January 25, 2023 - Echo

I had the echo. The technician was great! Found out he lives on Legend Lake which is right down the road from the family cottage. He was informative within reason based on what he's able to say of course. I left feeling pretty optimistic even knowing that my heart isn't pumping the way it's supposed to.

The doctor called right away this morning (1/26/2023). The echo showed weakness in my heart. He wants to do a heart catheterization to define it better. He also said I need to start more medication. I'm waiting for his nurse to call to schedule.

Update on January 27th - Alright y'all, I'm out of niceties. This heart $hit is undeniably overwhelming. The nurse called today. My ejection fraction is only 15% . I did ask the nurse how I am even alive at this point and she said I must have a strong spirit. If I don't laugh, I'll cry and trust me I've been doing enough of that.

They aren't sure why my heart is so weak and I was asked again if I had been sick with a virus. My answer hasn't changed; no. I have an appointment on Monday to talk to a nurse about everything that's going on and about the upcoming procedure. There is a pending prior authorization for the heart catheterization. My issue could be one of two things which is coronary artery disease or nonischemic cardiomyopathy (where they never find out the why although there's a list of things including obesity to which I'm not a stranger) and just continue to treat me.

I'm now on Entresto to help my heart heal and pump better. I'm still on my diuretic. I have been avoiding salt. (The nurse told me to stop eating preservatives which basically happened naturally when I started watching my salt). I have to weigh myself every day. And now I also have to take my own blood pressure a couple times a week to make sure it doesn't go too low.