Mother been diagnosed with Heart Failure

[SXGuy]

Re: Mother been diagnosed with Heart Failure

Hmmm clopidogrel inhibits clotting, so definitely get her checked. Is she on any gastric acid suppressants such as omeprazole or rantidine?

Nope not that im aware of.

[MrsD]

Re: Mother been diagnosed with Heart Failure

everything OK SX?

[SXGuy]

Re: Mother been diagnosed with Heart Failure

Yes Thanks MrsD

Been a bit of a hetic week so far really. Had loads of people round. Decided I jumped the gun abit with calling the carers in, and to be honest, they arnt gonna do anything for her anyway. Guy come round and said, they would come morning, afternoon and evening 6pm at the latest. So I said to him don't bother, as id be here at those times anyway, plus I don't think my mother was keen on them being in the house any way.

As it turns out, she seems a lot better now than she did when she first came home, a couple of the prescriptions they placed her on was not working very well, so we took the decision to stop them. As it turns out, the heart failure nurse who came round today was quite happy for her not to take them, and said, if its making her sleep all day, and feeling ill he'd rather she wasn't on them any way, so that was good.

Hes asked her to do a blood test to check her liver function before he may consider placing her on ramipril. in about 4 weeks time. And asvised me to sort out her repeat prescriptions which I will do Friday morning.

I showed him loads of herbal products that are known to help with hearts, some he was fine about, others he said she shouldn't take in conjunction with the prescription and a few others asked me to check with a pharmacy first.

All in all, he seems like a great guy, doesn't like Dr's all that much either lol. He works on tailoring the medicine to how mum feels, not what the NICE guidelines state. Put me at ease straight away hearing that.

The speech therapist is really impressed with my mothers progress, said she has gone beyond expectations at such an early stage in recovery.

Her physio has been round twice this week, with another two appointments already booked in, my mother has been able to walk around the house using an aid, and managed 7 steps up the staircase today. The physio has told me that she can see no neurological reason why my mother cant walk and believes its more of a confidence issue. So they will be working on that to get her moving again. She left instructions for my mother regarding exercises, and told her that she does NOT want to see her using a wheelchair, she wants to see her walking from and to every room until she comes back again on Friday.

All in all, things are looking a lot better than I feared Friday, and im really impressed with my mothers progress, I am in no doubt that she will be back to herself in a very short time.

The only downside to this is some of them coming round have been spotted by a few of our clients who have worked out whats happened, however, they have also been long standing friends and are very understanding so that's been great.

The hard work is yet to come though as today ive sent out 110 appointment letters all for April and May, and fitting them all in around my mothers sessions is going to be hard but that's something we will have to deal with.

From my side of things, because ive taken over my mothers work load im working till 11pm most nights now catching up, and lucky if im getting 6 hours sleep a night, but its all worth it, and as my mother starts getting better, I imagine ill be able to ease up a bit.

[MrsD]

Re: Mother been diagnosed with Heart Failure

I'm really glad, had a feeling your Mum would take charge of her own destiny once she got out the hospital, sometimes the Doc doesn't know better.

she will be wary of stairs etc , once you've had a bit of a fright like that, it becomes crystal clear how delicate the old body really is, she just needs to keep getting her confidence back, looks like she's made a great start. well done both, it's not been easy but I think you're getting there.

[SXGuy]

Re: Mother been diagnosed with Heart Failure

Hi guys, just a little update.

Mum has been doing great, has some off days, but that's to be expected. in combination with her community heart nurse, I have been supplementing mums medication with allicin (garlic extract) CoQ10, Arjuna and omega 3,6 and 9. Waiting on D-Ribose to arrive today, which replaces lost ATP (energy production in our cells) which should increase her exercise level.

The water retention is improving, I think her heart nurse wants to remove these in the next few weeks if alls well, so that's 2 less pills she will need. Not sure if I remember saying already, but we took the decision to remove her from taking Artovastatin, and Coliopodgrel (not sure how its spelt) as it was giving her terrible tarry black stools and making her incontinent, her heart nurse agreed the dicision, and I replaced it with gastro friendly aspirin 75mg from boots. Hes happy with the switch.

He wants to put her on ramipril in a few weeks to help with reducing her pulse rate, its a bit high at the moment, and that's probably causing her to be over exhausted when moving.

Her physio is really impressed with her, she managed 7 steps twice yesterday up the stair case, so we are getting there! her speech and language therapist, is also impressed, she is ringing her in 2 weeks time for a chat, if all goes well, she wont be needed any more. Has left her with some phonics tests to do to improve some of her pronunciations.

I need to speak to her heart nurse regarding a side effect of her beta blocker Bisoprolol fumerate, shes developed a very dry cough which is keeping her up at night, cough syrup and water doesn't appear to be helping, so I will see if he can change them to another type and hope that helps.

Shes able to walk around the house quite easily now, and can go to the toilet on her own. Just the stairs to tackle!

Doesn't seem like it well be very long before I can start to go home in the evenings. Although ive been doing a 10 hour shift for work pretty much every day in the last two weeks, so that may stop me! lol

It seems a lot of her hurdles are heart related now, she recovered from the stroke pretty quickly.

She has a angioplasty assessment booked for 25th April and if they decide she needs one, the op is on the 7th May. They advised that she will be in theatre for 45 mins to an hour, and will need to stay in hospital in bed for 4 hours, after that she can come home but can not do anything for at least 48 hours.

I think once shes had the stent put in and her blood pressure (dystolic or systolic, can never remember which?) has been elevated then I think her energy levels will increase greatly, so that can only be a good thing.

Will keep you posted on progress in the coming days.

[Undercover Elsa]

Re: Mother been diagnosed with Heart Failure

Hi SXguy, glad to see your Mum's improving
Regarding the cough, watch out for Ramipril making it much worse. My OH was put on ramipril and started having severe coughing fits, nasty, breath taking, eye watering attacks. I knew it could cause this, and spoke to the pharmacist who told me that cough medicine doesn't work because the stimulus to cough is caused by the drug affecting the cough centre in the brain. However, in case the cough itself causes local irritation he recommended pholcodine. He had to come off the Ramipril and the cough went away. It doesn't affect everyone this way, but is something to watch out for.

[SXGuy]

Re: Mother been diagnosed with Heart Failure

Thanks Elsa, I am seing her heart nurse in a few weeks prior to him prescribing it, so will def point this out to him and hopefully, between us can decide the best course of action moving forward.

[Pixie]

Re: Mother been diagnosed with Heart Failure

Pleased to see that your Mum's making good progress SXGuy.

[MrsD]

Re: Mother been diagnosed with Heart Failure

glad to see your Mum is coming along

you learn something every day, I take rampiril for my blood pressure and occasionally have these nasty coughy fits in the night, so I put it down to my asthma (which can also give you night coughs) and the asthma medication(ventolin) seems to fix it. might mention it the next time I have to submit to some tests.................

keep up the good work, you and your mum are doing great

[SXGuy]

Re: Mother been diagnosed with Heart Failure

Thanks!

Mums been able to walk up the stairs for the last 3 days, it takes her a few minutes, but shes doing it. So shes finally been able to sleep in her own bed, get ready in her own room and use her toilet with no effort at all. Really made a massive change for her.

She isn't quite ready to prepare meals yet as shes still using a walker to help her get around, but I shouldn't imagine it will be long before shes doing that also.

Tonight is the first night ive come home, now shes able to get to bed by herself I felt it was time. Will still be there for the morning to make her breakfast and sort out medications, but as I say, it should only be temporary.

Staying over again on Friday, along with my wife as its her birthday.

[CleverClogs (RIP)]

Re: Mother been diagnosed with Heart Failure

Staying over again on Friday, along with my wife as its her birthday.

Your wife's birthday?

Is she looking forward to her birthday treat?

[SXGuy]

Re: Mother been diagnosed with Heart Failure

lol not sure. Gave her some money to get an eternity ring, but she wants new fence panels and decking in the garden. Cant win!

Putting on a nice spread for her though so that's something

[IF]

Re: Mother been diagnosed with Heart Failure

Thanks!

Mums been able to walk up the stairs for the last 3 days, it takes her a few minutes, but shes doing it. So shes finally been able to sleep in her own bed, get ready in her own room and use her toilet with no effort at all. Really made a massive change for her.

She isn't quite ready to prepare meals yet as shes still using a walker to help her get around, but I shouldn't imagine it will be long before shes doing that also.

Tonight is the first night ive come home, now shes able to get to bed by herself I felt it was time. Will still be there for the morning to make her breakfast and sort out medications, but as I say, it should only be temporary.

Staying over again on Friday, along with my wife as its her birthday.

I am so pleased on your Mum's progress so far SX Guy

[CleverClogs (RIP)]

Re: Mother been diagnosed with Heart Failure

Putting on a nice spread for her though so that's something

Ought one to ask what you are spreading and for whom?

Or not?

[SXGuy]

Re: Mother been diagnosed with Heart Failure

Just thought id update this thread as I haven't for a while now.

Mum had a ECG last week, and is having an angiogram on Wednesday. The nurse kindly informed me, that they wont actually put a stent in that day, so she's basically got to go through the whole process twice. Be laid up for 48 hours twice, when it could all be done the same day if need be, really angered me.

Explained to the nurse my mother cant be put on clopidgrel due to her black tarry stools it produces. The nurse said, oh that would be a gastro internal bleed, yep better not have that anymore, will need to speak to the cardiologist for an alternative as they like you to be on it for a year after a stent is placed.

Why a slightly higher dose of aspirin isn't fine I don't know. No doubt because it costs pennies compared to other pharmaceuticals.

Gotta be at the hospital for 8am. Cant eat after 7am. So looks like we will be up at 6am getting ready, oh joy!. At least she will be able to come up around 2-3pm that day so that's something I guess. Just annoyed that she will no doubt have to wait another 6 weeks before they do the stent.

Apart from all that, mum appears to be fitter than before the stroke, although because of the blocked artery, she cant walk that far at the moment, so the wheelchair is coming in handy.

She doesn't seem to need much sleep during the day now, and she is sleeping really good at night, so looks like the supplement's I've been giving her is really helping.

May consider paying for a private cardiologist to do an echocardiogram to see whether her ejection fraction has increased, as that can only be the likely cause for the decrease in fatigue, and the lack of need for a rest as much as she should be having given her heart condition.

Will update thread when I know the result of the angiogram Wednesday.