Sylvia Edmonds Syledmonds@aol.com Camarillo, California age 58 married to Ross for 37 years 4 children and 3 grandchildren

I have been married to my high-school sweetheart Ross, for 37 wonderful years. We were both born and raised in Montreal, Quebec, Canada and in 1967 decided that we had shoveled enough snow and moved to Southern California. We have raised four wonderful children and they have given us three beautiful grandchildren, two girls and one boy.

My Health

I have been treated for high blood pressure since I was approximately 40 years old. I had always considered myself to be in good health with the exception of a bad back: degenerative disks. In 1989, I had back surgery to remove a shattered disk and hopefully to ease the sciatica in my left leg. Miracle of miracles, the surgery accomplished so much more than expected. My back pains were completely gone, as was the leg pain. I was able to move about more freely than I had in years. An unexpected benefit was that with the absence of pain, my blood pressure grew considerably lower and instead of 4 medications to control it every day, I was able to take only one dose of Lotensin per day.
     I became much more active and even took up playing tennis. One would think that should be the fairy tale ending but unfortunately nature had other plans. One evening in November of 1996, out of the blue while watching a movie on television, I had a bad coughing spell which I could not get under control. After taking a drink of water to try to stop coughing, I found that I could not get enough air into my lungs to breathe properly. A trip to the ER soon told us that I was in heart failure and drowning in my own fluids. The cardiologist on duty suggested that I probably had blocked arteries and so scheduled a battery of tests, including an angiogram.
     The results showed 40% blockage, not enough to do an angioplasty however my EF was 30%. The diagnosis was Idiopathic Dilated Cardiomyopathy, left bundle branch block and CHF. Further tests 6 months later put my EF at 25%. I have been on Coreg for almost 6 months and am feeling much better because of it. I still cannot carry any weight more than 10 pounds or hold my arms above shoulder level (curling my hair) without extreme fatigue but my heart seems much quieter at night and I do have more energy than I did before. Next week I am having another echo done and the doctor hopes to find my EF improved.

My Meds

My Interests

My second love (Ross being my first) is my computer. I make my own greeting cards, enjoy surfing the Net and playing computer solitaire and other card games. I also have a passion for working on my family tree. I now have 1300 people on our tree, which started out with only 40 names. I like to do English Smocking and make dresses for my two granddaughters, crochet and do other handwork. We own a motorhome and enjoy traveling when we can. We also have a boat and we both enjoy fishing. We may even do some this year if El Nino would only settle down!

Update Update Update Update

April 22, 2000 - I am pleased to say that I am in a lot better health now than I was when I wrote my bio in 1998. Meds changes have made an enormous difference in my energy level. I wish everyone here could improve as much as I have.

  Sylvia -- April 23, 1998

All information on this site is opinion only. All concepts, explanations, trials, and studies have been re-written in plain English and may contain errors. No one here is a doctor. No information on this page should be used by any person to affect their medical, legal, educational, social, or psychological treatment in any way. This web site and all its pages copyright © 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002 Jon C.