I am glad you are getting some support and comfort. I know things can seem so scarey when you don't know everything yet. Sounds like things will start to calm down. Keep us posted, o.k.? Have a restful evening.
Dear Heather,
I came across your post today. I used to have an enlarged heart as well. Shortly after my youngest child was born I started having gallbladder problems. I went for surgery and when they put me to sleep my heart stopped! I woke in ICU, and was told that I had post partum cardiomyopathy. My heart was enlarged and only working half of what it should. Several different things can cause an enlarged heart. They say mine was a rare complication that occurs in pregnancy, but I know that sleep apnea can cause you to have an enlarged heart as well, which I have. Once everything was back to normal, I went for a check-up with my regular doctor and she had me run several different tests to see if anything else might have caused this as well. One of these tests was to do a sleep study to check for sleep apnea. Because you stop breathing for short periods throughout the night, your heart is constantly speeding up and slowing down. The heart is a muscle, and like any muscle when worked harder it will enlarge.
My first visit to the cardiologist was scary. I too kept thinking I am too young to be here and going through this!! (I was 28, I am not 30.) After I was released from ICU I was told not to be alone for about a week. I know the feeling of being scared to go to sleep, for fear that you will not wake up in the morning. For about a month I lived like that until I had to go back into the hospital because my white blood cell count was elevated due to my gallbladder. The doctor that was doing the surgery said she wanted another echo done the next day. That night when I was in the hospital my heart moniter alarm kept going off, because my heart was slowing down so much. The male nurse came running into the room, Saying Are you alright??!! I said yes.......... and he said that he was alerted by whoever moniters the heart moniters that my heart was barely beating. The next day they did another echocardiagram, and that is when I found out that my ejection refraction rate was back up to 60%, and I got the ok to proceed with the gallbladder surgery since it was unsuccessful the first time. It turned out that because my heart had returned to "normal" and I was still taking the same meds, they were causing my heart to slow down at night.
I was put on 6 different medications, and after a month I was taken off 2 of them. At my checkup with the cardiologist after my surgery I was taken off the rest.
During this time I was also put on a low sodium diet. I cannot remember the number now, but it was pretty low. I never realized how many things have sodium in them.
Keep your faith, and with so many well wishes and prayers for you I know you will get through this! I really believe prayer played a HUGE part in my speedy recovery. Just take it easy, no excessive exercising or housecleaning such as vacuuming (these were my restrictions), until you get word from your doctor.
Ok,.. just an update.
Friday night at 830, the cardiologist called and told me that I needed to go to another hospital ER Right now because my heart was so large. He said they would need to run tests and that the Er i had went to friday wouldnt have the euipment they would need and they would probably admit me. Well, I hung up the phone and just about went hysterical. Brian coudlnt understand me and he tried to call the doctor back but they had left. He finally had to call an answering service to have him paged.
I went to the hospital and my Bp was something like 235/142. They freaked out and gave me an iv where they gave me bp medicine twice but it wouldnt go down. They gave me nitro patches that were releasing medicine through the skin. They gave me huge headaches! They did another EKg and more chest xrays. The doctor said everything looked great and that she couldnt understand why the other doc and made me rush over. They did admit me because of my BP. I had to wear a heart monitor and take bp meds. I couldnt fall aseep. I was hot and the notro was giving me headaches. I only got 45 mins of sleep. My stomach was hurting because i was so hungry but I was not allowed to have food or water.
In the morning I got more bp meds, they tried giving me Xanax so I would sleep (didnt work). Later I had to have an echocardiogram done, more ekg, an a chemical stress test. I hated these,.. laying so still for so long made my headaches worse, the nice nurse put a cool towel on my head but still,.. I hope I never have to do a stress test again,.. laying in this weird scanning thing for 12 mins totally still.. then going and having numerous things injected then going back to lay in the weird thing for 17 mins. The weirdest part was when we were doing the echocardiogram (its an unltrasound pretty much) they couldnt see all of the heart so they injected stuff into me. She said it would light up the heart. Even before the lady was done injecting me,.. sure enough it looked like someone turned a light on in my heart. Very weird experience seeing that on the screen. All the test came back great,. no blockage, heart pumping correctly,.. no diabetes. All enzymes good. So they eventually released me. I am on a low fat, low sodium diet (2000 mg or less a day) I have 2 prescriptions to fill tommorow. One is essentially a water pill and they said it would probably cause me to lose some weight initially. I can do movement as tolerated (whatever that means) and my BP is still in the 178/95 range though. My chest still tightens when i move around but at least I know my heart is pumping correctly. I am supposed to see the cardiologist in a week where they will check blood pressure, look at potassium levels (guess i better eat some bananas) and prolly another ekg too. Among other things,..
The doc said that overall my heart looked good, just big and that I just need to get the bp under control, but I have to wait to see what the other cardio doc says in a week.
When i got home,.. i was still picking electrodes off of me,.. i feel like a strange science experiment. I loves this hospital. Everyone was super nice and always doing small things,.. asking me if i needed a blanket, magazine,.. tv on etc,.. They even brought me a fan so i could try to go to sleep. After all the tests I even got to order room service from the heart menu.. it was good,.. grilled chicken sandwich, yogurt, apple juice and angel food cake:-)
I hope everything works out, it is looking like it is going to. Now, if I could get this place where they had an iv in my hand to stop hurting like the dickens...
Woo wee, Heather -- what an evening! You sweetheart........
As much of an ordeal as it was, it sounds like you got some good news! The steps they're having you take now are very positive, and you'll learn a LOT about how much sodium they put in just about everything these days. I keep my sodium under 1900 grams as well, and it requires an initial period of adjustment, but you'll find that it really is true that we build up a tolerance to sodium, and that the more you use, the more you NEED to use to taste it. Before long, you'll find a lot of things virtually inedible because they'll taste so salty to you.
One of the ways to bring down your blood pressure is to lose weight -- I had really high blood pressure when I started, and started to come down when I reduced my sodium intake and lost my first 10% of body weight. I'm really hoping that you feel a little better about things now that you have some more answers and the beginnings of a plan.....but God, how terrifying it must have been to get that phone call. Big hugs to both of you.
You're on the right track, Heather.....reading that entry was a bit of an emotional rollercoaster , but at the end I really felt a strong sense of hope and optimism. You're going to be ok, and I can't tell you how much I appreciate your coming back in after all of that and giving us that update.....you sweet pumpkinhead.
I send the biggest, warmest, most loving hugs your way, Heathergirl....... And if ever you're interested in sharing info and war stories on living the low-sodium life, I'm your girl!
Last edited by lessofsarahtolove; 11-23-2004 at 11:34 PM.
I'm so glad to here things are looking up Heather. You will do fine. Hey and you got the added benifit of a pill that might give you a jump start on losing weight. Keep up your spirts and the good habits you have started.
Wow, you went through quite an ordeal, missy! As scary and uncomfortable as it all was, at least you now have piece of mind knowing exactly what you're dealing with and what you have to do to control the condition. You must have felt that you got a reprieve when you learned that reducing sodium and taking a couple of pills will avert any further alarming symptoms.
What a relief it was to read "All the tests came back great, no blockage, heart pumping correctly.. no diabetes. All enzymes good."
Take care and give your husband a big pat on the back from me for insisting you go to ER in the first place, okay?
Phew - I'm glad your heart is working well.
You've already started on the changing lifestyle path which will help to reduce your blood pressure!!!
A big big hug is winging its way over to you from the U.K!
Love Annie x
Bless your heart. What an ordeal! I am glad they were nice to you at the hospital. I know blood pressure definitely can come down with weight loss, so maybe you won't even need any medicine after awhile. I have been thinking of you often and am so glad you are alright. Take good care of yourself.
Oh wow. As if you weren't stressed out enough to have a doc tell you to rush to the ER. I probably would've been doing the same things as you. I'm glad to hear you're getting some answers and treatment.
Yes, thanks everyone! I am really feeling better knowing that my heart is pumping correctly.
The doc office called and wants to do another chest xray (grrr again???) and check potassium levels in a week. The medicaid lady from the hospital called and said I am ineligible because i dont have kids and I am not officially disabled, so I am stressing a bit over that,.. i mean i am sure I racked up AT LEAST 10k worth of hospital bills so far,...it wasnt as if the things i did were frivolous??? It seems like they are saying they dont care about my health if I dont have kids??? whatever!! I will talk to the local medicaid lady from family services next week. We were supposed to go today but its 30 mins away and the car is still broken plus it is snowing after raining all night, so the roads are a mess and I am not going to ask our neighbor to taxi us around in that!
Hi Heather. I'm so glad to hear that your test results turned out so well. Please don't stress out over the financial stuff. Everything will take care of itself in due time. Concentrate on what's really important right now - your health.
I remember that you mentioned before that you were looking into the DASH diet. Have you done anymore research on that? I'm terrible at planning menus so I searched for some DASH ones on the internet. Didn't have much luck. The Oregon dairy assoc. has an online cookbook. I contacted the agency that developed the plan but they didn't have any additioanl resources they could pass along to me. Maybe the cardi can give you some info on it.
Take care of yourself and have a wonderful holiday.
Ill have to find the Dash link I had, but the docs have me on a low sodium (2000mg or less per day) and low fat diet. I alot of sites for low fat and one realy nice one for low sodium if you would like any recipes like that.
so, it seems like I will pretty much be following a dash plan,.. and the some of the meds I am taking have water pill qualities, so it seems ill lose weight either way,..lol
Oh, and just for the record, my weight at the hospital was 378 (eeeek) but at least their scale weighed me. It makes me wonder what the weight would have been back in august,.. yikes!
Hey Heather! Glad to hear you are okay, thats quite the night you had. Sounds like a very stressful experience, which I can definitely relate to. I just wanted to pass something along thats really helped me to live a normal life, meditation. At first I thought it was kinda flakey sounding, but I had to try it.. well I was desperate to try anything. When I am really stressed I try and sit still, close my eyes, and start from my head and relax my muscles, picturing the muscles relaxing, and going limp. By the time I am done my mind has stopped thinking, and my body is fully relaxed, and I feel like I am in touch with my body. Then I can isolate whats REALLY going on for me. I used to do this when I was seeing about 5-6 doctors and none of them could figure out why I was so sick, and in so much pain all the time. Thats how I learnt to deal with pain as well, I can almost breath thru any pain I get now. Not to mention it'll get you through any panic attack. It's a really powerful skill to have. I don't know if that helps you, but I thought I would pass it along anyways Take care of yourself!
Heather, you sweetheart.....
, but at the end I really felt a strong sense of hope and optimism. You're going to be ok, and I can't tell you how much I appreciate your coming back in after all of that and giving us that update.....you sweet pumpkinhead. 
As scary and uncomfortable as it all was, at least you now have piece of mind knowing exactly what you're dealing with and what you have to do to control the condition. You must have felt that you got a reprieve when you learned that reducing sodium and taking a couple of pills will avert any further alarming symptoms. 
