More On Congestive Heart Failure

I heard a Doctor explain Congestive Heart Failure to a patient like this: "It is not that the heart fails to pump, it is just that it has been working so hard to pump that it has become thick and unable to deal with the volume of fluid coming to it..."

In CHF the blood moves through the body at a rate that is slower than what the body function needs. So here is all this fluid moving through the body like a line at an escalator. People are waiting to go somewhere, but they just can't get on the escalator just yet...so a line forms. Just like the line forming, the blood backs up into the system and where does it back up to? The lungs. This is why people who have CHF have a difficult time breathing. They have so much fluid backing up into their lungs, that the air can't get through to ventilate the person. Next thing you know, you are rushing that person to the hospital because they cannt breathe.

Causes of CHF include the following:

1. Coronary Artery Disease--Disease of the vessels that provide blood and oxygen to the heart. When they become diseased and clogged, the heart does not get enough oxygen and cannot pump as effectively as it should.

2. Heart Attack -- If a person has a heart attack, part of the heart muscle can become damaged and again, it cannot pump like it should.

3. Hypertension - High Blood Pressure - One of the reasons that it is dangerous to have high blood pressure is that it can damage the veins and the arteries

4. Heart Defect - - This is usually something that a person is born with.

I realize that this is not a complete list, but at least it can give you an idea that any sort of disease that taxes the hearts function can eventually cause CHF.

SYMPTOMS & TREATMENTS of Congestive Heart Failure

1. Irregular Heart Beats. Sometimes a person will say, my heart feels like it is racing or my heart feels like it is jumping in my chest. This rhythm will cause fluid to back up. When you go to the hospital, they will put you on a monitor and do an EKG. This will tell them what your heart is doing. Sometimes they will feel it necessary to change your hearts rhythm. They can give you a medicine that will suddenly stop your heart and then let it beat again in a normal rhythm. Something else they can do is called a cardioversion. They will shock your heart into a lower and more stable heart rhythm.

2. You may feel tired or lightheaded or even experience some weakness.

3. Difficulty breathing. The fluid backs up into the lungs. You come into the hospital, they will give you medication to help you potty out the extra fluid. In some cases they will call for Respiratory Therapy to put a device on you that pushes positive pressure into the lungs.
BiPap causes the positive pressure in the lungs to help push the fluid back into the vascular system where it belongs...and then with the lasix (potty medication) your body will get rid of the extra fluid. Some people require to be put on life support when they also have other conditions such as COPD.

Your Doctor will want to know the extensiveness of your heart failure. In order to do this, he/she will order some tests to be done.


An Echo-cardiogram is an ultrasound of the heart. It will tell the doctor what your ejection fraction (EF) is. That is how well your heart is pumping. This comes in a percentage. For example your EF = 45%.


Your doctor may order some blood tests, and EKG to determine how serious your heart failure might be.

All in all, CHF can be controlled by you and your doctor. Do not try to fix this yourself. Find yourself a fabulous cardiologist who is willing to take the time to explain everything to you so that you can understand it.

I wish you luck and good breathing.

How Sleep Apnea can Affect Your Brain

This is your brain! This is your brain without sleep!

Your body and brain need sleep to function normally. The body needs a good amount of deep sleep called REM sleep. This is the sleep when we dream. People with sleep apnea are waking up so often during the night without even knowing it, to gasp for a breath of air, that they never really get to fall into that deep sleep so necessary for the body to rest. Without the correct amount of rest for the brain, it becomes tired.

A person with sleep apnea might fall asleep during the day just because they are tired. Memory losses have been tied to sleep apnea.

Accidents at the job and on the road happen when a person is unable to sleep a sound sleep. Narcalepsy is where a person can be awake one moment and then zippity do dah they are asleep. This can be misdiagnosed in someone who has sleep apnea.

Mood changes can also happen when the mind is unable to rest. A person might be the nicest guy in the world....suddenly explode and hate everyone.

Depression and anxiety are also effects of sleep apnea.

The way that sleep apnea can be diagnosed is through a sleep study. The good news is that it can be treated. A person should not put this off for very long as other things might take place. Right sided heart failure, high blood pressure, heart attack and even death can be things that happen to a person who refuses treatment for their sleep apnea. When you go and see your Pulmonologist, he/she will recommend a sleep study. At the sleep study, they will hook you up to all kinds of different devices to see how you are sleeping. If indeed you do have OSA, the most common form of treatment is CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure).

This device will help keep the airways open.
If you have ever watched anyone sleep who has obstructive sleep apnea, it might seem strange for a while, then, it gets familiar, and then it turns into, "well, that is just how he sleeps." It is dangerous not to get Obstructive Sleep Apnea treated. A lot of people refuse to wear CPAP because, "it looks funny", "it feels uncomfortable", "it blows in my eyes". Whatever the reason, it is better to go ahead and wear the CPAP then to make excuses not to wear it.

There is surgery to remove the excess tissue of the throat. I have only seen this done twice. Once was a friend of mine. She said her throat was sore for months. It is a more drastic, invasive measure, but it is also used to correct this problem.

I say which ever way you use to help you keep breathing at night is good. Just don't ignore the problem. It will not go away and will eventually lead to you being hooked up to more invasive devices than the CPAP machine.

Breathe each and every Breath!

Obstructive Sleep Apnea

Wake up! Wake up! Take a breath"

Has your spouse ever woke you up with those words? Sometimes it can be frightening and sometimes, it can be annoying. The fact of the matter is this: if you have OSA, you are already waking up many, many times a night because your body is telling you that it needs some air. You just don't realize that it is happening. However, when you wake up the next day, you are not rested, you fall asleep when you are not intending to, it is all very frustrating.

Obstructive Sleep Apnea happens when the airway closes with an obstruction and the person can no longer take a breath in. They will make the effort to breathe yet they will not be able to get any air in. The heart rate slows, the oxygen level in the body drops and the body fights to breathe. It is something like drowning or suffocation. Because the oxygen level in the body drops, there are serious consequences to not dealing with ones Obstructive Sleep Apnea. The following are things that can possible happen with someone who ignores their OSA:

1. Never Rested, irritable, stress increases
2. Right sided heart failure (cor pulmonale)
3. Pulmonary Hypertension
4. Death

When you go and see your Pulmonologist, he/she will recommend a sleep study. At the sleep study, they will hook you up to all kinds of different devices to see how you are sleeping. If indeed you do have OSA, the most common form of treatment is CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure).

This device will help keep the airways open.
If you have ever watched anyone sleep who has obstructive sleep apnea, it might seem strange for a while, then, it gets familiar, and then it turns into, "well, that is just how he sleeps." It is dangerous not to get Obstructive Sleep Apnea treated. A lot of people refuse to wear CPAP because, "it looks funny", "it feels uncomfortable", "it blows in my eyes". Whatever the reason, it is better to go ahead and wear the CPAP then to make excuses not to wear it.



There is surgery to remove the excess tissue of the throat. I have only seen this done twice. Once was a friend of mine. She said her throat was sore for months. It is a more drastic, invasive measure, but it is also used to correct this problem.

I say which ever way you use to help you keep breathing at night is good. Just don't ignore the problem. It will not go away and will eventually lead to you being hooked up to more invasive devices than the CPAP machine.

Breathe each and every Breath!