Hi Kim,
Sorry you are going through this problem.

A couple thoughts.
First and almoost foremost, make TODAY your last day of smoking...for you it might save your life.
Make sure your cardiologist is the best in Ohio.
Your severely enlarged heart is a most serious matter, and it MAY signify heart failure. A lot of your symptoms will come from edema and it seems that 12.5 mg. HCTZ is really NOT enough to relieve it. I would think something like 50 mg./day at least until you see your legs deflate and you pee out that 30 pounds. My diuretic of choice would be 40 mg. Lasix <furosemide> every day with a big potassium supplement (20 MilEquivalent horse pill.)

You MUST keep your BP down to ease the load on your heart but don't up the Benicar any until you are at DRY WEIGHT with diuretics and you can see what's what. When you reduce that water load, you may find your BP behaves and your symptoms abate.
PLEASE, though, no more smoking...your lungs and heart WILL NOT handle much more of it.

You need a good caring, cardiologist and as soon as you see him, consider yourself entirely in his hands...ignore anything your GP told you. Lay out very clearly that you gained all that water weight in a month, that you think your diuretic is inadequate, etc. He will be earning good money off you so make him earn it. Make sure he gives you a good estimate of your ejection fraction...that's an estimate of how efficiently your heart is pumping and is a number you need to know.

[QUOTE]He ran a blood test to see if I was already in failure and is sending me to a cardiologist.
That was most likely a test for a protein called BNP (a marker for heart failure)...what was the result? If he got the result and didn't tell you, give him a call and ask. In fact, when you call, ask him if he can call in an Rx for 40 mg. furosemide. He can say YES or NO. :D (If he says you must come in and pay for anotther office visit to get the script, ask him if greed runs in his family or his is an isolated case. :D)

When is your cardio referral?

[QUOTE=Lenin;3059244]Hi Kim,
Sorry you are going through this problem.

A couple thoughts.
First and almoost foremost, make TODAY your last day of smoking...for you it might save your life.
Make sure your cardiologist is the best in Ohio.
Your severely enlarged heart is a most serious matter, and it MAY signify heart failure. A lot of your symptoms will come from edema and it seems that 12.5 mg. HCTZ is really NOT enough to relieve it. I would think something like 50 mg./day at least until you see your legs deflate and you pee out that 30 pounds. My diuretic of choice would be 40 mg. Lasix <furosemide> every day with a big potassium supplement (20 MilEquivalent horse pill.)

You MUST keep your BP down to ease the load on your heart but don't up the Benicar any until you are at DRY WEIGHT with diuretics and you can see what's what. When you reduce that water load, you may find your BP behaves and your symptoms abate.
PLEASE, though, no more smoking...your lungs and heart WILL NOT handle much more of it.

You need a good caring, cardiologist and as soon as you see him, consider yourself entirely in his hands...ignore anything your GP told you. Lay out very clearly that you gained all that water weight in a month, that you think your diuretic is inadequate, etc. He will be earning good money off you so make him earn it. Make sure he gives you a good estimate of your ejection fraction...that's an estimate of how efficiently your heart is pumping and is a number you need to know.


That was most likely a test for a protein called BNP (a marker for heart failure)...what was the result? If he got the result and didn't tell you, give him a call and ask. In fact, when you call, ask him if he can call in an Rx for 40 mg. furosemide. He can say YES or NO. :D (If he says you must come in and pay for anotther office visit to get the script, ask him if greed runs in his family or his is an isolated case. :D)

When is your cardio referral?

Wow you sound like you know what your talking about LOL I just smile and nod at the doctor because i don't have a clue. I did take a friend with me though that has been through alot of this with her dad. Anyway... I am only on 25 mgs hydrochlorothiazide? Thats what my water pill bottle says. Then theres the 12.5 included in the Benicar pill. He already upped my Benicar last week from 20-12.5 mg to 40-12.5 mg. Then of course the 50 2x a day atenolol and he did give me a 10 meq potassium pill. Its pretty huge! I have a stage 4 airway and its pretty hard for me to swallow all these pills everyday.

They have not called me to give me my appointment date yet for the cardiologist. And you were absolutely right the test was for BNP and as far as I know he doesn't have the result yet. He may have gotten it today but if he did he didn't call me. I will call him first thing monday morning and check on the results, the appointment and to see if I can get that prescription. This is day three on the water pill and I've peed about 3 times today. I am thinking of doubling them over the weekend..... would that hurt anything?

What about stress? I feel like I fly off the handle and I'm stressed all the time. Of course my immediate family (the ones living in the house) don't seem to care that they are stressing me into death!!!! Someday when I'm gone they will decide they give a crap I guess. Anyway thanks for the info and I'll check back as soon as I get more info.

Thanks

Kim