heart attack and low EF

[mossman56]

male 49, 265, 6'.  heart attack May 2004, massive., on baby asprin, lisnopril, zocor, and plavix for heart.  Have always been tired and have chest pain since., placed stent at time of heart attack., since, have had 4 cath, symptoms, fainting, wrecked car, dizzy, chest pressure/pain, fatiqe, cannot walk 3oo feet on rolling land without fatique.  when in hosp in august., had a fainting spell, checked blood sugar, eeg,ekg, cat scan, mri, nothing showed up, did cath EF went down to 35, was 39, dr sent to another hosp. did electrical study, couldn't make it mess up sent home., in Jan same symptoms, did cath EF dropped to 33, same small blockages as before, some plaque., dr is sending me to some kind of specialist., wondering what options I might have, haven't had much of a life sine heart attack, but regular heart dr, said itm wasn't my untill this time., I don't know what to think., had sleep studey  got something called restless leg syndrome.,  also slight swelling of ankles at night sometimes
thanks for any advice

mike

[basw7]

Did you have an echo done to check out your valves?

[mossman56]

also have flutting squezzing feelings, had holter for 2 weeks but showed nothing, these symptoms are real, but I think DR thinks I imagine them..

[Cleveland Clinic]

mossman,

Thanks for the post.

Sorry to hear of your events. You have 2 issues pressing.

First, You have symptoms onf congestive heart failure. I would disscuss the therapies for this with your doctor. Likely medications you need to be on are a beta blocker, ace inhibitor and diuretic to start.

Second, You need to be evaluated for an ICD therapy, especially given your history of lightheadedness.  

The guidelines for treatment of patients after a heart attack are pretty straght forward and are available on the american heart association web site. I would look those over and discuss the above issues with your physician.

good luck