Do I have Heart Failure?

Heart health and blood vessels
1

I had a heart attack twelve years ago. I am now 59. I take the usual cocktail of drugs including Bisoprolol (only recently changed to this), Atorvastatin 80Mg, Clopidogrel and Valsartan. I was only put on the Valsartan about 2 years ago and I'm sure my GP said at the time it would minimise the effects of my heart failure.

8 years ago I weighed 14 stone, drank too much beer and ate far too many salted nuts. A also smoked at least 20 cigs a day and did little proper exercise. On a treadmill test I did 13+ minutes before I asked them to stop the test because I was shattered.

I stopped smoking last Autumn. This pushed me into a depression. As I was coming out of this in early Spring '08, I had a stroke. I seem to have got away with most of it and only have a bit of residual numbness in my hand and face. For the last three years I have eaten healthily, drunk only red wine, (though probably a bit too much) swum at least 2 kilometres per week. (in bite sized chunks) and walked miles and miles.

I can easily walk 15-20 miles in a day, but can't run for a bus. I also do som gentle weight training with 3Kg weights.

But..

I have had a few episodes of breathlessness, so my Doc referred me back to Cardiology.

I had an Echocardiogram but have had no results. I had another exercise test which lasted only 5 minutes before they stopped it. I was absolutely gasping for breath. Finally, I had another angiogram. The Cardiologist who did it said there was no change since my last one about 8 years ago, but I could clearly see more damage to the affected artery.

They said the artery (which feeds my left ventricle) is beyond stent/angioplasty treatment and is not worth by-passing because the left ventricular muscle it is feeding is pretty much dead.

So, it looks as though the only viable treatment would be a transplant, and I can't see a 60 year old being anywhere near the top of anybody's list for that.

There has clearly been a quite dramatic deterioration to my heart, as even though I am living much more healthily now, my performance is well down.

Heart Failure is a very scary and progressive condition for which there is no cure. If I have it, my understanding is that I'll be lucky to last five years. I'm at my wits end with this and although I was previously very positive about my heart condition, I am now very scared.

I don't get to see my consultant until Nov. 20th, which is way too long to be worrying like this.

Does my condition sound like heart failure?

Arch

2

Hi Archie

I have read your posting. I have just returned home from visiting my GP who told me that recent test show (echocardiogram) that I have heart failure, I am to take a drug called Ramipril starting at 2.5 mg and gradually work it up to 10mgs

Like you I have questions but when I asked my GP about life expectancy, she wouldnt give me an answer and suggested I asked the cardiac consultant at the hospital at my next appointment which is not till January and I feel that is a long time to wait to have answers. I have had heart troubles since my youth and I am told that the failure has happened be cause of my past history. Like you I am 60 the left vantricular is badly damaged and the right one is effected too.

I feel a bit cross that I have all this information about my condition, but so little information about how to deal with it, and know nothing about the outlook. I am now wondering whats worse, a little knowledge or no knowledge.

All the best to you Archie and please post an update after your appoinment on the 20th.

Crissy

3

Heart failure statistics out there on the net are way out of date so take no notice of them if you look . People are living far far longer with Heart Failure nowadays with the use of ACE inhibitors and beta blockers alone. One doctor i know said he has patients who have had Heart Failure for over 20 years , a friend of mine`s mother had it for 25 years and died of old age in the end !!

4

Thanks both for your replies. Sorry to be so long coming back but I really gave up a bit on this site as it seemed to take a long time for anything to happen.

Anyway, I eventually got my appointment with yet another different consultant. As our conversation progressed, it became obvious that the more I described my experiences with the previous consultant the more appalled he was at how little had been explained to me.

It seems my heart failure is around 0-1 on a scale of 0-5, where 6=dead.

They said they wouldn't rule out a transplant, tho' I'd have to take my chances like everybody else.. fair enough. Main thing though, is that this consultant explained that I don't have what he described as 'crashing' heart failure.. IE, the type which can take people from diagnosis to death in a very short time.

But, he thought I had as much chance of something else killing me before my heart did. My reply was that so long as it wasn't the next day, I was OK with that!

So, all in all, a much better picture than I was originally led to believe.

Best wishes.

Arch