This sounds a lot like my husband. He had a cough, was putting on weight for no apparent reason and started to have shortness of breath. He was one of those people that it was hard to get to see a doctor though.
Anyway, we went on a cruise across the Pacific with friends. A day out of Tahiti, he felt unwell at dinner so went to our cabin to lie down. When I went back after dinner, he was dead. Officially cardiac arrest, but with no medical history and no inquest, the underlying cause will never be known.
Thankfully you took it on yourself to go to the ER and find out why you were feeling so bad. I went also to the ER last month, got diagnosed with kidney infection, sepsis and developed septic shock, heart wall damage and ended up with an angioplasty. I had already dealt with CAD (coronary artery disease) and diabetes, but was thrown for a loop that a little E coli would cause such chaos in me.
Are you doing any physical rehab? I go three times a week now and I think it is helping me get back my “strength.” I am also fighting low blood pressure, which gets WORSE as I exercise (this has my PT totally baffled). My cardiologist has taken me off Losarten to see if that will raise my BP.
Good luck Doug - here’s another “heart-challenged” Doper pulling for you!
I went through something like the OP (slightly different details) earlier this year. I never had what would be considered a high salt diet, but I did cut back, and once you get used to it, the old way of salting food is JUST TOO MUCH!! I love the real peanut butter, nothing but peanuts and no salt added. I used to absolutely love potato chips, which I pretty much eliminated. I’ll buy them maybe once every couple of months, but I have to buy the low salt version-- the regular versions are JUST TOO MUCH!!
Key note to remember when shopping: Stick to the ends of the grocery store. Most of what you find in the middle is highly processed stuff that is either high in salt and/or HFCS, and probably high glycemic index carbs (gotta keep that weight down). The fresh vegetables, fish and meats tastes waaaaay better anyway, so you’re not giving anything up, really. If there’s something “bad” you just can’t give up, treat yourself every now and then, just don’t make it a daily or weekly thing. Think monthly, or maybe twice monthly.
Good to hear the OP is on the road back to health!!
To the OP: thanks for posting, because my 50-year-old BIL is going through your initial diagnosis phase right now. He just got fitted with a defibrillator vest. Diabetes, overweight, high blonde d pressure, eats salt like it’s going out of style. They did an angiogram this week that turned up nothing, and tried to do a heart MRI, but he had a panic attack and they had to stop the test. Not sure what Plan B is.
How did they finally diagnose the problem, and what meds or other treatment have helped?
Blood Pressure that drops DURING exercise is a BAD sign. It indicates your heart problems are more severe than anyone realizes.
I don’t think this is always true.
When I was in Cardiac rehab, they would measure my BP when I was on the treadmill, and it would usually be lower than resting, and they said that was normal, because your arteries dilate during exercise.
Hi Eva Luna, sorry to let your post go unanswered so long. I’ll copy you by PM as well.
An echocardiogram established my ejection fraction as very low (25%). An angiogram confirmed some narrowing in the coronary artery but revealed no blockages or need for bypass surgery.
I have been on diuretics (Lasix and Aldactone) to keep fluid buildup from recurring, Entresto to control sodium levels and dilate blood vessels, and Lopressor to lower a fast heart rate. I combine this with a low-sodium diet (<1000mg/day) and restricted fluids (<2000ml/day, actually more than enough to meet my hydration needs). The regimen has brought my BNP (a brain peptide that is the benchmark for regaining heart function) down below 100 from levels of over 500 at diagnosis.
An echocardiogram February 15 suggested my ejection fraction remains at 25% - unchanged. These tests can be done or interpreted wrongly, but if accurate, apparently my heart muscle has gained no strength, i.e., all the improvement in my symptoms is due to my medications.
In such cases an ICD is typically implanted. I will be going to Mayo Clinic for a full evaluation early next month to determine my condition more conclusively.
My father died at 50. From 3 heart attacks in 4 days with no history (other than just familial). His autopsy showed that his cause of death was CHF. Now, while I eat a little better than he did, I’m not a smoker, and he was a firefighter for over 25 years, I just turned 45, so it’s starting to gnaw at the back of my brain that my time could be getting ready to come to an end.
I told my cardiologist that I would be very reluctant to have an ICD. Mainly based on my dad’s experiences. Once that thing jolted him, he was always scared it was going to happen again. It was all downhill for him after he got that thing. My cardiologist says they are better now, but still, I’d have to think long and hard about that.
So sorry to hear that happened to you. Glad you are feeling better now. Hope you continue to get stronger and healthier.
Wow. As I rapidly approach 50, these are the kinds of things I am concerned about. People like to dismiss my worries about turning 50, but it really is a good marker of when big things start to change.
I don’t dwell on these worries, but they are quickly creeping forward from the back of my mind to a more prominent position.
I’m glad you were diagnosed and sorted out, Doug.
Mayo says I have better heart function than reported earlier - 35% ejection fraction, but that is borderline. There is a good chance I will need an implantable device sooner or later…be that a few months or quite a few years.
Besides non-coronary-disease-related heart failure, I have an electrical problem in my heart, called left bundle branch block. It’s basically a short in the unfixable natural “wiring.” Pumping signals have to travel around it to reach the left ventricle, so it contracts/expands 180 milliseconds later than the right ventricle. (120 ms or less is normal.)
An overnight oximeter test also strongly suggested sleep apnea. Treating this, maxing out on Toprol (a beta blocker very effective in building up heart function), and continuing to cut weight may give my heart enough strength that the electrical problem is of less concern. In 3 months, I should know. I want to avoid putting anything in my body that is not strictly needed. (Defibrillators in particular pose tiny but serious risks: they may shock you when not needed, and replacing the wires is both necessary and potentially life-threatening.)
I’m glad to hear that the Mayo was able to get you a more complete picture. I hope the next few months continue to bring positive news. Good luck to you.
Not necessarily. I’ve got Orthostatic Hypotension. I found this out while working out- I’ve always gotten light-headed while working out, and one day had a chance to measure my BP during an episode: it was 70/40.
Went to a cardiologist and did a tilt-table test (which knocked me out so quickly they had to do it a second time).
The advice from the cardiologist was to just not push my workout quite so much, especially any work on my core muscles. It’s just something I’ve got to deal with, unless it suddenly starts happening more often. It’s not a heart problem, it’s a nerve problem.