Whatever has attacked me this summer has seriously damaged my heart. It is enlarged, and just not pumping like it should. There is a function used to measure the hearts efficiency, called the ejection function or ef. A normal persons ef should be 50 - 70 %. Mine is at 19%. I have a leaky valve. My left ventricle is not pumping well and is out of sync.
The better news is, is that there is a lot of medical intervention which can improve all of these things. I am on a long list of drugs to make the heart pump stronger, to reduce the fluid retention, to slow the rate so that it doesn't work as hard. At some point I think I will have to have a defibrillator put in - which is much the same procedure as a pacemaker - but they are going to monitor me on the drug therapy first to see if there is improvement.
The good news is my arteries and veins are free of any blockage. Yay, something good.
As for my lungs it looks like they are clearing now that the fluid has been removed from around my heart. I will have to follow up with the respiratory surgeon but he thinks they will likely clear on there own. However, my pulmonary function is at half of what it should be so there are issues there too.
In any event I am just tickled to be home and looking forward to getting on with things. Adjustments have to be made, but that will be possible. I have a wonderfully supportive family backing me up, as well as terrific friends, and believe me when you get news like this, these are the people you need to have around you.
Thanks to everybody who visited, sent cards, texted (even if that is not a real word!) phoned and just generally were there for me. But especially to my daughter who is already too busy with her life and had to put many of those things on hold because I was not well. Bless you all.
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