*EDITI wanted to edit my answer in order to give someone with heart failure hope that life is not over for them.
My ef dropped to less than 17% at one point and I was given no more than 6 months to live and told I could drop dead any minute. I am happy to inform you all that after taking my meds as prescribed, watching my diet, and staying active, (the heart is a muscle and must be exercised) and a true desire to live a life worth living, I recently got the results of my latest EKG. My heart is now functioning at 55%, normal is 50–60%. There is no leaky valves, my heart looks healthy, and is functioning normally. *end of edit*
I have no idea of life expectency but my heart is functioning at 20% and has been for a couple of years.
I had a heart attack in 2011 and although I drove myself to emergency and they confirmed I was having a heart attack I didn’t receine proper medical attention afterwards. At that time my heart function was around 24%
I felt great. I do not look like a typical heart attack victim, I had a very physical job, I was slim, and was back to work one week later. My GP said I didn’t have to take any heart meds and never followed up. I felt great so didn’t worry about it.
One year later I had heart failure. Swollen feet, feeling like I was drowning if I laid down etc. My GP still did not do anything. I ended up driving myself to the hospital after nights of not sleeping.
After that I had a cardiologist read me the riot act and prescribe heart meds. I adjusted my diet, low sodium, etc. I was feeling pretty good but passed out one day so went back to cardiologist.
He quadrupled one of my meds, said I could drop dead any minute and made me get a pacemaker/defibrillator.
They were able to hook up the defibrillator part but couldn’t get the pacemaker wire connected. They sent me home and said to heal and they would try again.
I was in agony, had NO energy, I wanted to die, life was not worth living. I had horrible pain in my ribs, couldn’t keep any food in me, couldn’t even walk up 6 steps. I used to be able to walk miles and some days I had to craw to the bathroom.
They tried again to hook up the pacemaker. A 45 minute procedure took 4 hours and they still didn’t get it hooked up. 4 cardiologists and a total of 8 hours and it was still not hooked up.
I refused to let them touch me again. I kept telling them how sick I was and the pain was getting worse.
Finally!! I got to talk to a cardiologist that listened to me. I had already cut back on my meds because I didn’t care if I died. I couldn’t live that way.
He prescribed a different medication and I had almost immediate improvement. I think the year of taking the wrong medicaton did damage to my heart and I had a heart attack the same week they changed my meds. My implanted defibrillator saved my life.
From the time they implanted the defibrillator to the heart attack was 8 months and I had 84 episodes where the defibrillator administered a shock. They changed my meds and I have had no episodes since.
It turns out the pain was from ribs they moved while trying to hook up the pacemaker. A chiropractor fixed that.
My heart is still functioning at 20% but I am now walking at least a mile on hilly terrain. I am able to live my life. I want to live!
I am 59. I hope I live at least a decade. To see my grand daughter graduate.
Sorry for the length of my comment but I wanted people to question their doctors and if a medication doesn’t seem to be working don’t let them tell you it’s all in your head or there is nothing else you can take. Carvidilol is the meds I couldn’t tolerate. It is great for some people but with others it actually does more damage.
Edit Update
I want to apologize for everyone who asked me questions and I didn’t reply. For some reason I never got notification there were questions until today when Stanley asked his question and I happened to go back and saw the others.
I will tell you exactly what I am on.
Spironlactone 25 mg
Furosemide 40 mg 1–2 xs a day
Bisoprolol 10 mg
Lancora Ivabradine 5 mg 2 x’s a day
Entresto 49/51 mg twice a day. They tried increasing it and my BP dropped so low I had no energy at all. Entresto contains 48.6 mg sacubitril and 51.4 mg valsartan.
Like I said earlier, on carvidilol I couldn’t do 6 steps. A few weeks ago I did 75 stairs without stopping, in the middle of a mile long walk.
