Andrea lumina91@earthlink.net Married 10 years to Mike age 27 2 children: Bailey, age 7 and Toccoa, age 4

Before CHF

I was a nurse for 6 years before I became too ill to work. Now I stay home with the children. We home school them, mainly so that I can spend as much time as possible with them.

My CHF

I was diagnosed on April 18, 2000, with idiopathic cardiomyopathy - on Mike's 28th birthday. I had been treated for asthma since 2 days after my daughter was born in July of 1997. My SOB and other symptoms just kept getting worse, though, so my doctors had just kept adding more steroids and new inhalers. Finally, an alert first-year medical resident noticed that my chest x-rays (the first from July of 1997 and subsequent ones) showed a steady enlargement of my heart.
     On the day of my diagnosis I was in the ER - my fifth trip to an ER in 4 days - due to SOB and frothy pink sputum. By this time I was begging the ER doctors as well as my family doctor to please listen to me. I had been telling them that something was going on other than asthma for a very long time, to no avail. Thank God for that resident. She noticed the heart enlargement and insisted on doing an echo. My EF on echo was 10%. The next day I had a transesophageal echo (TEE). My EF was 10% on it as well. I was put on IV diuretics of course and lost 43 pounds in 27 hours; 70 pounds altogether over 4 days.
     Since then I have had ups and downs. A cath in January of 2001 measured my EF at 30 to 35% but it soon dropped back to 25%. By September of 2001 I'd developed some arrhythmias, including reentrant tachycardia. I had an ablation on September 5, 2001. I thought it had worked but as of November, 2001 many of my symptoms have returned. I wore a 30-day event monitor and am awaiting an appointment later this month to see what it shows.
     I walk and do light stretching exercises daily plus I run my kids, which is a tremendous job! My goals are to lose some more weight <ugh> and continue on my current meds for as long as I can. Heart transplant hasn't been mentioned in several months. My cardiologist is actually pleased that my EF has stayed above 20% for as long as it has. He's actually surprised I made it the first few weeks and so am I.
     I want to thank God for allowing me the time I've had with my family, and for leading me to this online heart failure community.

My Meds

Andrea - January 15, 2002

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