We’re Back!

On Wednesday 2/18/10 Cindy was diagnosed with Congestive Heart Failure and was admitted to a hospital in Ocala.

Her symptoms started out slowly and simply, perhaps a month before 2/18/10. She was short of breath, and easily tired. Next, it became obvious that something was wrong with her tummy – it went from its usual playful squishiness to a harder and harder consistency, until it was like clay. If you pressed a finger into her tummy and then let go, the imprint would remain for fifteen seconds or more.

Turns out she was retaining at least 25 pounds (that’s three gallons, folks) of extra water. Once admitted to the local hospital, she was put on drugs to lower her heart rate and blood pressure, blood thinners, and drugs to force her body to shed the excess water, which she accomplished in four or five days.

The local hospital was doing a lot of arm-waving and throwing lots of acronyms our way. She would need an AICD, she would need a VAD, she might need a heart transplant.

On Sunday she was transferred from our local hospital to Shands Hospital at the University of Florida (Gainesville) where they continued the treatment.

Shands cardiologists tell us Cindy has low thyroid hormone levels and an enlarged heart (left ventricle), which should be manageable with medication - they discharged her yesterday, one week after she checked in to our local hospital.

We still don’t know for sure what the future holds, but we have been very fortunate to have a lot of support from coworkers, friends, and family.

So the moral of the story is: If you have difficulty breathing for no good reason (walking from the living room to the kitchen), and seem to be retaining water, get to an emergency room!