Heart failure:
A livable condition
| It has taken Ellen Morris over seven years to come to terms with her heart failure. By working closely with her cardiologist, she is now better able to control her symptoms. |
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Standing just shy of 6 feet tall in heels, Ellen Morris knows she has a problem with her weight, readily admitting that she has “junk in her trunk.”
Her aversion to stepping on a weight scale goes back to law school. But with her 50th birthday fast approaching this summer, Morris has undergone a transformation of sorts. She even went out and bought her own scale.
For Morris, watching her weight wasn’t about vanity; it was life and death.
“I plan to spend my 50th birthday in Las Vegas, not in a funeral parlor,” she boasted.
Heart failure, also known as congestive heart failure, is a common cardiovascular condition, affecting about 5 million people in this country, and Morris is one of them.
The American Heart Association estimates that roughly 550,000 new cases are diagnosed annually, and almost 300,000 people die from the disease each year. Full story
“Don’t wait until it’s too late”
George McKay didn’t believe it at first.
“I thought I had a terrible cold that I just couldn’t get rid of,” he said.
Doctors tested him for bronchitis and other pulmonary diseases, but the results were all negative. After a while, he said, he “couldn’t lie down without catching his breath.” When he finally was referred to a cardiologist, the doctor told him what was really going on — McKay was dying.
“I didn’t even know what heart failure was,” McKay recalled, pointing out that he had no history of heart troubles. Full
story
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February is American Heart Month
A Closer Look
The purpose of the heart is to pump oxygen-rich blood throughout the body. If the heart is damaged or weakened by disease or injury, over time the left ventricle, the major pumping chamber of the heart, can become enlarged or dilated in response to its weakened condition. Full story
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