a big TV campaign called no time to wait. They also have a website with the same name. For a long time it was just about DVT. If I had seen that commercial before my first event that I was aware of, I probably would’ve gone straight to the ER. Instead, I blacked out, hit my face on the concrete floor and when I woke up got into bed or so, I thought only to wake up again on my back in the bathroom then I did crawl to bed and went to sleep. I called my doctor and did not emphasize what it happened, but just took an appointment for the following day. between my neurologist and other doctors since then I have gotten numerous lectures because the fact I didn’t die has to be a miracle. Obviously I’m here to annoy people longer lol. It really is not a laughing matter though and I was a medic. I think a fib is one of the worst things. I am aware of other than the obvious like cancer because of the suffering although we also suffer. For me, it’s less physical pain, but I cannot walk and I feel sick when I breathe I try to walk. Afib has to be . taught to the general public much more. I have been trying to educate my cousin with whom I live for over a year now and he still doesn’t get it. For some reason he thinks my doctor is Harry Potter and I’m going to be flitting all over the place. He doesn’t get when I tell him how bad I am when it hits me he I’ll nod his head and then come up with some foolish thing. I am physically unable to do now like go to Costco and some other large box store on the same day and time frame. When we are watching TV, he will ask me at least once an hour if I’m feeling better, I keep telling him until some thing is done I won’t feel better. It is what it is but the next hour he will ask me again. He’s only in his 50s and very intelligent but… How many more people out here have similar issues with family members? Sometimes I feel like he thinks I’m making it up for attention. I don’t like attention. FYI I want to be able to do things like clean because he tries. He just doesn’t do a great job lol, anyway being able to do the simple things in life have become important to me.

Hugs from the mom of a dozen Mini Moos lol unfortunately, although they are precious, we also have four little tigers, who surprised us after we moved here. Two sets of twins, which by the way, two houses down there are two sets of tiger cats big ones Maury would say you are the father lol. The woman that owns them said they were fixed. Oh no, they are not. The first time One jumped on the railing. It was obvious lol unlike on the Maury show I have to say daddy cat or cats are very good fathers with these kittens they have pretty much moved in with us also lol the one standing up is Penelope, or as my cousin now calls the cat PeneloPeter 😹😹 that is Twinkle with him her Precious now Houdini was another shocker it seems we got a litter of boys.Evidently it takes about a year sometimes to get the truth lol.We are not uncaring pet parents. We just got the house in April, and evidently the mama cat met the neighbor’s before we did lol.

I just added this to hopefully make you smile

Mini moos

[Hidden in reply to 10gingercats]

Hello Gingercats, I'm pretty much the same as you, told I no longer have heart failure after 3 months of treatment but am left on small doses of Bisoperlol and Ramiprl, 2.5mg of each, is this what your left on. I hope your continuing doing well.

[etheral]

Ask your cardiologist about Entresto, spironolactone, and a loop diuretic. I went into severe heatt failure whilst in afib because of the loss of cardiac output from the atrial output. I was stabized by Tikosyn which NIC E says doesn't work .It's been 4 years now and I have my fingers crossed that it keeps working.

[Barb1]

Thank you. I am.taking spironolactone

[javo123j]

As other people have said there are different levels of heart failure. I have it where my heart doesn't pump properly due to AFIB but I can still run and cycle. My mother was diagnosed with it in her early 60s. She's now 94 and is in good health.

[Barb1 in reply to javo123j]

That's good to hear.

[SeanJax]

your cardiologist will order an echo which will let you know it is a heart failure with reduced or preserved ejection fraction. The reduced one is easy to treat compared to the preserved one. There is no real treatment for the preserved one and by default bad prognosis. Otherwise with reduced EF, treatment can allow you for a good quality of life for so many years and it depends on how much it would be your EF. The inconvenience of the treatment is the water restriction. You are thirsty and you cannot drink. I meant water not alcohol. They will give you digoxin, diuretics and some ace inhibitors as standard treatments and you will be ok. No need to worry too much. It is treatable if it is reduced EF.

[Barb1 in reply to SeanJax]

Thank you

[DawnTX]

😭 oh Barb1 now I have learned something else new on here. I am about to have a pace and ablate. I thought having the pacemaker was to prevent heart failure. One more question to ask on Wednesday of my EP. I am having a CRT put in as far as I know. My problem are my two ventricles, not beating together. What recourse do we have after the pacemaker fails? Transplant? This is why I was holding back to begin with because I didn’t want to count on some thing mechanical to keep me alive. No doubt you have many questions for your doctor. I am so sorry that this happened to you it is an eye-opener for sure for myself.

Sending healing, thoughts and prayers to you and to everyone out here dealing with all of this as we are. He told me within a year I would have heart failure if my heart continues beating at the rate, it has in tachycardia, which is usually in the 150s it has been that way on an almost constant basis since last April. My body has resisted everything tried. The longest success was a year and a half following an ablation and with meds until they stopped working.

[Barb1 in reply to DawnTX]

Yes, I was the same as you. Having the PM means my heart beats at 60 but the HF has happened caused by something else.

[DawnTX in reply to Barb1]

I am so sorry about that happening to you. As I said, you learn something new all the time on here I thought if I bit the bullet with the pacemaker, but that would be it. Do you have the CRT type? My atria will not be connected at all just the two ventricles, I think what is frightening is putting our life in the hands of one person knowing that you can’t turn back. As they say tomorrow is not promised to anyone. Have they given you any idea on the next steps available? I hope you don’t mind me asking. Prayers for everyone. I don’t know when they became aware of a fib in the medical community but I think they should’ve been working on awareness and prevention long before now and unless you have a fib I don’t see them really going out of their way to tell us about it and how serious it can be. Hugs, Barb.

[Barb1 in reply to DawnTX]

I have a single lead PM. My AF is inherited. I have no idea what is the next step. I had heart failure before any treatment. Then I was told after my 5th ablation which didn't revert me, that I would go into HF, if I didn't have the P and A. Now here I am. I see consultant a week tomorrow.

[DawnTX in reply to Barb1]

Barb thank you so much for responding to that question. This is why I always say we are all different. Afib has many faces. As far as where it comes from I really don’t care for me because it’s here. Looking back, I know for a fact I did not spoil my heart the way I should have. From the foods we ate and more we know this did not happen overnight. There are heart issues on both sides of my family or I should say were because everyone is gone. Unfortunately, I know very little history of it. My paternal grandparents died on the same day one in the hospital one at home and one for my stroke, one for my heart attack . Mom died from a myocardial infarction, but my dad just passed at 97 healthy as a horse. What I like are my doctors are not lecturing me on weight and diet at Cetera right now they want to get me better. I have a tendency to push forward rather than, just look at what I did wrong. It’s like dropping your favorite cup and spending time analyzing. Why and how you dropped it. It’s broken. All you can do is be careful the next time with one.

My EP and Cardiologist both tend to be speedy getting things done. I am hoping he has availability and just puts me in and does it so I don’t have any more time to think about it.

Did you find it difficult in the beginning with restrictions and healing? Some say that you should wear a sling. Then again, I have not been able to do much anyway. Thank you so much for being so open with me about it. Although we have similar it is also different. Until the failure of the cardioversion, not one doctor had mentioned the ventricle issue which I know is more serious. Thinking of you hopefully they will find a way to alleviate the miserable feelings of a fib and heart failure. I’ll be honest I’m not quite sure what the difference is because a fib and heart failure seem to feel the same. I’m wondering if one is just the fact that they might still be able to catch up for a while I want to see more honesty out there for us we know there’s no cure, but now I wonder is heart failure in evitable with a fib? It seems that everything else is temporary.

[Territorial]

Yeah i had 3 chest infections within 3 months 3rd one was bad along with the discovery of Atrial Fibrillation that day a month later got very high blood pressure then 10 months afer my first heart failure last february i had another ..

Then due to my illnesses they discovered my lymph nodes had grown a centimetre and had to wait 2 months to discover i did not need a biopsy for lung cancer..

I kind of know how you feel and i sympathize with your situation i hope everything is humming along well for you now..