ECHOcardiogram Does Work It's like an ultrasound of the heart.

ECHOcardiogram Does Work It's like an ultrasound of the heart. CHF usually develops slowly. You may go for years without symptoms, and the symptoms tend to get worse with time. This slow onset and progression of CHF is caused by your heart's own efforts to deal with its gradual weakening. Your heart tries to make up for this weakening by enlarging and by forcing itself to pump faster to move more blood through your body. Risk factors for CHF include     * Previous heart attacks     * Coronary artery disease     * High blood pressure (hypertension)     * Irregular heartbeat (arrhythmia)     * Heart valve disease (especially of the aortic and mitral valves)     * Cardiomyopathy (disease of the heart muscle)     * Congenital heart defects (defects you are born with)     * Alcohol and drug abuse As heart failure progresses, your heart becomes weaker and symptoms begin. In addition to those listed above, here are some other symptoms of CHF:     * You have trouble breathing or lying flat because you feel short of breath.     * You feel tired, weak, and are unable to exercise or perform physical activities.     * You have weight gain from excess fluid.     * You feel chest pain.     * You do not feel like eating, or you feel like you have indigestion.     * Your neck veins are swollen.     * Your skin is cold and sweaty.     * Your pulse is fast or irregular.     * You feel restless, confused, and find that your attention span and memory are not as good as they were. How is CHF diagnosed? Most doctors can make a tentative diagnosis of CHF from the presence of edema and shortness of breath.     * With a stethoscope, a doctor can listen to your chest for the crackling sounds of fluid in the lungs, the distinct sound of faulty valves (heart murmur), or the presence of a very quick heartbeat. By tapping on your chest, doctors can find out if fluid has built up in your chest.     * A chest x-ray can show if your heart is enlarged and if you have fluid in and around your lungs.     * Electrocardiography (ECG or EKG) can be used to check for an irregular heartbeat (arrhythmia) and stress on the heart. It can also show your doctor if you have had a heart attack.     * Echocardiography can be used to see valve function, heart wall motion, and overall heart size. from:http://www.tmc.edu/thi/chf.html http://www.riparia.org/chest_pain.htm Congestive Heart failure (CHF): CHF is a failure of the heart to be able to pump as much blood as is demanded of it and the blood backs up. If this is new, it is often triggered by a heart attack, which may have been silent . CHF may also develop slowly over time, or suddenly in the setting of some physical stress such as severe infection or high blood pressure that is out of control. Typical symptoms include: abnormal shortness of breath with exertion, worsening breathing if you lie down, (so there's a desire to sleep seated or propped up on a few pillows), waking up at night short of breath, and needing to get up at night to urinate more than once . As both sides of the heart progressively fail you also get swelling in the legs. Sudden severe attacks have extreme trouble breathing, the victim wants to sit bolt upright and there may be pink frothy sputum. Listening to the lungs there is usually a wet crackling sound.[] I checked your Google postings. (in 2002) You were tired (see above) after surgery and during taxol. Many have now switched to taxotere, because taxol is too toxic.  My guess is that you've had the causative condition for quite a while and were lucky to survive the surgery.  Someone missed the boat way back, but then they'd possibly never done your breast surgery. In 2002, during Adriamycin, you were complaining of pain when breathing. (see above) As I recall, you were sleeping in your truck, so you wouldn't have noticed shortness of breath lying flat. Here's what happened with my cat. She had dental surgery and anesthetic but for some reason they had to give her more anesthetic (ie longer surgery). Then she fell and snapped a ligament. In preparation for surgery, her vet listened to her heart and got lucky, heard a gallop (which I think is rapid heartbeat, which can be mistaken for a stress reaction).  The vet surgeon did the same heart listen and heard the same thing. Her leg surgery was cancelled and she had an ultrasound and it was discovered that she had cardiomyopathy. My vet saved me money by listening and confirming no fluids collecting around the heart (no wet crackling sounds), so she had 3 years on aspirin and a heart med that slowed down the thickening of that part of her heart. Heart problems are sneaky. You've had so much happen in your recent years, that it was so easy to blame the weather, your dogs (fatique), your sleeping situation, your home situation, your various relatives stressors and nobody thought to check you for heart problems. I'm sorry. Try to find out which heart risk it is. I think you're too young for valve problem and I don't think you mentioned it as a possible surgery, so it must be one of the other risks (mentioned above). (no, I'm not denying that any of the meds that you took worsened the condition, but I still think you've had this problem pre-breast-diagnosis, possibly many, many years).  That first website is in Texas. I hope your insurance can get you there, so that you can obtain the best of care. J

Susan,  You've been complaining of shortmess of breath since you found the internet.  You stated that this has been going on since 1998 or 99, well before your cancer treatments. You worried about chemo & bronchitis in '02, you gained 15 lbs in 2 weeks in '03 (someone suggested that it sounded like CHF and you should go to your Dr., did you?).  In Jan '05 you said you gained 20 lbs in 2 months.  In March of '05 (3 months ago) you cancelled an echocardiogram ordered by your lung Dr.  I guess you never bothered to re-schedule.  You said these things on the abuse newsgroup.  This has been years in developing (at least since 1998).  But since you have alienated every Dr. within a 100 miles of your home, you didn't have a Dr left to call who would believe your problem. In fairness, I have to add that (many) doctors don't like complex patients (multiple medical problems), it's too complicated for their brains/time. They prefer patients who don't have side effects to sort out whether it's a symptom of something else. So they can move on to the next patient and bill insurance (or whatever) for their consult/treatment. Whoever suggested the CHF deserves a medal. Was that this newsgroup or the abuse one? They might have been able to slow the progress down The medications for cardiomyopathy were inexpensive and no side effects, but I don't know if that's what Sue has. If there's a doctor problem, she'll probably have to track back pre 1998. I wonder if she had a family physician (general practitioner)...who is supposed to follow the patient longer term and weed through various symptoms. I think she can start fresh by taking her test results to a heart specialist. But _base_d on my experience with cat and CHF, it's complex. 2 heart medicines (the one for cardiomyopathy and another one), try at steroid, watch for kidney or liver failure. We had to stop the steroid. I hope Sue's treatment is less complicated. J

There seems a lot of BS written about medical stuff. However, experience is one of the best teachers, & I've learned a lot from it.

complicated. J J, you are correct.  IF Su had a long term personal Dr. (internist, family practice , etc.) they would be able to identify problems as they came up.  I see my internist every 6 months.  He treats me for high blood pressure, and has for several years.  He knows me fairly well.  Believe me, he notices weight gain or loss and asks about it.  He doesn't hesitate to refer me if he feels a specialist could treat me better. (or for something like surgery).  He notices mood and other things.  I don't have to fight with him.  Back in 2000 Susan published on her web page, a list of about 100 Drs., therapists, hospitals and other institutions that she would not recommend anyone using.  And she directed people to that page.  That was before she was diagnosed with cancer.  I imagine that number has increased to about 200 by now.  I cannot imagine that any Dr, within a 150 mile radius of her, would take her on as a patient.  Susan does not believe that she has any responsibility in any of this.  It's always the Drs., the pharm co, the govn, the DA, the police, her family, (and now even her dogs!) anyone but her. Don't misunderstand, I hate to hear about this.  It's not something I would wish on my worse enemy.  But, I'm really, really sick and tired of hearing about how everything is someone elses fault.