Congestive Heart Failure Diagnosis Story

My story begins with me getting my right foot fused to correct a flat foot defect. At the one-week pre-op appointment, they took off the cloth cast it's when it happened I think. They took it off and they were kinda behind (busy day) I was told to move from one chair to another and I couldn't catch my breath. It took a while for me to calm down and breathe normal.

Congestive heart failure diagnosis

I stopped in the clinic six times before I made it out to my ride. Not one person stopped to check on me, I sat in the waiting area for about an hour before I called my ride. Even the short trip to get in the car had me breathing hard. I got home and did not move till I had to go to the bathroom and started breathing hard again, so I told my brother to take me to the ER. I got in the room and the doctor came in and said from your symptoms you may have a pulmonary embolism. They sent for an MRI with contrast and sure enough I was wheeled in to the ICU very quickly.

I talked with the interventional radiology people and they kept asking me if I wanted to live and of course I said yes. So I stayed in the ICU for four and a half days. After that, I went to a regular room, where I was told about congestive heart failure. It took me seven weeks before I saw a cardiologist. They set me up with two cardiologists one who did not specialize in CHF.

Ejection fraction drop

I went to the hospital for chest pressure and they kept me (no it was not a heart attack) because they wanted to find out why my ejection fraction dropped down to 25 - 30% from 50 -55%. So after all their tests, I was told I have a shunt in my heart which they are not gonna fix because it has not bothered me at all and I have had it since birth. No blockages at all. So this the ejection fraction is down because of the pulmonary embolism episode and they think I can rebound from this. But I am still being monitored for a ICD.

Has anyone experienced a pulmonary embolism?