Heart Update

I had my second echocardiogram today. My doctor has been kind of waiting for this before making any determinations about treatment plans as we had nothing to compare the last one to because I've never had any heart problems.

The good news is that it hasn't gotten worse. The bad news is that it hasn't gotten better. This means they are going to need to start treating it more aggressively. They are going to double my beta blockers (I'm currently at 12.5 mg twice daily and they are moving me up to 25 mg twice daily - the maximum dose usually allowed - in comparison, the first dosage they had me on was 3.125mg), then in a month they are going to put me on ACE inhibitors as well. I've had some minimal swelling (water retention is a very common side effect of heart failure), so my doctor has prescribed dietetics for me to take as needed.

This means I'll have to wean Laura. I'm not thrilled about that. At the moment I'm fairly upset about it. But I'm sure in a day or two I will be feeling better about it. After all, I can't nurse her if I'm dead either. At least I got to nurse her for eight months and I got two extra months past my diagnosis. She eats a lot of solids now, so that will make it easier. I hope :) My doctor mentioned that he wouldn't be surprised if my swelling gets worse when I stop nursing as there will be more water in my body.

Other than having to wean Laura, I'm ok with today's results. Having read stories of other women with this condition, I realized that my chances of getting better on the somewhat minimal medication they had me on were slim. I know it's important to be proactive about treating this as that gives me the best chances of healing from it completely and not having to worry about it for the rest of my life or having it shorten my life.

My body is handling the medication fairly well. Occasionally my heart rate or blood pressure drops significantly and I have to stop what I'm doing and rest. I don't have much energy, but I can still walk to school and back with the kids. I still do the grocery shopping, although Rob has me wait until the weekend so he can go with me. I can still drive. I try to rest as much as possible on the weekends to minimize the time Rob has to take off work to take care of me. We've also done all of the medicine increases on weekends so I have a few days to adjust to it.

That's about all the new information I have. I'll update again when I have anything else to add :)