confused

My Mom has been having an increase in heart failure symptoms in the past three weeks she has voiced being concerned a few times (which she never does). She has commented that at times it's hard to breathe, blood pressure dropping extremely low and then later increase again, forgetting things more, her ankles and feet two weeks ago were retaining a huge amount of fluid and legs felt heavy and weak, extremedy tired and a lot of nausea (vomiting every night). The symptoms aren't always present bit becoming more frequent. I thought she was about to be willing to contact her doctor but then she received the pacemaker readings and it said normal. Now she is upset with herself for complaining and won't even call since the pacemaker said she is fine. I am confused. How can it be normal if she is having an increase in heart failure symptoms any guidance would be helpful.

4 Comments

Can she keep a diary?

by chatterbox3110 - 2016-04-01 07:04:48

Can your mother write down in a diary when and what happens? If she takes it to the doctor they may be able to check it with her pacemaker readings and see if there's anything related which might tell a story.

I'm wondering if perhaps the pacemaker results she's getting are just that the pacemaker is doing its job rather than identifying problems, which she may need further testing for.

I'm not an expert obviously, but I would still suggest she sees her doctor. Good luck,

She needs to be seen by a doc

by Good Dog - 2016-04-01 08:04:10

Yes, Tracey is correct. The PM won't detect heart failure, but she certainly seems to have symptoms. An echo will help in the diagnosis, but nevertheless, she needs to be seen by a cardiologist ASAP. There is a lot they can do to help her!

Do not take "No" for an answer

by Shaun - 2016-04-01 09:04:46

There are many people on this forum who are more knowledgeable than myself, but my assumption is that the pacemaker records only electrical activity so unless the heart failure produces some electrical anomaly then the pacemaker will not pick that up. I think someone on this forum recently asked whether their pacemaker would show whether they had suffered a minor heart attack and the response was "No" for this very reason.

The symptoms you describe sound worrying to me and it sounds like your mother may be in denial, in other words deep down she suspects something is wrong, but she is trying to convince herself otherwise in the hope that it will go away. I know that feeling well, unfortunately though the problem doesn't go away, it just gets worse. When I was in denial I was lucky enough to have a wife who would not take "No" for an answer either from myself or the doctors until she understood exactly what was going on.

pacing

by Tracey_E - 2016-04-01 12:04:16

all the pacer can do is send signals to make the heart beat when the heart doesn't beat fast enough on its own. The heart has to respond by contracting. So, the pacer is doing its job, it sounds like her heart is not. She needs to be seen.

You know you're wired when...

Your device acts like a police scanner.

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