Cosmic Orgasm!!

In February of this year, Michelle's ejection fraction (the fraction of blood pumped out of ventricles with each heart beat) was 15%.

As of Monday, Michelle's EF is 45-50%.

(That's freaking amazing, by the way!)

According to Wikipedia: "Healthy individuals typically have ejection fractions between 50% and 65%. However, normal values depend upon the modality being used to calculate the ejection fraction, and some sources consider an ejection fraction of 55-75% to be normal."

YAAAAAY! Way to go, my Baby!

ZAP

Michelle had an appointment today (Friday) to have an implantable defibrillator (ICD) installed near her left collar bone - it's like having a couple of paramedics following her around just in case.


Here's a device similar to hers - it's actually pretty tiny, considering it can last 5-7 years without needing the change the battery.

There are a lot of different varieties of the device - hers doesn't need to do any pacemaker duties - it will just sit, wait, and monitor in case there's any kind of problem that requires the device to 'deliver therapy' which is a nice was of saying 'it zaps you'.

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Sunday Update!

Michelle's recovering well, she was released from the hospital early Saturday afternoon. It's good to be home, and she's doing great.

Do the kids still say WOOT?

We had a cardiologist appointment on Monday, and Michelle had an echocardiogram performed. We received the results on Tuesday afternoon.

One of the measurements taken in an echo is EF, ejection fraction - which is the fraction of blood that is pumped out of the ventricle with each beat - the average person's EF is around 58%.

In February, Michelle's EF was 15.
As of Monday's test results, her EF is now 30-35!

I'm very thankful for the prescriptions, Michelle's much improved eating habits, and all the exercise she's been very dedicated to on a daily basis. Keep up the great work Darlin!

Cardiologist Appt Today

The appointment went well, we asked a long list of questions. I audio recorded the whole thing, because you can never jot notes as quickly as you'd like.

Most importantly, they won’t know if Cindy needs any implanted devices or invasive procedures until they’ve had three months of monitoring on her current medications – they will reassess at that point. They signed a form which gives her the next few months off from work (luckily she will get full pay from her company during this time).

We found out she can and should have light exercise, that we should feel no pressure to move from our second floor apartment to a first floor one (we might move anyway… Lake view? Patio? Vaulted ceilings?). Thanks to my Army brat upbringing, I’m ready to move every two years and it’s been four years. I'm itching to move, even if to a different apartment in the same complex.

I mentioned my frustration with the blood pressure monitors, and they suggested that if I bought a manual cuff, they will teach me to use it at the next appointment, which will be in April – so that’s cool.

All in all, good information, good appointment – many questions were answered.

Grumble

The hardest part of Cindy's condition is not knowing exactly what the condition means for her, for me, and our lives together.

They discharged her with two or three pieces of paper, not the five DVD's full of PDF's I was hoping for.

I have a million questions - what is a person's life expectancy when they have CHF? Should she be exercising at all? Should we forget about having kids? Should I buy her a wheelchair? A Segway? Should she plan to keep her job? Look for less stressful work? Plan to end her work career now and spend the rest of her life on disability? What should she be eating - low sodium, obviously but beyond that?

I can find many answers online, but I'm no doctor and how would I know if an answer is applicable to her exact condition? We have an appt on Monday morning - I hope for his sake the doctor has booked us out for a few hours.

Update - Cindy

This is her 4th day at home after the whole hospital spree. She's doing well, and we're actually leaving the house today. Leaving the house is a bigger deal because of our steep, steep steps. We're working on moving downstairs.

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!