My husband and I live in Ohio. My FIL lives in Kentucky and has been hospitalized since last week. He was getting fluid built up around his heart. They had put him on diuretics but they weren’t working. They were draining the fluids from around his heart, but they were building up again very rapidly. On Monday, we heard from my MIL that the doctors said he wouldn’t last much longer.
Last night, she said that he had experienced a rapid turnaround after being put on a new drug. This is where I start to get baffled.
According to her, the new drug helps the heart to pump better. Also according to her, the doctors say he can’t stay on the drug because his heart would become dependent on it.
This strikes me as impossibly silly, since not staying on the drug means he dies, so I’m assuming there’s something else going on.
As of last night, he had recovered enough that they said he might be able to go home today, but with an IV still in place. He would then require a nurse to come out three times a week to administer a drug through the IV.
We’re 4-5 hours away and trying to get a car fixed before my husband heads down there, so I was hoping someone might be able to translate.
It sounds like the medication (do you know what it’s called?) might be tricking the heart into doing it’s job. It also sounds like one of those drugs that after using for more than just a short time, supplant the bodies ability to function without it.
This can cause an issue, especially if the medication becomes unavailable, or if the medication has long term effects.
example:
“This chemotherapy will help you kill cancer, and make you healthy.”
“Yay!”
“But you can’t use it as a preventative, cause it’ll kill you in the long run.”
“Boo.”
My understanding with congestive heart failure is that it’s sort of a downward spiral, meaning that the heart compensates for its reduced pumping capacity by getting larger, which in turn impairs the heart’s pumping ability even further. Maybe this drug will let him get off the merry-go-round, as it were, letting the heart improve a little on its own. I doubt the issue with the drug is really one of dependency. Let us know if you find out what drug it is.
IANA doctor, but I’d think if a drug was harming him they’d want him off it as soon as he can manage without it. If he’s well enough to go home they probably think he can manage without it.
He is home, but according to MIL he will be on a drug administered by a nurse 3 times a week, not necessarily that drug because I can’t understand what she’s saying. She’s frazzled.
Not to harp or try to shift blame, but you need to sit down with his doctor and have him explain exactly what is going on, and what the goals of the treatment your husband is undergoing. I’m trying to avoid blanket generalizations, but frequently patients simply take medicine, or allow procedures, just because the doctor says so. It is your (or your loved one’s) health and you are equally as responsible for it as any medical professional. Any MD that is worth his salt will be willing to sit down with you and take as much time as you need for both you and your husband to understand and be comfortable with what is going on. If he/she is not, it’s time to get a new doctor.
Fluid built up around the heart…do you mean “pericarditis” where there is a collection of fluid in the sac that contains the heart? This is different from “congestive heart failure” where the heart basically doesn’t function very well, and cannot pump blood forward and hence the blood backs up as fluid in the lungs (i.e. not around the heart) and later on down into the feet.
The treatments of pericarditis and CHF (congestive heart failure) are quite different.
Sounds like your FIL has pericarditis, if they were able to drain the fluid around the heart. You can’t do that with CHF, not with a drain anyways. The problem with pericarditis is that the fluid built up around the heart constricts the heart, and the heart cannot pump.
Sounds like your FIL was also in CCU (cardiac care unit, sort of a cardiac ICU), and the potent drug they’re giving him is an “inotrope”??? It makes the heart pump stronger, but I ain’t heard of a new one that makes the heart addicted.
I am a family doctor in Canada. If you e-mail me the name of the medication, I can ask around for you. But that other person who posted before me is right – you should get the straight dope from your FIL’s doctor. And if he/she isn’t spending enough time explaining things to you, you should say so and ask for more info! I know a lot of nasty doctors who forget about how important it is to explain things to patients & family members, and not just treat the disease.
I’ll ask my mother-in-law if that’s the drug, see if it rings any bells. I’ll also ask about the pericarditis. I know that my FIL has had a number of heart attacks and suffers from arrhythmia. His heart function has been on the decline for a while now.
Thanks for your input, everyone. Like I said, he’s home, but the docs make this sound like a temporary lull.
I apologize for the misread. In any case, if you’re in laws don’t understand it well enough for them to explain the basics to you, they don’t understand it well enough themselves. You should encourage them to spend more time with their physicians.