Living with heart failure

Similar situation here.

I was 42 (two years ago) when the heart attack came, when I was exercising with my little daughter. Catheterized & stented 9+ hours later, resulted in many dead area of the heart muscles.

I experienced many negative emotions during the first few months. Especially during the shortness-of-breath, palpitations, and anxiety episodes.

I eventually accepted that (at least right now) everyone must die. A few of my friends and families died unexpectedly in the past two years, I somehow trying to see my condition as an advantage where there will be less "unexpected" part when I die because of this illness 😁

In short, I try to accept, and be positive on anything I'm still able on doing. I'm very close to my little daughter, at the very least I can prepare her better than if I'm gone suddenly/unexpectedly, right? I also see a few things in my life that wasn't good, and will mostly got worse if I don't get "reminded" by this CHF.

No one to blame, especially not the people who tried to help, or even people, or medical personnel who did not seem to care. If I want to blame, I'd blame myself for smoking, also eating and drinking unhealthily.

My EF was around 35 > 29 > 27%. My last Echo was around a week ago, will get the result during my hospital visit next week.

The opposite of my EF, I consider my condition generally improving during the past year. I'm guessing maybe it's because of adaptation, tolerance, etc, although I know (read) that my real condition is not getting better. Heart swelling, valve becoming too small, blood flowing badly they form clot inside the heart. All facts from the Echos.

I experienced almost no shortness of breath in this past year. I can exercise longer, more intense, feeling stronger, can drink quite normally (around 2.5 liters) without bloating & swelling, etc.

Lots of things to say, but I actually found this forum because in the past 4 days I experienced palpitations quite often, along with occasional chest pain, hard to concentrate, and felt almost lose consciousness 2 times.


I hope it's just because of the cold weather here in this exact past 5 days, together with my weight that is slightly increasing? Currently trying to bring the weight down, and wears a blanket everywhere 😁

- I'm sorry to hear about your experience. I can imagine your frustration. I was diagnosed following my pregnancy. However, it is not a death sentence. We're glad you are still with us. I think the anxiety and fear will fade over time, but those are very common feelings. Have you found a good cardiologist to help you manage your condition? - Latoya

I had similar experience to you both (RLATIEF & Community Member 457) I had a heart attack in April of 2021 had Angioplasty and a stent placed then had a pseudo-aneurism in the groin so had to have surgery to repair it. I was a smoker and not as active as I should have been at 55. I quit smoking the day I walked into the ER for the heart attack, did cardiac rehab and changed my diet. 6 months later I'm told my EF is 20%-25% and I have heart failure. I was so proud of everything I had done and my body let me down. It's taken about a year to finally accept the diagnosis and make myself live again. I saw a therapist and psychiatrist to help me through and they truly helped me to stop being so scared and to simply live. My last echo was last month and there has been improvement my EF is now 30-35%. I had a cardiopulmonary exercise test last week and I'm hoping for some good news and will remind myself to keep living if the news isn't as good as I had hoped. I now know I have some control but not complete control of how this disease is going to progress. I may be able to influence its direction with exercise and a healthy diet and I will do my best to keep that up.


Consider therapy, it's always good to have someone that can look at our hopes, fears, disappointments etc. without the emotional attachment our friends and family have. Remember, you're not alone.

hey iam s