Heart Disease
After surviving a rare coronary artery dissection and massive heart attack while nine months pregnant, Nefertari has devoted her life to uplifting other heart patients and promoting heart health awareness.
See all posts »My Congestive Heart Failure Prognosis
Living while knowing that your heart is failing is very hard however actually facing my congestive heart failure prognosis was scary.
When I first heard the term congestive heart failure I was too shocked to ask all of the question necessary to have a complete understanding of the term. It's a scary sounding term.....it seems to imply that the heart going to just stop....period.
When my doctor explained that people live for years while in congestive heart failure I felt much better.
Although at the time I was very weak I needed to hear those encouraging words I needed to know that if I fought to get better by keeping my spirits lifted and by following doctor's orders that I could possibly have a long and happy life.
Congestive heart failure is measured by a blood sample or blood test. This test gives the doctor a number which let's the doctor know the level of my heart failure. When I was first diagnosed I was in poor condition. There is another scale or tern that doctors use to measure how poorly my heart is functioning. This is called an ejection fraction. Normal would be between 50-75 percent....mine was 17 percent.
With these combined weak numbers my doctors knew that I needed some intense treatment in order to get well. I was put on medication and it worked. I began to feel better. It took time but my congestive heart failure numbers went down and my ejection fraction went up.
I always tell others to never give up. At one point my prognosis was very poor so much so that my doctor told me to just go home and enjoy my children. I wasn't able to walk across a room without feeling like I was going to blackout.
Bathing myself was impossible. I had to sit in a seat made just for tubs and have assistance bathing.
Now I am able to do much more. I have good days and bad but none as bad as before I was given the new medications.
So although at one point my prognosis seemed pretty dim...now it's looking better!
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