The Results

Yesterday before 11 AM the doctor's office was on the phone to me. The first conversation was with the office person - to double my blood pressure and diuretic and triple my Coumadin!

The second call was to be give them the correct pharmacy number to call in new prescriptions, since I would need refills way faster than the insurance was going to cover.

The third call was to confirm everything regarding the prescriptions, the fourth call was the doctor!

He was careful with how he began speaking, but when I didn't wig out on him, he relaxed and we had a great conversation.

My heart is enlarged - and in that muscle being extended past regular size, the valves cannot function like they should, therefore the leakage. There are two valves leaking, not enough to cause great concern at this point, but definiately something to monitor. There is also tremendous pressure within my lungs - pulmonary hypertension. That he thinks is primarily attibutable to the tremendous amount of fluid build up in my body.

Now, most people in heart failure have a problem where their heart does not squeeze properly. My heart squeezes fine, it's the relaxing beat that I'm not doing properly. He also said that for the folks who need help pumping, there are 4-5 medicines they can prescribe. But, for the folks whose heart don't relax, they don't know a lot or have many options.

The best options for me right now are to continue to try and get the fluid off, rest as much as I want or need to, and try to lose as much other weight as possible.

I did ask if there was any evidence that I'd had a heart attack and while the echogram is not definitive, there is no evidence that I have any dead heart tissue, which is a good sign!

More on my new way of trying to eat next post!