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Heart Disease Community
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Don't Know How To Feel
by hpotts31, May 29, 2008 04:21PM
I am 31yo and I have cardiomyopathy and CHF. How I found out I have this problem is I thought I had developed bronchitis or something in January of 2008 because I kept coughing and feeling the urge to cough all the time. Nothing seemed to cure the constant cough I had: not cough medicine, not cough drops--nothing. In the mornings I'd cough till I puked, and would have coughing fits so bad sometimes I'd sweat.
I turned 31 February 5th of this year, and a week after my birthday I started noticing that I was having problems with shortness of breath along with the coughing fits. It got so bad that I couldn't walk from my car to my front door (which is only 15 feet) without feeling like I had to stop and build up the energy to continue walking and to catch my breath. Finally, I go to ER at 4 in the morning (Feb. 18th, 2008) because it's the 3rd night I cannot sleep lying on my back nor on my side. I remember being scared to go to sleep, thinking I'd die in my sleep which is one reason why I got up to go that morning instead of trying to lay there putting off going to ER until later on.
A chest x-ray in ER says that I have pneumonia, so I am admitted for that. My regular doctor couldn't be there to see me during my hospital stay, so the hospital's resident doctor examines me and treats me during my 5 day stay in the hospital. The resident doctor was the one that came in my room and said something about giving me a shot of Lasix to get rid of some of the fluid in my lungs. I get an IV administration of Lasix and after I filled up 4 of those collection things with urine within the first 2 hours, I immediately felt better and the doctor was raising an eyebrow. When the resident doctor came back to check on me the next day and I told him that I felt a lot better than I had the day before and he found out how many of those things I had filled up with urine after I got that shot of Lasix and how my O2 stats had went up, he said he wanted to have an ultrasound of my heart performed because he thought there was an underlying issue to me having pneumonia. Sure enough, after the ultrasound, the resident doctor and a cardiologist came in to explain to me that I have cardiomyopathy and CHF. I was put on Carvedilol, Lisinopril, and Spironolactone while I was in the hospital. My O2, my pulse rate, my blood pressure all improved immediately.
I've had a few problems since being diagnosed in February, and I would say that it's mostly my body getting adjusted to the medicine that I've been on. My doctor changes my medicine dosages every 2 or 3 weeks. I feel tired sometimes, I feel like something is pushing in on the base of my throat at times creating a "choking feeling', I feel a heaviness at the left side of my chest around the breast area occasionally, sometimes my heart pounds, and sometimes I feel short of breath or like my breathing can't keep up with my heart rate. When these things happen I have to call 9-1-1 and the first responders, EMT's and Paramedics act like I must not know what I'm talking about when I tell them what my medical history is (DCM &CHF), and the nurses and doctors at the hospital treat me the same way when I arrive in their ER department.
I get:
***"You're too young to have heart problems," but I also hear
****"Who told you that you have heart problems? If it were me, I'd get a second opinion before I settled on believing that."
EXAMPLE.
A month ago my husband and a friend of mine took me to the hospital because my heart was beating hard and I felt like I couldn't breathe very well. A nurse in ER acted like he didn't believe I knew what I was talking about when I was telling him I have a history of cardiomyopathy and CHF until he did an EKG on me, and then as he's looking at the monitor strip from the machine he says to me and my family: "Well your EKG isn't that of a 31-year-old." I said, "Did you think I was lying when I said I had heart problems?" He didn't say a word; he just walked out of the room jotting something down in my medical chart. I guess it was a lesson in learning for him that disease doesn't discriminate to only a certain age group, race, or gender.
The medicines I am taking now are Carvedilol 2 x day, Lisinopril 1 x day, Spironolactone 1/2 tablet 1 x day, Lasix 2 x day, Xanax (as needed), Norco (as needed), Potassium 1 x day, 325mg Asprin 1 x day, Zoloft 100mg 1 x day.
I often cry because I don't know what caused me to have DCM & CHF and I have 3 children and a new husband and I want to live my life with them and take care of them and love them as best I can. I feel bad a lot because I feel like I can't be for them what I want to be.
This discussion is related to Do You Have Dilated Cadiomyopathy?.
I turned 31 February 5th of this year, and a week after my birthday I started noticing that I was having problems with shortness of breath along with the coughing fits. It got so bad that I couldn't walk from my car to my front door (which is only 15 feet) without feeling like I had to stop and build up the energy to continue walking and to catch my breath. Finally, I go to ER at 4 in the morning (Feb. 18th, 2008) because it's the 3rd night I cannot sleep lying on my back nor on my side. I remember being scared to go to sleep, thinking I'd die in my sleep which is one reason why I got up to go that morning instead of trying to lay there putting off going to ER until later on.
A chest x-ray in ER says that I have pneumonia, so I am admitted for that. My regular doctor couldn't be there to see me during my hospital stay, so the hospital's resident doctor examines me and treats me during my 5 day stay in the hospital. The resident doctor was the one that came in my room and said something about giving me a shot of Lasix to get rid of some of the fluid in my lungs. I get an IV administration of Lasix and after I filled up 4 of those collection things with urine within the first 2 hours, I immediately felt better and the doctor was raising an eyebrow. When the resident doctor came back to check on me the next day and I told him that I felt a lot better than I had the day before and he found out how many of those things I had filled up with urine after I got that shot of Lasix and how my O2 stats had went up, he said he wanted to have an ultrasound of my heart performed because he thought there was an underlying issue to me having pneumonia. Sure enough, after the ultrasound, the resident doctor and a cardiologist came in to explain to me that I have cardiomyopathy and CHF. I was put on Carvedilol, Lisinopril, and Spironolactone while I was in the hospital. My O2, my pulse rate, my blood pressure all improved immediately.
I've had a few problems since being diagnosed in February, and I would say that it's mostly my body getting adjusted to the medicine that I've been on. My doctor changes my medicine dosages every 2 or 3 weeks. I feel tired sometimes, I feel like something is pushing in on the base of my throat at times creating a "choking feeling', I feel a heaviness at the left side of my chest around the breast area occasionally, sometimes my heart pounds, and sometimes I feel short of breath or like my breathing can't keep up with my heart rate. When these things happen I have to call 9-1-1 and the first responders, EMT's and Paramedics act like I must not know what I'm talking about when I tell them what my medical history is (DCM &CHF), and the nurses and doctors at the hospital treat me the same way when I arrive in their ER department.
I get:
***"You're too young to have heart problems," but I also hear
****"Who told you that you have heart problems? If it were me, I'd get a second opinion before I settled on believing that."
EXAMPLE.
A month ago my husband and a friend of mine took me to the hospital because my heart was beating hard and I felt like I couldn't breathe very well. A nurse in ER acted like he didn't believe I knew what I was talking about when I was telling him I have a history of cardiomyopathy and CHF until he did an EKG on me, and then as he's looking at the monitor strip from the machine he says to me and my family: "Well your EKG isn't that of a 31-year-old." I said, "Did you think I was lying when I said I had heart problems?" He didn't say a word; he just walked out of the room jotting something down in my medical chart. I guess it was a lesson in learning for him that disease doesn't discriminate to only a certain age group, race, or gender.
The medicines I am taking now are Carvedilol 2 x day, Lisinopril 1 x day, Spironolactone 1/2 tablet 1 x day, Lasix 2 x day, Xanax (as needed), Norco (as needed), Potassium 1 x day, 325mg Asprin 1 x day, Zoloft 100mg 1 x day.
I often cry because I don't know what caused me to have DCM & CHF and I have 3 children and a new husband and I want to live my life with them and take care of them and love them as best I can. I feel bad a lot because I feel like I can't be for them what I want to be.
This discussion is related to Do You Have Dilated Cadiomyopathy?.
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From reading your post, it could be your respiratory ailment compromised the oxygen level causing your heart to overwork and enlarge. The enlargement weakened heart pumping contractions and reduced the cardiac output. As reslt more blood was coming to the heart than was pumped out causing blood to back up into the lungs and fluids leak into tissues. Also, low cardiac output will send a message to the kidneys to produce more fluids. Medication can restore the balance of blood flow between the heart's right and left side. This will also reduce fluids and the heart load will be reduced with the medication you are receiving. The reduced workload will give your heart relief and time to recover.
An EKG is not very helpful...good for arrhythmia, and that isn't your problem as I read. You should be given an echocardiogram to reference your heart chamber dimensions, observe for any heart- wall movement impairment, calculate pumping strength, and observe blood flow...it is possible the mitral valve is leaking due to an enlarged, it happened to me. And ask for a copy of the echo report.
Your medication is for CHF so I don't why there is a misunderestanding?