New to group

[HarryJK]

Hi I have just discovered this group and for my first post I though I would post my heart problems story. Last year I was diagnosed with Dilated Cardiomyopathy and had a severe case of heart failure. I had just turned 38 at the time. I had a bad case of flu for a few weeks before the diagnosis. All of a sudden I was coughing constantly and becoming more and more breathless to the point that I was crawling up the stairs as I couldn’t walk up them and waking up in the middle of the night gasping for breath. I had no appetite and simple things like making a sandwich, having a shower was a struggle to the point I felt I was going to collapse at any time. At no point did I ever consider that I had a heart condition. I visited my GP twice and they thought it was a chest infection or a virus, gave me antibiotics and told me to give it a week and hopefully I would be better. It was when I couldn’t feel my right foot I suspected I had a blood clot so made an emergency appointment with my GP. I was referred to hospital that night for an ECG. I packed an overnight bag as I thought maybe I’ll spend a night there and be home the next day. However after an ECG, chest x-ray, CT scan it became apparent that things were quite serious. I had blood clots in my heart, Lung and foot. I had dilated cardiomyopathy and heart failure and spent 4 weeks in hospital. I was told I might even need a heart transplant. It was hard to take in at first as I thought I was a perfectly healthy young man. My son was 11 months old and I started to worry that I wouldn’t see his 1st birthday. However as time went on in hospital and I was dried out and started on my medication I started to feel better. I had 2 MRI scans in the following months and my EF was 17%. So I was given an ICD in August. Life is much better now, I have enough energy to run after my 2 year old son. I have worked as an electrician for over 20 years in heavy industry and my works occupational health dept are still in the process of investigating if I can return to my old duties as a large part of my job involves maintaining diesel generators and having an ICD may impact carrying this out, but hopefully I will find out soon so that I can sort my work situation out. Sorry for rambling on a bit but maybe there are other people who have had similar experiences to myself.

[Shar28]

Hello, your tale sounds very similar to my husband’s story, although he was a lot older than you at 54 when he had a virus, chest infection, cough, breathlessness and according to the GP “a small clot on the lung that can be dealt with by injections of blood thinners”. He didn’t have a clot but he had Dilated Cardiomyopathy and an EF of 10-15%.

He made good improvements with medication to EF25% and also had to have a replacement Aortic Valve as his was bicuspid (born with 2 leaves instead of 3) which was stenosed (narrowed) and regurgitating (letting blood drop back through to the left ventricle) severely.

As he’s older and wasn’t well enough to do his old job, he managed to get early retirement and since then his EF has improved to 45%, which is amazingly good and unexpected.

I hope your EF continues to improve as time goes on and you work something good out with your employer. All the best to you and your family.

[RufusScamp]

Welcome to the group. My experience was not as serious as yours, but I was taken into hospital with a very bad chest infection - about half the local medical school was invited to get some stethoscope practice - and they diagnosed severe heart failure.

With medication, rehab, and recently an ICD, I am coping fairly well. It's wonderful what modern medicine can do for us. I can see that working with electrical/electronics might cause problems though. There is loads of useful info on the main BHF website, and lots of sympathetic fellow sufferers on this forum. May you long enjoy your son's growing up.