I'd like to ask anyone who suffers from severe congestive heart failure & edema.?

Question

Tell me.When you were treated in hospital or out, if they gave you diuretics, did you totally succeed? I mean, did ALL the pitting edema in your thighs, calves,, ankles, feet, distended abdomen & painful water accumulations COMPLETELY disappear,?? did you weight retturn to normal? How long did it take for your bloodstream to re-absorb the water which leaked out of the capillaries, to begin with - to give you this painful edema? I ask since I have ZERO response to loop diuretics and others - NO EFFECT!! ONly dizzy,groggy, fevers & toxic reactions. I am alone, uninsured, terrified of hospitals & their treatment protocols for CHF (they stumble thru trial & error) They can keep me there for months while they cannot predict when the water swelling will disappear. I have ejection fraction 50%. I have both left & right severe ventricular dysfunction & severe global hypokinesis. I had MASSIVE MI after car hit me one year ago, now have major scarring in EVERY wall of my heart.

Also , my feet leak a steady stream of clear plasma all day & night. I have to wrap calves in Depends to absorb water draining everywhere. I am in such pain from innterior water pressure within my limbs. Legs stiff rigid.

NORMA: my problem is that I have my money in CDs in my own name - Medicaid rules insist that if you own more than $2000 in your name, you disqualify for anything. And if you suddenly move $$$ into someone else's name, they do retroactive asset check to investigate where did your assets go & why? When hospitals treat me and I don't pay their bill ASAP, they have sued me in court & frozen my money & seized my accounts. Yes ,in deed.!!!!

SUEAN: I never had cardiac surgery. But I sustained massive scarring in EVERY WALL of my heart. My kidney functions tests were perfect. I urinate, but less than I used to. I am sure I have inadequate perfusion to the kidneys. However, all diuretics fail to provoke urination in my body. I restrict fluid intake to less than a liter daily, so this reduces urination ,also.
Anasarca is quite common, they tell me, for victims of CHF with edema. The water trapped in the tissue spaces which left the bloodstream found some weak spot in the skin and burst through and flows 24/7. It drips from particular spots where there are cuts &scabs in skin. How can I stop the flow of water ? My Ejection Fraction is 50% &I have bilateral ventricular dysfunction, so Idoubt digitaliz will ofset damage from MI. Its use is controversial for folks like me. I am investigating ULTRAFILTRATION procedure to remove water from my blood via pumps to speed up the process. I don't know what else to do.

Answer 1

I can see why your therapy would not go well considering how damaged your heart muscle is. If it helps you feel better my father has 17% ejection, can walk around in the house to go to restroom and such, and on occasion goes to church-he doesn't drive of course. He still has a life with quality. Do you qualify for a heart transplant? Have they tried Coreg, it's not a diuretic, for heart failure?

Answer 2

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Answer 3

I will try to answer as much as I can, My brother has been in & out of the hospital for the past one-half years. The Doctors have drained as much as ten pounds of fluid from his body at a time. He is weak & can no longer work. It will weaken your heart. He jas been on a heart transplant for a year. He is only 45 years old & has always been very active. He is in Congestive Heart-failure. My Father died the same way. With all of the fluid you began to drown in it. At the beginning he would go to the hospital, the Doctors would drain the fluid & he would go come. He is on diuretics. Pray & ask God to guide you as to what hosiptal to use. You should be able to receive federal program called Medicaid. It will pay all of your hospital bill & in some states it will pay for some of your percriptions. You are definitely in need of medical care, you will not last if you don't! Don't mean to criticial but if the illegals received free health Insurance, then why can't you!!

Answer 4

Hello, I also have Congestive Heart Failure, and I was hospitalized 4 times last year. Three times they removed fluids from my heart and lungs with a syringe, but the 3rd time I had surgery to remove the fluids. With surgery, doctors made a big hole in the lining of the heart and removed almost a gallon of fluids around my heart and lungs. I sometimes wish I did not have this surgery done, as it has left me so weak and now I have a hernia in my chest where they operated. I also have a hernia in my stomach.
I live in Canada and all of the Hospital expenses were covered. My hospital stay and surgery was in one of the Canada's first rate hospitals for Cardiac Patients. The doctors I had were the best, and the care here is excellent in every way. I have insurance for my prescription drugs so that covers that. I know that with time I will get better, and it takes time, as all things too.. My ex-rays have shown that I do not have all the fluid around my heart that I had before. I believe I had no other chose but to have the surgery, and even though I now find my recovery is slow, I know I now have a chance for a future. Before I was drowning in my own fluid.
I guess Surgery is one option for you if you can get some medical help for your expenses.. Maybe your friends and family can help you to come here to Canada. Please look into it. Good Luck.

Answer 5

You have several issues in this one question.
First of all you need to ask to speak to one of the hospital social workers and find out what you can do. Secondly did you have any type of personal health insurance when you were hit by this car. Did that person have any type of car insurance. If so you need to contact your insurance company or speak to the social worker about contacting their insurance company. Someone needs to help you pay for medical help. YOU NEED IT.
Secondly it sounds as though you have other side effects from your heart condition. You neglect to say whether or not you urinate at all, and if so how much. The damage to your heart may be effecting the blood flow to your kidneys and may have already done severe kidney damage. Also, if there was cardiac surgery kidney damage may have occurred while blood flow was decreased. You may be in renal failure. It may be a case of needing medications that will strengthen the cardiac output to your kidneys. You need to see a nephrologist. If your condition is nephrology related i believe you are covered. It is one of the disorders that is covered by medicare or medicaide. If you are at this point in your health you need to forget about the money and do what you can to survive. It does not sound as though you will be able to continue working anyway (if you are working now).
Sounds SERIOUS to me. The term used to describe this total body edema and fluid leakage is called ANASARCA and it definitely indicates RENAL OR PRE-RENAL FAILURE.
Lastly it is the law (at least in New York) that people can no longer be turned away from emergency departments for lack of funds. Contact COBRA. This is a government regulated agency that follows the behaviour of the hospitals. Get the low-down from them if you can. Call the Social Services Worker from the Nephrology department of your local hospital and see if you can get an appointment.

Answer 6

Heart failure is casued by your own bad habits, eat less in what the body needs not more than that ,avoid the junk food such as burger etc. take a lot of water .