Articles

It is imperative for heart failure patients to learn how to eat a low-sodium diet. I wanted to share what I have learned over the past several years. If you...

Whether you are around family or friends the topic of work will inevitably become one of the topics of conversation. If you’re like me you dread these conversations because you...

Maybe you came into the emergency room because you’ve just been feeling a little bit short of breath. It has gotten a bit worse the last day or so, and...

Patients and doctors agree that when you have a heart transplant you can experience transplant guilt. Transplant guilt is when the heart transplant patient feels guilty about benefitting from someone's...

As a heart failure patient, I have found that staying compliant with the sodium restrictions helps manage my symptoms. Also, as someone with 6 stents, my interventional cardiologist told me...

If you are like me and the many other people in the world, you love to travel. Traveling with heart failure is something that can be nerve-wracking, but with the...

Living with heart failure can be overwhelming and all-consuming on a good day. Isolating, too. Finding the balance between life, work, family, and doctor appointments can be challenging. I think humans...

I think that, as heart failure patients, we can all relate to experiencing tough situations that are out of our control. For me, I came into this with a STEMI...

In my role as a respiratory therapist, I often conduct EKGs at the hospital. During a recent session with a kind gentleman in his 70s, the computer interpretation revealed an...

Many people do not really know the trauma a heart patient has to go through. Long hospital stays, doctor appointments, and many disappointments. It also begins to take a toll...

I was at cardiac rehab today and had an interesting conversation with the exercise physiologist. In fact, in case anyone is approved for cardiac rehab and is on the fence...

In my years as a moderator for this site I have read a lot of comments from patients who are frustrated because their partners are not embracing the changes required...

In 2014, when I was diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy, I knew that my dating life was automatically in jeopardy. The main reason was that I was told by doctors not...

If I could time travel, I would send this video to my younger self, prior to diagnosis of a genetic heart condition, Brugada Syndrome. Because I cannot time travel, I...

Friday morning: my coffee is brewing and the fresh air is pulling through my apartment, so I pop on my headphones and take to my lounge floor. My laundry is...

During heart failure (HF), the heart struggles to pump blood effectively. In early stages of HF, you might not notice any symptoms. But as HF progresses, the symptoms can get...

I wanted to share a recent episode because it's a good reminder for all of us - even those of us who are NOT new heart failure patients. As background...

Many people ask me which was a harder recovery: the transplant or LVAD surgery? So, let’s set the scene. Before I had LVAD surgery I suffered a stroke, so my...

As a heart failure patient, the idea of a medically restricted diet can be overwhelming. It is easy to think there is a simple answer to the question "what diet...

I'm a respiratory therapist in a small town hospital. And I’ve been writing here in this community since its inception in February of 2019. I thought it would be neat...