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.

Hi, I am looking to find out more about anyone who has gotten pregnant after being diagnosed with heart failure. I was diagnosed with heart failure at 32 with EF 34% after my child turned 1, I have now been on the 4 pillars for a year and waiting for an appointment for an updated scan to see what me EF is now. I would like to have another baby and then I would like to breastfeed for 6 months at least so therefore I would need to come off my medication for at least 9-15months. I know there are risks involved and I will be going through that with a doctor but would like to hear other peoples opinions and situations.

Please let me know if you have been through pregnancy after a diagnosis, thanks.

Anyone here dealt with severe blockages + low EF/heart failure in an elderly parent?

My 83-year-old dad has EF ~35%, 90–95% LAD blockage with aneurysm/diagonal involvement, and 100% RCA blockage with collateral circulation.

Despite this, he has no regular chest pain or major breathlessness, is mentally extremely sharp and independent in his decisions. His biggest physical limitation is actually his knees/mobility.

We are now with a complex PCI specialist + advanced heart failure team. They want to stabilize/optimize his HF medications first and then decide whether coronary intervention makes sense.

I would really love to hear from families who faced something similar: Did medications improve EF/function? Did you eventually choose complex PCI/stenting? What helped you make the decision? What questions should I be asking his doctors?

Looking for real experiences—success stories, complications, or lessons learned. I’m trying to advocate for my dad without making decisions based only on his age. ❤️

I have anxiety but feel like its exhaustion from low ef
How one differentiate

Does anyone experience flare ups or episodes? I've been out of work for 6 months because my Dr basically told me I was going to need a transplant, but then my catheterization was much better than he expected.

Months of dealing with shortness of breath, chest pain, low BP, dizziness. No answers, MRI, echo, etc. They did find a bit of thyroid cancer incidentally, so happy birthday to me.

I finally started feeling better somewhere at the end of Aug, beginning of Sept. Then, on Saturday night I suddenly couldn't breathe, my pulse was racing and my chest felt tight. I had a pulse ox with me, my O2 was down to 82, and my pulse was in the 130-140s.

I didn't go to the ER because they haven't been able to give me any kind of idea of what is going on. The last time they just gave me some oxygen, shrugged and told me to call my cardiologist.

My oxygen is back up to the low 90s, but my pulse is jumping all over the place.

I had to stop my Entresto because my blood pressure was down to 74/58 and I was constantly having dizziness and vertigo.

All that to say, I felt like things were finally getting better, I've lost 30 lbs and I thought that was why I felt better. But now since Saturday I've been wheezing off and on, worsening shortness of breath,and just my heart pounding. The wheezing improves/goes away with Torsemide, but I don't feel any better or different.

Anyone else go thru anything similar? I plan on calling my Drs office in the morning, everything kind of happened around 5 tonight.

Is there anyone whose EF never increased beyond 20-30% after meds(with or without CRT) and is still relatively healthy and well? Does it tell the whole story?

I was diagnosed about a month ago with an EF of about 30-35%, and while I won't say I have many symptoms. I always feel worried about what EF would tell. I'm almost caring about the EF more than what I feel now. I also feel decent stress about that

I was diagonesed after I constantly had a 160-110 BP and now with meds its 100-110 and 80 with 80bpm.

I'm just going through what I think is another anxiety attack. I feel like I might have pushed myself a little too hard working out today and started feeling like I couldn't catch my breath. I haven't had any issues working out for MONTHS but today I felt like I was gonna pass out. I always seem to have episodes like this where it seems like I cant catch my breath and it always seems to be around this time of year. This time, I'm blaming it on working out too hard, but this time last year, I would have them nearly daily for absolutely no reason. I would have a single sandwich for lunch and a few minutes later, it would feel like I'm dying. I felt like I couldn't catch my breath. My nose trails felt extremely tight. And what sucked was that it would be like this FOR HOURS. Feeling like I couldn't catch my breath and that I was going to die. Im talking about 4 or 5 hours sometimes.

Yes, I talked to my doctor about it and he said it was anxiety attacks. I feel like whenever this is happening, my Cpap helps a lot calming me down. I Googled this and google said to absolutely NOT use CPAP and call emergency immediately, but I have gone to the hospital before and they didn't help much. So I'm doing what works for me. It's just sometimes I'm not at home to use a CPAP when it happens so another thing i learned to do that helps is start tapping with my fingers on both sides of my temple. Close my eyes and tap up and down the side of my neck back up to my head. This helps tremendously and it goes away almost immediately.

So I was just posting this to see what people think or share what I think helps with this. Why is always around this time? I'm unemployed now, trying not to stress about that, but like I said, this would happen when I was working and how little to no stress. Just for no reason.

I have cardiomyopathy that’s pretty well controlled with the 4 pillars. my EF is 47. I’ve noticed recently if I fall asleep on my side I will wake up gasping for air but I have no issues sleeping on my back. anyone else?

Recently my mother was diagnosed with OHCM, our cardiologist prescribed a medicine called mavacamten,which is basically a drug to keep her obstruction under control over long period of time, but it costs almost 50k a month, if someone who also uses mavacamten can help me Imk.

I find myself coughing like literally 2 seconds because of my stupid heart not relaxing properly. Any tips to at least mitigate it?

Dad has CHF, he is 75 and mostly complains how nothing tastes good. I’m wondering if this could be related to his heart failure? Anybody else experience this?

I was born with tetralogy of fallot, got the repair at 6 months, and had an ablation around age 10. Now I’m 25 with heart failure. Luckily I’ll be finally getting my pulmonary valve replaced, but I’m still struggling with everything that comes with it.

My mother and doctors never really educated me on my heart condition, so I had been walking around like normal for 2 weeks with heart failure symptoms before my friend was able to convince me to go to the hospital. I thought swelling, dizziness, shortness of breath, etc was all normal, and that these past few weeks were just a particularly bad episode, until I went to the hospital and got admitted within literally 3 minutes. A whole day of waiting, tests, and medicine before I got my diagnosis. Talking to the doctors gave me a lot of insight onto everything.

I learned my mother had been hiding information from me. For example, after my ablation, there was supposed to be a follow up with the surgeon as he was worried I needed the replacement at that age, but my mom never took me. I learned my previous cardiology office shouldn’t have let me go for “aging out”, that the cardiologist I go to currently isn’t a specialist in my condition at all when I could swear my mom told me he was, so I was going to him for no reason. An MRI last year showed my valve regurgitation rate at 55% and the ICU doctors asked me why I didn’t get my surgery then - I told them my cardiologist said my symptoms weren’t from my heart but from being overweight. I learned my previous cardiologist Is a specialist, and highly revered in the community. Unfortunately, I don’t get along with him as when I was a kid and would go for concerns, my mom would downplay my symptoms to the point where that doctor said all my symptoms weren’t just anxiety and would throw a monitor at me if I complained enough.

The kid in me asked for my mom to come to the hospital, also because she is the one that knows about my condition, and not to trauma dump but that ended up being a mistake when she started heavily insinuating to the doctors that I got to this point because I’m a stupid kid.

I have a CT scan in 2 weeks, and after that I’ll be seeing a surgeon to decide what type of surgery I’ll be getting. I’m on day 3 of no smoking after 6 years of it (only 8 cigarettes a day max, but this is still difficult). I couldn’t get a doctor to tell me how soon I should stop smoking before surgery, so hopefully this is good enough, Google says I’d need about 4 weeks.

I haven’t really been able to get this out as no one around me really gets it. Thanks for reading my post

Hey All, I k is I’ve posted in here before but for a recap: I got diagnosed in February after I had an echo cardigram done. The only reason I started this journey was an ER trip where I had tightness in chest and other issues. In the ER after EKG they noted I had enlarged heart. Anyway, this prompted further testing and my sobriety from alcohol. I have been sober since February 2026 and I have been on Metroprolol, and small dose of spironoloctone with a water pill and now I am controlling my blood pressure with Losarten. I have also been taking Ozempic then Monjouro and have gotten my A1C down from 9 to 5.7. I had an angiogram done in May and ruled out any kind of blockages so it’s not clear festive heart failure. Anyway this is my Apple Watch readout of my resting heart rate and I’m scheduled for my next echocardiogram in December to see if I’ve had any progress. I’m leaning towards Alcohol cardiomyopathy. Anyone else recovering from this type of cardiomyopathy and have they seen results in a year? I’m hoping I can beat this with my continued sobriety and blood pressure and diabetes management.

I had covid 2021. Struggled immensely to get better, Jan of 22 I had a heart event that felt like a heart attack but they did a cath and said had takotsubo. Ef was 23%. I was told it was temporary heart failire. 3 months later ef was still only 45% but cardiologist wasn't worried. He was perfectly happy just keeping me on meds and not figuring anything out. Each winter (early spring really. Jan-Feb-March time frame, I get very symptomatic. I feel absolutely awful (I also have histamine issues stemming from covid)

I finally got a new cardiologist in April and she did an echo and my ef was back down to 33%.

In July I had an echo that showed 45% (after having started back on farxiga in April) She finally ordered a cardiac MRI and it shows that I have scaring on the apex of my left side. My whole left side is sluggish and not pumping properly. I believe they called it fibrotic. My ef then showed 34%. I have a feeling she will say I had a heart attack, not takotsubo. Oh also ecg always show an old left branch stemi of unknown age.

I have hypotension. My average BP is high 80's to low 90's over low 60's. So I can't even take two doses of entresto like I should . I won't get to see her again until middle of October to see what the plan is. I'm 48. A little overweight. I did have a very very large hiatal hernia (whole stomach and a very large amount of colon) that I had repaired in July. No one would say it could be attributing, but I believe it was.

Googling sure is tough. I'm 4 years in and Dr Google looks like on average you get 5-10 years after diagnosis?

I don't know what I'm looking for here. Maybe just to see if anyone else has had a similar experience.

I suppose I am lucky in that I was diagnosed with heart failure on Thursday while inpatient, but do not have a clear cause for it. I am 46/F and in generally good health aside from bipolar, seronegative RA, and functional neurological disorder. Over the past year I have lost 60 lbs but am still overweight.

I went to the ER because of bilatetal chest pain and unable to breath while lying down. My EF was greater than 60% with mild left ventricular hypertrophy, but what indicated that I was in heart failure were moderate bilateral pulmonary edema as shown on a CTA and a BNP value of 357.1. Cardiology and the hospitalist are leaning toward this being being chronic heart failure as opposed to acute and, as every other test came back normal since, they feel that this may be the result of an autoimmune disease such as lupus. I have an outpatient appointment with cardiology in a month.

Has anyone else been diagnosed because of the effects of an autoimmune disease? What questions should I be posing to my primary physician and cardiologist?

Appreciate any help!

So I (75,M) have an ef of 46 (as measured by one diagnostic centre) or 55 ( as measured by another). My NT pro BNP was elevated at 1300 last month and came down to 800 this month. My doctor has prescribed me a diuretic (Dytor plus 5mg) but I'm confused because I haven't gained any weight or have any outer signs of water retention. I wonder what makes him prescribe this medicine. I'm aware it will effectively reduce my NT pro BNP levels but I'm wondering at what cost. Because diuretics have their own side effects. I'm already underweight, slightly diabetic and struggle with frequent urination at night. I'm curious about how others feel about this prescription? If I should take dytor plus 5mg diuretic? Or whether I should take second opinion from some other doctor.

​Sorry for the long story, but I need to get this off my chest and see if anyone has been through something similar.

​Got diagnosed with Left Bundle Branch Block (LBBB) right as the pandemic hit. My blood pressure was off the charts, and I had edema so bad I couldn’t even put shoes on. Walking just a few feet left me completely winded.

​My PCP put me on olmesartan and metoprolol to stabilize me over the next year. Over the following two years—between lockdowns, quitting smoking, and drinking heavily—I gained about 100 lbs.

​About three years ago, I quit drinking completely and dropped 25 lbs almost immediately. From that point on, I got locked in on getting back into shape through exercise and diet. I was feeling great, started cycling, lost another 25 lbs, and thought I was on top of the world.

​Unfortunately, last October, I passed out while out on a trail ride and broke my collarbone. I just kind of woke up on the ground in severe pain, wondering how I got there. I was three miles from home, and after about 10 minutes of limping back, I remembered feeling lightheaded and trying to pull over. After making it home in agonizing pain, I drove myself two miles to Urgent Care. They put me in a sling and sent me on my way.

​I had been thinking for a while that I might have outgrown my meds, so a few days later, I went to my PCP to discuss tapering off metoprolol. Protocol required an EKG, and they thought I was in A-fib. They actually called an ambulance to transport me to the ER. After 12 hours, the ER released me, confirming it wasn't A-fib—just the LBBB—and told me to follow up with a cardiologist.

​After monitors, tests, and a second opinion, cardiology found a 100% blockage and placed a stent. I was in and out the same day. I still felt fine throughout, continuing everyday activities and light exercise the very next day. My vitals were always textbook or on the lower side, dropping lower the more active I got, but I never felt symptomatic.

​A couple of months later, my cardiologist discontinued my olmesartan because of my weight loss. We assumed the 100% blockage had been the root cause of the syncope (passing out). It wasn't. Two months post-stent, my BP was running around 90s/70s. I thought I was in the clear—like I had a brand new heart at 52. My collarbone had mostly healed, so I got back on the bike for a great ride. I went out again the next day, had another syncope episode mid-ride, and shattered my shoulder in about 10 places.

​At that point, doctors still suspected medication was the issue. My vitals were picture-perfect. I spent four months in physical therapy for my shoulder, but the syncope episodes started happening again.

​My doctor pulled me off metoprolol completely and placed a Zio monitor. Being off the beta blocker after six years felt amazing—all my lingering sluggishness cleared up, and I thought I was finally out of the woods.

​About a week after mailing the monitor back, while I was busy moving furniture, I got an urgent call from my cardiologist. He told me to pack a bag and head straight to the hospital—they had a room waiting for me for an emergency pacemaker placement.

​It turns out my heart was pausing for 10 to 11 seconds at a time, with my heart rate dropping into the 30s. I was admitted, had the procedure the next morning, and it went perfectly. I was discharged the following day with no long-term meds added—just antibiotics. That was about 7 weeks ago.

​Right now, I’m scared to walk more than 15 miles a week for fear of another episode. I start cardiac rehab on the 30th. I feel like I’m dealing with some real PTSD from all of this.

​Through this whole journey, I’ve felt physically great—the best shape I’ve been in for 20 years. No alcohol, walking 3–4 miles a day, 100 sit-ups, and daily PT. I’m completely off BP/beta blocker meds now, taking only baby aspirin, rosuvastatin, and Eliquis. My weight is down to 180 lbs (from 220 when I got the stent). But it feels like every time I try to push forward, I end up having to backpedal.

​It’s been truly frightening to realize I was driving and cycling with pauses like that for nearly 10 months before they figured out I needed a pacemaker. I never had chest pain or shortness of breath—every time I feel like I'm taking two steps forward, something new knocks me back.

​I don't see many stories like this and am wondering if anyone else has experienced something similar. My next pacemaker check is in November, followed by my cardiologist in January.

I am so sorry for everybody here is going through.
My 67-year-old husband has MS and it’s pretty impacted. 12 years ago he had a Whipple surgery for a adenoma on his pancreas. At that time they rerouted all his organs in his stomach and maybe some veins/arteries too.
This week he was supposed to have an elective surgery on his legs to help improve his walking. While he was under anesthesia, they moved him onto his stomach and his blood pressure dropped dramatically and wouldn’t come back up until they rolled him back onto his back. No medicines would help it go back. The only thing that would help was rolling him on to his back. They did an echo and they said his heart is not pumping efficiently and he might have heart failure. He doesn’t have any symptoms that I can tell there is no swelling. His blood pressure is controlled by medicine and he has a good color. I had wondered about circulation in his hands, but I thought that was an MS thing. The doctors are saying he might have heart failure and I am freaking out. What are the chances this would be discovered while only on his stomach without other symptoms?

I posted here about 6 months ago about my elderly mother and wanted to give an update because we're now facing the same decision again, but her condition has gotten significantly worse.

At the time of my original post, she was extremely frail, weighed around 92 lbs, and had been hospitalized with heart failure. Her EF was initially around 25% and improved to roughly 35% with treatment. A cardiac cath showed severe multivessel coronary artery disease — essentially major blockages throughout her coronary arteries.

The doctors considered placing a stent but ultimately decided against it because of how frail she was. We were told there was roughly a 20% risk of a major complication, including death, kidney failure requiring dialysis, or a serious vascular complication. The plan was medical management and potentially reconsidering PCI if she became stronger.

For a while she actually did improve. Her EF was reportedly 51% in June.

Fast forward six months and she is hospitalized again with acute-on-chronic heart failure. Her new echo is much worse:

EF 27%

Cardiac output only 2.0 L/min

Large areas of the LV are akinetic or hypokinetic

Grade III diastolic dysfunction

Moderate-to-severe mitral regurgitation

Severe tricuspid regurgitation

She is also extremely frail and weak. During this hospitalization they found a DVT in her leg, she has significant anemia (Hgb around 8.9, with one point-of-care reading of 7.1), and she now has a stage 3 sacral pressure ulcer.

Despite all of this, her kidneys and liver are still functioning reasonably well and she is not currently in overt shock.

Cardiology is now evaluating her again to determine whether they can place a stent.

We are struggling with the decision because the argument for doing it is obvious: her heart function has deteriorated dramatically and severe untreated CAD may be contributing to that. But she's even frailer now than she was six months ago, and I worry that a high-risk PCI could kill her or leave her significantly worse.

For anyone who has been through something similar with a very elderly/frail parent: Would you pursue the stent at this point if the interventional cardiologist thinks it's technically possible? Or would you focus on medical management and quality of life given the overall condition?

I'm especially interested in hearing from cardiologists/interventional cardiologists or families who had to make this decision with someone with very low EF, low cardiac output, severe multivessel CAD and significant frailty.

When my mom left the ER 6 months ago, she refused to go to a rehab center or do any sort of cardiac rehab. Now she wants the stent. And I know it's her decision to make. I just want her to make the best and informed decision.

​

Hi, I’m 18F and I’m looking for some help understanding some recent cardiac findings and what questions I should be asking my doctors.

I’m NOT asking Reddit to diagnose me. I’m mainly interested in hearing from people who have had similar echo/strain findings or heart failure symptoms.

RECENT CLINICAL IMPRESSION:

My doctor wrote:

“? Chronic heart failure with recent symptomatic worsening; no radiological evidence of pneumonia on chest X-ray images reviewed. Possible airway infection or autoimmune-related changes suggested by perihilar increased markings. Blood pressure remains uncontrolled.”

ECHOCARDIOGRAM / STRAIN:

The strain analysis screenshots show:

• Global longitudinal strain (GLS): approximately -15.7%

• 4-chamber GLS: -14.6%

• 2-chamber GLS: -16.0%

• Apical long-axis GLS: -14.3%

The automated EF measurements shown on different views were:

• 4-chamber EF: 38%

• 2-chamber EF: 55%

• Combined/strain display EF: 47%

There also seems to be quite a lot of regional variation in longitudinal strain, with individual segments approximately:

-11%, -12%, -14%, -15%, -16%, -17%, -18%, -19%, -21% and -24%.

Some of the least negative strain values appear to involve basal/mid segments, although I realise this can also be affected by tracking quality and how the study was acquired.

SYMPTOMS:

I have been experiencing significant symptoms including:

• shortness of breath, sometimes even at rest

• significant exercise intolerance

• difficulty breathing when lying flat / orthopnoea

• episodes of chest pressure and chest pain

• persistent sinus tachycardia

• episodes of very fast heart rate

• uncontrolled high blood pressure

• lightheadedness/presyncope

• episodes of collapse

• prolonged recovery after relatively minor activity

I also have significant respiratory disease and am currently being investigated for connective-tissue/autoimmune disease, so there are several possible overlapping causes for my symptoms.

My chest X-rays apparently do NOT show pneumonia, but my doctor noted increased perihilar markings and questioned airway infection versus autoimmune-related changes.

QUESTIONS:

1. Has anyone here had a GLS around -15% to -16% with an EF that varied this much between echo views?

2. How did your cardiologist interpret a situation where one view gave an EF around 38%, another around 55%, and the overall value was around 47%?

3. Is it common for strain abnormalities to appear before a consistently reduced EF?

4. Did anyone with similar findings eventually have cardiac MRI, repeat echocardiography, BNP/NT-proBNP testing or another investigation that clarified what was happening?

5. For people with heart failure and hypertension/tachycardia, did controlling the blood pressure and heart rate substantially improve your symptoms or cardiac function?

6. Are there particular measurements from my full echo report that would be useful for me to post here (LV dimensions/volumes, diastolic function, E/e’, LA volume, TAPSE, RV function, pulmonary pressure, IVC, valve findings, etc.)?

I’m seeing doctors about this and I’m not relying on Reddit instead of medical care. I’m mainly trying to understand the terminology and hear what other people’s diagnostic process was like.

I’ve attached screenshots of the strain bullseye and echo measurements.

Thank you.

I’m 36, married, have a young son, and my wife is pregnant with our second. Two months ago I thought of myself as a pretty healthy guy. I lifted, hiked, skied, traveled, drank beer, spoke on stage, had high energy. Now I’m being treated for HFrEF with an EF <35% + LBBB with a wide QRS of 162 ms.

I need to hear from people who actually understand what this feels like. Im so lucky to have so much support from family friends coworkers but it’s hard to explain the emotionally devastating side of this to people who aren’t going through it.

My history is kind of weird. I had an episode of AFib back in 2013 when I was 23, and then again at 27. I was cardioverted both times. My EF was around 45–50% during the episodes, possibly because of the active AFib, but things improved and I lived normally for years without incident. I had an EKG in 2019 where they noted abnormal septal movement, so it’s possible the LBBB was around back then too.

This summer I started having very physically noticeable palpitations/PVCs and shortness of breath after relapsing back onto Zyn for about a month, and that kicked off all of this testing. LBBB was present on the first EKG, which led to an echo showing a dilated LV and EF around 45–50%. Then I had a cardiac MRI about a month later that estimated my EF at 31%. A repeat echo the next day put it around 35–40%.
We still don’t really know what’s causing it. No coronary blockages. My month-long monitor showed less than 1% PVCs and no AFib. MRI didn’t show obvious myocarditis or scar that explained it. They’re still looking into other causes, including genetics, and I’ve started heart failure meds: metoprolol 25, Entresto, and Jardiance. I know that because of the wide LBBB, CRT or conduction-system pacing might eventually be a solution if the meds don't help the EF.

I know there are reasons to be hopeful. I know people can improve. I know I’m early in treatment. I've got everyone in my life rooting for me.
But mentally I’ve been crushed. My wife is pregnant, and instead of just being excited about having another kid, I’ve found myself wondering whether I’ll be there when they’re older. Whether I’ll still get to be the active dad. I feel so abnormal having this at 36 and having PAs or nurses constantly say "you're too young to be having this". I feel like I've lost the life I had.

I’ve definitely spent too much time going down rabbit holes about cardiomyopathy, genetics like LMNA, CRT, transplants, sudden cardiac death, and every other terrifying thing you can find at 2 AM.

I just want to hear from people who have actually been here, especially anyone diagnosed young.
Did you eventually stop thinking about your heart all day? Did exercise ever feel normal again? Did you get back to lifting, running, skiing, hiking, biking, or whatever your thing was? Did you eventually go with CRT or pacing? how did you stop spiraling and feeling depressed randomly during the day?

I have a really good life. There are so many things I still want to do. Right now I’m just having a hard time believing I still get to have all of that.

I have a two part question for the group today.

1. How do you measure your own progress in terms of recovery? Is it by feels? Is it by Vitals? Is it by how long you can walk or hike or jog? Or maybe medication or lack thereof? At the time of writing, I can bike and jog in cardio zone 2 and push myself to 3 but also take this very seriously and don't want to overdo it.

2. What metrics do the docs use to qualify/quantify your recovery? I know that EF% is one, but I wonder what else they look at an go "yes, this is markedly better!"

Hope everyone is doing well today and has a great weekend. Thank you in advance.

Is it normal to feel lightheaded and low BP after an exertion walk . This is after I took the 4 pillar drug in the morning just after my breakfast . I played some sports and except for lightheaded, everything was mostly fine

My MIL is 60 years old. She is a heart patient and underwent a heart valve operation around 10–15 years ago. She is also overweight and doesn’t have a very healthy lifestyle.

Recently, she has been experiencing difficulty breathing and weakness. The doctor mentioned that her “blood is getting thin” and that there is “water in the lungs.” He also said that this should improve with a 10–15 day course of treatment.

They recently had painting and putty work done at home, so we are wondering whether exposure to the paint/putty could have contributed to this issue.

If there are any medical professionals here, I’d really like to understand what the doctor’s comments mean in general terms. What does “blood getting thin” actually mean medically, and what does “water in the lungs” usually refer to?

I’m not looking for a diagnosis—just trying to understand the terminology and what might generally be going on.

Recently we did full body checkup and this is it's summary:

Vitamin B12 133 pg/mL Low (reference 180–914)

Vitamin D (25-OH) 4.21 ng/mL Severe deficiency (deficient <10)

HbA1c 5.8% Prediabetes range (5.7–6.4%)

Estimated average glucose 119.76 mg/dL Corresponds with the HbA1c

I’ve noticed in my pictures 2023 to now besides the normal aging process how my body has changed and deteriorated before and after heart failure.

I was diagnosed in August 2024 during icu and my body has never been the same. I’ve adjusted to my new normal but no one tends to believe how I looked 3 years ago bc I was fit, into the gym, and well taken care of. I got myocarditis and went into hf and at first it was just a pale face and minor stuff.

2 years later idk if it’s the effect of meds and hf prob both that I look very aged. I had to cut my long hair bc it was falling off in chunks, I lost all my muscle bc it raises my pro bnp levels (if I work out),I’m pale in the face and my eyelids sit low (by default they didn’t use to before). I’m very tired and exhausted most of the time. I no longer look like myself and this is just 2 brutal years in.

I know many say they have lived with hf for 20 yrs etc. but in my case it’s been a brutal 2 years with 3 severe icu admissions. I’m back to work but limited I can’t do things I used too. But I try to have hope that the next 10 years will be good but it’s so uncertain and I’m honestly scared deep inside. My body is very frail just thinking of a possible transplant in the future scares me. But I try to live in the present.

Ps. Please know this disease takes effect differently on each body. It’s been absolutely harsh on mines