I Have Heart Failure: Now What
Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center – March 29, 2013
Heart failure, also called congestive heart failure, is a condition in which your heart is unable to maintain adequate blood circulation to your body.
If you have been diagnosed with heart failure, then you are already very aware of the symptoms. You have fatigue, trouble breathing, coughing and wheezing and swollen limbs. And you just plain don’t feel like yourself anymore.
Heart failure is a chronic condition, one that you must learn to live with.
But that is just it. You CAN learn to LIVE with it!
Life with heart failure will be different. It cannot be cured, but through changes such as a close physician relationship, the proper medications and lifestyle changes, it can be controlled.
Because congestive heart failure can worsen over time, routine care is one of the most important steps to keep you from experiencing exaggerated symptoms or deteriorating faster than anticipated. Keeping in close touch with your primary provider or a heart failure specialist can make all the difference in your health and how you feel day to day. Cardiologists can help closely monitor changes in your condition and can adjust your treatment plan accordingly.
These providers will also make sure that your medications are at a correct level for you condition. Your heart failure will be ever evolving; your medications should be too.
You should also be aware of how your lifestyle and diet can affect how you feel. Keeping in line with a low-sodium diet and eating heart healthy foods, which are low in saturated fat, trans fat and cholesterol will help. Some other examples of lifestyle changes that can make you feel better are: quitting smoking, monitoring your blood pressure, staying active and managing stress levels.
By taking the right steps, heart failure is a chronic condition you can LIVE with!
EIRMC has a dedicated Heart Failure Clinic located in our Wellness Center here in Idaho Falls. Services of a heart failure specialist, plus team coordination with nutritionists and other healthcare professionals, can help you manage your health and improve your overall wellbeing. To make an appointment call: (208) 227-2778.
