Please I need help

[Catlovermo2]

Diagnised with heart failure 4 months ago. In total shock don't think I can cope with it. I feel my life is over and no point in carrying on. Someone help me please

[lettingoffsteam]

Sorry to hear you are in a bad place Catlovermo2.I have not been diagnosed with heart failure but have an enlarged heart that could go that way in time.I know there are a lot of people living good lives with heart failure and I am sure they will be along shortly.Also check out the website of pumpingmarvellous which is said to be good.I hope you feel more at ease soon.

[SpiritoftheFloyd]

Hi Catlovermo2

I'm sorry to hear that you're still struggling with the diagnosis of heart failure.

In you last post you mentioned that you're EF had gone up from 20% to 30%, so that seems to show that the medicines are doing their job.

I can understand that the words heart failure make it all so sound so final and that you feel you're life is over, but that really isn't the case, there are a large number of people on this forum who are living full lives after being diagnosed with heart failure many years ago.

Can I suggest you telephone [phone] between 9-5 Monday to Friday, and have a chat with one of the cardiac nurses of the British Heart Foundation who I'm sure will be able to explain it all and offer you some reassurance that heart failure, while a challenging condition, can be managed very well and that a good life is within your grasp

[Yorkshirehead in reply to SpiritoftheFloyd]

Great advice!! 👍👍👍👍👍

[Gingercats]

I was diagnosed with HF about 5 months ago the information given to me by the HF clinic states that initially some people get depressed and I have felt like that over the last few weeks.. today I am going for an MRI scan as they don’t know how it happened and why it has happened so fast. At the moment I am on 5 different medications a day. Today I can discuss diet and exercise with the HF nurse who will be assigned to me.. lots of people with this condition for a long time so am grateful to my doctors and HF clinic for dealing with it so quickly and grateful to have the NHS no worries about paying. I’m sure with help you will come to terms with it and I wish you well.

[NorthantsSteve]

Hi Catlovermo2. Nothing more to add to the great advice you’ve already been offered. You definitely need to talk to someone. As suggested you can call the BHF nurses or your cardio team at the hospital that’s treating you. Or you can call your doctor. How you’re feeling is totally normal and you need to get some professional support to see you through it. Take care.

[GracieOS]

Hi catlovermo2, I was diagnosed with heart failure about 15 months ago now, aged 55. It came out of the blue and was a complete shock. Knocked me over big time. Just the name 'heart failure' is enough to have you worried sick. I had a terrible first year living with this, aniexty and fear where worse than the effects of heart failure itself. Now a year plus on my medications are working, my EF is up from around 35 to 50 which is only just below normal. Your EF seems to be headed in the right direction too. I can still do most of what I used to do, walk, cycle, yoga and I still work albeit on reduced hours. Last summer I went way in my campervan with my husband for 3 weeks and everything was OK. I'm slowly realising that this is just a condition you have to learn to live with, it's not the end and a good quality of life is still possible. Many people here have been living with heart failure for much longer than me and they have inspired me to be more positive. I still have bad days but overall things have improved significantly. They can for you too.

[Driver11]

Hi I had cardiac arrest Sept18. No previous signs. Came round after 2 weeks and things looked different !You change your views on everything but don't give up. It's easy to say after but at the time you think why bother. Well you can recover and get well again so give it a try and good luck

[genteel]

Hi there. I can totally understand and sympathise with you. I was diagnosed with heart failure in April 2018. I was totally depressed and felt my life was over. I used this forum and communicated with the lovely people on here who were very supportive and understood the condition. I also had some counselling and did have a spell on antidepressants (came off them a year ago) but I started a fitness regime and decided to make sure I take all my medication, eat well and get on with life. It really is a shockingly bad name hf, it should be called something else. It just means the heart needs a bit more looking after. I am happy to see that your ef has improved and a good quality of life is still there. I am presently enjoying a holiday in the sun, away from the uk weather.

I hope and I am sure you will pull round soon.

Take care...

[dunestar]

Agree with others that heart failure is a very bad description which when you first hear it is bound to make you feel depressed and anxious. But you can help yourself by doing as much exercise as you can manage and eating a healthy diet.

[Helen_BHF]

Hi Catlovermo2 I'm really sorry to hear you're feeling that way. Just wanted to let you know our helpline is always here if you'd like to chat to one of our cardiac nurses. Call 0300 330 3311. Really hope this helps and the community is always here.

[dickielex]

Heart failure is a VERY broad description- and I wish there was more precision in the ways in which it is explained. I am NOT a doctor but I understand that it means a broad description of hearts which are no longer functioning well; there is severe HF and relatively mild HF. It just sounds so terrifying. I have had HF diagnosed (after a Sudden Cardiac Arrest) for seven years now and there are lots of people with diagnosed with HF wandering around the place perfectly happily. I would seek an immediate meeting with your consultant/GP/Cardiac nurse and get them to explain what HF means in your case- what isn't working properly is a good first question. But above all don't panic.

[hf54]

I certainly can help you. I was diagnosed with HF about a month ago .Thursday I see a private cardiologist To determine the state of things or if I will need any further tests. First of all heart failure is not the Failure of an engine for example in a car where it doesn’t work anymore It means simply that it’s failing to work as well as it should do. Next there are people with cancer Who would beg to swap their condition with yours so please pull yourself together. If your ejection fraction has increased then the medicines are starting to work. As someone suggested a telephone call to the British Heart Foundation nurses would certainly help but if you have money I would certainly suggest going Private. you can go in the next day and see anybody you like talk to them about all kinds of things related to your heart and get the best possible answers. If possible go to a hospital with a speciality heart clinic. I am hoping for the best outcome and to do everything I possibly can to lead a long and healthy life (and I was pretty healthy before) I’m sure you can do the same. Do not use Google use only this website. Also I clearly wish to state that the range of tests at the private hospital included was above and beyond those recommended by my NHS hospital so clearly there is a disparity between the treatment received. If people want to save money for a holiday or a new car that’s their choice. Me I can’t think of anything better than spending it on my own (or families) health. I wish you the very best .

[Qualipop]

What a terrifying term Heart Failure. It should be changed. It does not mean your heart is about to give up on you. It just means it's ot working as well as it should but it CAN be improved as you have read above. In the 1940s my mum was told she had heart failure at the age of about 21. She'd had eclampsia during pregnancy which caused organ damage. In those days there was no treatment. It was never mentioned again until she reached 65 and needed a hip replacement and was told she couldn't have a general anaesthetic as her heart wasn't strong enough. She had it done by epidural. She died at 69. In all those years she rarely mentioned it and was never given any treatment. She just got on with living. As you can see it's not the end of the world. A good diet and treatment can work wonders now.

[not2worry]

yes it’s shocking news at first but Congestive Heart Failure is not a death sentence. My husband had a HA 20 years ago which resulted in damage to his heart. Like most HA it was totally unexpected and a crushing blow to both of us.

20 years later we reflect back at our Second Chance. We have traveled the world, seen our children married, have held grandchildren in our arms and have seen them married as well.

Of course we had to adjust to our situation - no more scuba diving, a new diet, regular exercise, and adding medication pill boxes to our new life style.

Cardiac rehab was a real life saver for my husbands mental outlook on life. A positive attitude developed for him at these sessions as well as some counseling including a short stint on anti-depression medication.

Life presents challenges and those that are so unexpected are hard to understand “why me” but I hope our journey gives you some hope that your life will be better and you have much to look forward to - it just takes time.

[Yass_123 in reply to not2worry]

Thanks for your post of hope did your husband have icd or any other type of treatment

[not2worry in reply to Yass_123]

Yes he has had bumps along the way over the past 20+ years. He was diagnosed with Heart Failure in 2006 and so medications have been prescribed as time by and his some of the symptoms a of CHF developed. These medications helped him tremendously.

In 2013 he woke up in the middle of the night with horrible indigestion that was so bad we went to the ER. After a battery of tests they found it was his gall bladder. The chest pains he was complaining about weren’t heart related at all it was his gallbladder . The next day he had his gallbladder taken out. The surgeon asked if he had any symptoms at all because the gallbladder was in the secondary stages of gangrene.

The trip to the ER and the battery of test he went through showed that he had a large mass on his kidney and because of the size they diagnosed it’s as malignant -cancer.

He had to recover from the gallbladder surgery and in March he had his left kidney removed. It was a miracle that the gallbladder attack sent us to the ER and as a result of that they found the Kidney tumor. The tumor was still entirely encapsulated so the cancer didn’t have a chance to spread. It’s been 7 years since his surgery and he’s been doing great.

Then in 2017 he had a stent put in. Our home in California had been taken in the 2017 wildfires and it was a very stress time on our lives. We couldn’t find a home in California due to the housing shortage because 6,000 homes were burned down to the ground so we moved to Florida and started over again. That was in October and we moved in November.

As part of his stent procedure his cardiologist recommended cardia rehab - during the second week he was going through his exercise regime and they stopped him because they discovered he had AFib.

Long story short - he was not a candidate for ablation, two carsioversions failed and thr final solution was a PaceMaker. He had a St. Jude (now Abbott Lab) Pace Maker procedure in Sept 2018. The day after he got out of bed and proclaimed he felt great. Prior to the PM he was so fatigued he could barely function. His AF was “silent” he could not “feel his heart racing”. As the electrophysiologist explained his heart was pounding like he was running a marathon 24/7. Since the PM in 2017 he has only had a couple of AF episodes and they lasted only minutes or hours. The PM he has has a bedside monitor so his doctor can see when he’s in AF. If he’s in a danger zone the monitor alerts you to call the doctor. Since the PM it has never sounded an alert. The only time we discover the AF episodes is when he goes into have the device checked every 6 months. The PM Clinic can then tweak the PM from their computer to adjust the program function to adjust to my husband’s particular pacing issues! It’s amazing!

Hope our journey helps you .

[Yass_123 in reply to not2worry]

Thank you so much for your reply I think u are very brave people to have come thru all of that and still optimistic it makes me feel encouraged to try think more positively wishing you the best take care

[LBCdance]

Honestly Catlover, you can and will cope but I'm not minimising the shock and I know how virtually impossible it is to get time and attention from your GP surgery just for talking about how you feel. But this really is a good place to ask for help because everyone is here because of heart problems of one kind or another. I find the BHF leaflets (see their website) very helpful, well written and informative and in the one on HF they acknowledge what a scary term it is - anything to do with hearts has always frightened me but reading through other people's experiences has made so much of it seem almost "normal" now and I have benefited hugely from reading their posts. The BHF nurses are very kind and helpful so never hesitate to contact one of them and although we have no magic answers it doesn't matter how often you post as someone will always understand and reach out to you. You have a lot of living to do! Wishing you well in all senses of the word.

[Catlovermo2 in reply to LBCdance]

Hi lbcdance thank you very much for taking the time to reply to me.

[Yass_123]

Its very difficult when u first hear hf but then u start worrying try changing the worry into enjoyment make everyday a good day enjoy things u like to do thats wh I try to do we do our very best but its no good waiting for things to get worse and many people on the forum will tell u of how they manage take care keep safe