Conflicting opinions

I am a 50 yr old male who is a nurse and was hospitalized AND TREATED for rt heart failure and severe peripheral edema 2ndary to other issues. I have been having pain under rt rib cage and a numbness but just mild nausea lately. I take torsemide 40 mgs bid and toprol 75 mgs bid as well as aldactone 25 mgs 1-2 qd.

My current cardio'st says that I have no current signs of heart failure.... Is this possible? If I stop meds will it return? Why do i use O2 at 3 liters a minute with significant relief, and is it ever normal to experience PVC s either awake or asleep on a beta blocker? I have sleep apnea, and, acccording to last holter test, my sats dropped below 89 percent a few times and hrt rate exceeded 150 bpm and-- as expected-- I also experienced bradycardia at 40 bpm for 123 minuts out of 420. I need to know what the heck is up with this stuff...i haven t been able to work in over 4 months and I feel lousy all the time.

[jrbon]

Adam,

In my understanding heart failure it is nor a disease but a condition that implies that the heart it is not able to pump the blood that the body needs.

So, depending on the reason why you have (It can be dilated heart, myocardial infarction, ventricular hypertrophy, heart tumor....) all or more of the symptoms can disappear if properly treated.

Of course if the only symptom that you have is nausea, this it is not a HF one.

What sounds strange to me is your medication, 80mg of torasemide daily it is a huge dose... are you sure it is correct? Are you sure that you are not dehydrated or your blood pressure too low (this can produce your nausea)?

Another fact is that the first line treatment for HF are I-ACE or if not tolerated ARA II and you are only on beta blocker and diuretic.

If you have a diagnose of apnea you need to treat it (using a respiratory device at night) that can increase your risk for HF and also can be the reason for the PVC and the relief that you feel on oxygen.

I think you need to understand what is the reason for your HR and check the dose of torasemide.

Jesus