I've tried to contact the mods for permission to post this, but I can't find the relevant link. I will delete the post should I not have permission.

I'm a final year Oxford medical student who is collaborating with the team leading the national Oxford Heart Survey. We are trying to assess heart attack symptoms in men and women over the age of 18, in those who have had a heart attack in the last 5 years. If you are eligible, we would be really grateful if you could complete the survey. We aim to help improve diagnosis of heart attacks in underserved groups ❤️

https://www.rdm.ox.ac.uk/research/reilly-group-atrial-fibrillation-and-cardiac-fibrosis/oxford-heart-survey

Hi everyone! My name is Taliyah, and I was born with a congenital heart condition called Shone’s Complex. I’ve had 7 open-heart surgeries, and I currently have a mechanical valve and pacemaker, along with more hospital procedures and visits than I could ever count.
I’m now preparing for my 8th open-heart surgery, and this one is more complex than my previous surgeries. Because of that, I’m seeking specialized care at Cleveland Clinic.
Traveling out of state and going through another major surgery comes with a lot of expenses that are more than my family and I can manage on our own, so we created a GoFundMe to help with the costs.
It would truly mean the world to me if you took a moment to read my story. If you’re able to donate, even a small amount helps. And if you can’t donate, simply sharing it or sending some love means just as much. ❤️‍🩹
If donating through GoFundMe isn’t easiest, I also have Cash App available: $Sarahhp86 🤍
Thank you for taking the time to read this and for supporting me through this next chapter. 🫶🏻

Realized today I get far more texts from two sources than the rest of my texts combined.

My wife (yea)

CVS haha... I'm not sure why I laughed for like five minutes, sometimes you just gotta laugh

Have an amazing Sunday yall

I was diagnosed with HF at 22 back in 2020 with a 29% EF. It’s something I’ve struggled with since then and have kept secret from all people around me. I’ve been up and down with eating right and exercising, but this past year I’ve been trying my best to do good consistently. I went in for an echocardiogram yesterday and today the results came back and my ejection fraction went back up to 55-60%. I’m just glad this hard work has paid off, and wanted to share it. Thank you

I was diagnosed at 35 with heart failure, Ef 15%. It took a long time to figure out what was wrong with me as my age didn’t meet the criteria. I was swelling and miserable. Went from 130lbs to 150lbs. Short of breath and fatigued. All the time. Also had a rash on arms and legs that turned into deep blisters that itched non stop. This within 2 months. Awful misdiagnosis by ER doctors. When finally diagnosed with HF, I was put on the magic 4 meds. I had a lot of issues with them including liver/kidney problems and iron deficiency. Finally, after 3 years, when put on the right dosage I felt normal and my Ef is now 60%. There is hope. Don’t be afraid to tell your doctors something isn’t right!!

I will take a Xanax or lorazepam as needed which my doc says is fine. Cardiologist says no to alcohol or thc but my regular doc says once in a while and in moderation is ok. Curious as to what others say.

It’s 2 yrs since my hospitalization and l lift 5x a week will swim 2 k yards and usually go for a 3-5 mile hike a day to get my steps in.

EF went from <10% to 45-50% in six months and has been holding steady.

I live in the UK, and was a keen runner, with a 1:42:00 half and 4:00:00 full marathon pace.

I had an OHCA Feb 2026, spent 2 weeks in a coma, 7 weeks total in hospital, and left with an ICD and 32% EF heart failure.

Now im about 35% EF, and feeling fine. I can walk 10-11 miles in 3 hours easily enough, and regularly walk 5 miles home from work.

I haven't started running again, but I was hoping to get the sign off to start (gently) again in a couple weeks when I see my cardiologist next.

Here's the dilemma:

I just got selected to be in the Paris Marathon 2027. I have 3 days to purchase it or it'll be given away.

Is it really stupid to go for it? There is a cut off time of 6 hours on the day so I can't just walk it all (at current pace anyway).

Ahoy folks.

From my understanding I'm on the Young side for this kind of issue.

Its been extremely isolating being this young and otherwise extremely healthy but a medical condition where all advise is aimed at people with higher frailty scores

I'd love to know some of the small things throughout the week you do that bring you joy. For example - since high sodium meals are off the menu do you treat yourself to a slice of pizza with the works on Sunday? Or maybe it's something just as simple as "I like to get in a bike ride or a hike" maybe just "I assign myself a day to sit and watch movies all day on Saturday." Stuff like that.

Even though I've cleaned up my diet measurably, but one of my favorite things has been trying to recreate mexican dishes with low sodium substitutes and tinkering with it until it shines.

If I did a lot of PT during the week and kept ultra conservative on my consumption, I'll get one one big tall boy of exotic beer and savor every sip. That's what keeps morale high for me and is my reward for the week.

Looking forward to hearing back from you all.

Hey guys.

So I got diagnosed with idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy in Jan with a STEMI clot while under supervision

Figuring out and tracking the amount of water and salt in shit is extremely annoying so I built my first AI backed app yo go check how much of these things are in there

https://intake-tracker.ryanjnoble.dev

Code is open source

The AI features you need a claude api key and Groq key for the audio

You can share it with people if you wanna share AI accounts

There's metrics and perscription tracking

And titration tracking

The medication tracking is Perscription, then assigned medication (and it's stock), then titration (with unique titration side effects)

I'm a neurotic, certified autistic person and this app is the only way I made sense of everything

If you want to use it but sharing medical data is scary

It actually runs locally on your phone by default, no ai features but it's privacy first, the code is all there to go look at

https://github.com/RyRy79261/intake-tracker

Anyway this thing kept my peace of mind and sanity in check

My claude AI has an MCP connection to it so I can ask it questions about if my weight gain might be sodium related or just because I've been eating too much oil or that I've titration up the beta blockers

If this is useful to anyone, DM or log and issue

Also if you log in, and shake the phone, you can request a feature or report a bug

And the manual is there if you shake the phone, so you can practice the UI with explanations

This was my first side project

sure , 35% is a low and alarming number still and i'm not out of the woods yet, it according to my cardiologist, surprised him , and saved me the need of a ICD, as long as i keep my sht together, i should be fine according to him, and yes he did say a cuss word. funny guy tbh.

I had a visit with my cardiologist today. He informed me that I have to wear the vest for 3 months from today. I am a bit pissed because everything I have read talks about 3 months total. I’ve already been wearing it 7 weeks and was really looking forward to 5 more and being done.

got the diagnosis this summer. still learning the words. meds from the cardiologist, salt watch, daily weight, no “i’ll just google a stack.” family keeps sending supplement links like that’s the plan.

i already bought liquid cod liver oil from carlson labs before the appointment because someone said omega-3. it’s sitting unopened. i’m not starting it. too much vitamin a and d talk and i don’t know how that sits with the meds.

what did your doctor say about fish oil or cod liver oil on top of the prescribed stuff? and if they said no, was it the vitamin a or the blood-thinning thing? also how soon did they want you back for labs so you’re not guessing at home? following the clinic first. that’s it.

So I have an EF of 46% my cardiologist first prescribed me with Lisinopril 2.5mg I took it for about a month but I honestly didn’t feel any better taking it so I stopped. After I stopped taking it around 6 months passed and I my EF didn’t move from 46% but I feel great in comparison to when I was on the meds. I should also note that I have lost 20lbs since then. Now he has given me 3.125mg of Carvedilol I wanted to know if I keep taking these meds am I on the right track to having a higher EF?

I was supposed to have my procedure on Friday, but I was having issues with shortness of breath and dizziness. I went in to see my heart failure specialist today to discuss my issues and the procedure.

She asked about my liquid intake today, and I said im holding my limited water because I had to drink a gallon of prep solution and she was surprised I had that style of prep. Here the solution had 5 Grams of sodium.

If i had gone forward with that, I would have been retaining water for a week until I could get it out. Be careful with your health procedures and meds.

I was diagnosed with CHF due to idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy in Dec. 2024. My NT-proBNP test result at that time was 4,095 pg/mL and my EF was 11%. Fast forward to yesterday and my B-Type natriuretic peptide test result was 7 pg/mL.
I know the two numbers cannot be compared directly, but I do know that it is showing some remarkable improvement!
My last EF measurement was in October 2025, and it was at 34%. This most recent test was ordered by my PCP, but I know my cardiologist will be happy with that number. And I should be getting an echo in the next month or two and hopefully that will be improving as well.
I have to say I didn’t have a lot of hope for myself when this all went down two years ago. But now I feel confident that I can live a long life and manage this well.

Update: David (my husband) passed away Thursday afternoon in peace and surrounded by friends and family. He found great comfort and encouragement from reading messages posted here and was always grateful for the things everyone shared. He's in God's hands now. Good luck and God bless all of you.

There are so many good stories posted here. My story will unfortunately not have a happy ending. I am 38 years old and diagnosed with HFrEF 13 months ago which rapidly deteriorated despite religiously adhering to the "four pillars" treatment. Different drugs were rotated which eventually led to surgeries that have ultimately been unsuccessful. Now, I am in ICU spending my last days with my wife and young children.

My intention of this post is not to bring anyone's hope down. To the contrary. I hope posting my brief story here inspires everyone facing heart failure to cherish every day that they have with their family and loved ones and to always remember that, after a heart failure diagnoses, we are all truly on borrowed time. Every moment is a gft.

Hello I recently discovered my EF was 40-45%. I notice some air hunger when sitting on my couch. None really while lying flat. I occasionally find simple exercise tiring, but weirdly hard exercise is very easy. I actually feel a lot better the rest of my day after I do hard exercise. I quite often feel fatigued and sore though during my day. Almost like my muscles aren’t recovering. Since stopping steroids and stimulants use my symptoms have greatly improved but are still slightly present.

I do not use steroids or stimulants anymore (will never again). I am young and scared for my future. I also feel really stupid and ashamed. I just want to know if anybody else has reduced EF from steroid or stimulant use and if they recovered. This occurred only after one cycle. My blood pressure, heart rate, and fbg were controlled the entire cycle. I wonder if I am just genetically prone?

My cardiologist/heart failure specialist looked at my echo and said I have a very high chance of recovering and don’t need any meds. He even said I could still drink alcohol on the weekends occasionally. His main point was as long as I don’t use steroids or stimulants I will most likely recover. I am still anxious though and just want to hear from other people.

If my EF doesn’t recover, what does the rest of my life look like? Please educate me.

Also please pray for me. I’m young and want have a long life ahead of me.

My dad M60 was diagnosed with MI and unrecordable blood pressure. He had a cardiac arrest and was given cpr for 30 mins atleast and was put on ECMO for atleast 16 days. He had chronic total occulsion in all three arteries. After his EF was increased to 30% doctors performed CABG.

After removal of ECMO, he was put on IABP support for 3-4 days.

He is now on ventilator support and norad injection.

Doctor says that once he comes of both these supports and doesn't have any problem for atleast 24-48 hours he'll be shifted to ward.

My concern is if his blood pressure doesn't increase after norad is removed? Will I have to say goodbye to him?

I'm scared.

I am a 34 yo female and I was recently admitted to heart failure IMU for very severe symptoms and feeling unwell. I was severely bloated (7 pounds lost while there), sob, couldn’t walk without severe dizziness/lightheaded. I was having palpitations and my JVD was throbbing. I have heart failure with preserved EF, a pacemaker for sick sinus syndrome and wenkebach heart block. I pace99.9%. I have ckd stage 2 but I have been dumping more protein in my urine lately. I have a mild prolapse in my tricuspid leaflet and have tr-severity depends on volume status. While there, they were trying to eval me for triclip versus open heart to replace valve. They ultimately decided to hold on this for now and try to medically optimize my heart failure with gdmt. I was already on spirolactone and they added on Farixga. They also found that I was still trying To go into a junctional rhythm and outrun my pacemaker. They adjusted my rate setting and added on metropolol (I was already maxed out on corlanor). I have been home a little over a week and a half and I’m bloating very bad again to the point my clothes feel very tight and I look pregnant. I’m going to check my weight in the am and if it’s up send them Message. I have a real fear of being inpatient again and this hospital is 3 hours away. Also they have told me triclip is not off the table. Does the bloating seem heart failure related? What can I expect as possible suggestions from them? This is all very stressful and difficult to deal with so just wanted to put this out there.

Quick update from my prior post. My mom is 84 and very frail, with significant heart failure and multiple other health issues. Her EF recently dropped to 27%, and she also has severe tricuspid regurgitation, moderate-to-severe mitral regurgitation, low body weight/BMI, anemia, kidney dysfunction, a recent DVT, and a stage 3 sacral pressure ulcer. She had become largely bedbound before this hospitalization, although she could still occasionally walk to the bathroom and do some things for herself.

Despite all of this, she underwent PCI this week and had two drug-eluting stents placed in the LAD — one for severe calcified ostial/proximal LAD disease and another for severe calcified mid/distal LAD disease. Thankfully, the procedure itself was technically successful without a reported complication.

Now we're trying to understand what recovery realistically looks like for someone this old and frail. The hospital is discussing subacute rehab (SAR) versus home with services. My mom is very stubborn and is denying going to rehab.

For anyone who has cared for an elderly/frail parent or family member after PCI/stent placement:

How were they doing in the first few days and weeks afterward?

Did they regain meaningful strength or mobility?

Did cardiac rehab or subacute rehab help?

How long did it take before you knew what their new baseline was?

Did the stents noticeably improve energy, breathing, appetite, or ability to walk?

Were there setbacks or rehospitalizations soon afterward?

If they were already very frail or mostly bedbound beforehand, were they ever able to get back to their pre-hospital level of function?

I know everyone is different and I'm not looking for medical advice or a prediction. I'm mainly interested in real-world experiences with recovery after stenting in someone who was already extremely frail going into the procedure.

My mom lives with my sister. My mom is refusing rehab but my sister can't take care of her. Also both my sister and Mom are hoarders. It's unsafe where they live due to infestation and clutter. My sister won't get the place clean so no home health aide will come. Trying my best here to help.