Learning about Heart Failure
- Ann Ramirez Duda dismissed her breathing troubles as anxiety before eventually being diagnosed with heart failure, a condition that causes the heart to not pump blood as well as it should.
- Symptoms of heart failure include weakness, dizziness, difficulty breathing, lower limb swelling (specifically in the feet and ankles), need to urinate while resting at night, dry/hacking cough and nausea.
- She was later diagnosed with mitral valve regurgitation, which affects how well your heart’s mitral valve lets blood flow from the left atrium to the left ventircle, according to the Cleveland Clinic. While waiting for a heart transplant, she had a brain tumor removed.
- Duda is sharing her story as part of the American Heart Association’s Go Red For Women “Real Women” campaign, encouraging other women to prioritize their health and pay attention to their bodies.
Duda is sharing her story as part of the American Heart Association’s Go Red For Women “Real Women” campaign, encouraging other women to prioritize their health and pay attention to their bodies.
Read MoreDuda, now 53, postponed two doctor’s appointments she had scheduled to check out her symptoms. It wasn’t until October 2018 that a breathless and exhausted Duda finally saw her primary care doctor and received her shocking diagnosis of congestive heart failure.
Heart failure is a condition that causes the heart to not pump blood as well as it should. It does not mean that your heart has actually "failed" or stopped beating; it's just that it is having some issues pumping blood. As a result, fluid backs up in the body, and the organs in the body do not get as much blood as they need. When chronic heart failure lasts for a long period of time (typically, more than six months), it can impact organs like the kidneys, liver, and lungs.
At the time of her diagnosis, her symptoms were so bad that she had to stop and catch her breath while walking from the car to the gym where she taught children’s gymnastics.
“It was at that point that the doctor even dropped the word transplant, but as a far away thing,” Duda explained.
RELATED: How Lifestyle Changes Can Help With Managing Heart Failure
Duda managed her heart failure with medication, a low-sodium diet and closely monitoring her fluid intake for two years. But her health took another turn in March 2020 when she started losing weight and struggling to keep food down.
“I would just wake up during the night and be throwing up and it wasn’t even like I was eating anything,” she said.
That’s when doctors revealed she had developed mitral valve regurgitation, also known as leaky valve. It’s a type of heart valve disease that affects how well your heart’s mitral valve lets blood flow from the left atrium to the left ventircle, according to the Cleveland Clinic. With mitral valve regurgitation, the valve flaps can’t close completely and some blood leaks back into the atrium.
Be Pushy, Be Your Own Advocate… Don't Settle
Duda bounced between hospitals in April and September 2020 before finally advocating to be sent to UCLA and getting a new heart.
Duda recalls telling her doctor, “With all due respect, I know you have your team to consult with, but I have mine. My team consists of my three daughters and my grandson, and we don’t have time.”
She began her path to a new heart on Oct. 6, 2020, when she arrived at UCLA Health. She was determined to stay at that hospital until she could receive her heart transplant. But in the waiting process, another health scare arose.
She started struggling to see out of her right eye, and a CAT scan showed a brain tumor the size of a golf ball was pushing against her optic nerve. This forced Duda off the transplant list as doctors worked to remove the tumor before her heart transplant.
“In hindsight, the brain tumor surgery was harder than the heart transplant,” she said.
All went well, but she is legally blind in her right eye from the brain surgery. Thankfully, she was able to get a new heart two weeks later on Nov. 7, 2020.
“I still watch what I eat. I have to exercise even when I’m tired,” she said of taking care of her new heart. “I have to treat it right, because otherwise the gift was wasted.
“And I’m here just to prove that it wasn’t wasted.”
What Is Heart Failure?
Heart failure, also known as congestive heart failure, is a condition that does not mean your heart has stopped. Rather, it means the heart is not pumping blood as well as it should. When functioning properly, the heart pumps blood all around your body, which sends oxygen and nutrients throughout and carries away unwanted carbon dioxide and waste products.
As a result of the heart not working properly, fluid backs up in your body and organs aren’t getting as much blood as they need.
RELATED: Treating Heart Failure How Diuretics Can Help
ARNIs A New Option For Managing Heart Failure
Many different things can increase a person's risk of heart failure including:
- High blood pressure (hypertension)
- Coronary artery disease (when major blood vessels that supply your heart become damaged or diseased)
- Previous heart attack (myocardial infarction)
- Diabetes
- Arrhythmia (abnormal heart rhythms, including atrial fibrillation)
- Kidney disease
- Obesity
- Tobacco and recreational drug use
"There are many different things that can lead to chronic heart failure, and some of them can be prevented," Dr. Aeshita Dwivedi, a cardiologist at Lenox Hill Hospital, told SurvivorNet. "In terms of the lifestyle changes that can prevent heart failure is limiting excessive alcohol intake, quitting smoking or not smoking, leading a healthy lifestyle, which means doing constant, moderate activity and eating a healthy diet."
Symptoms of Heart Failure
Because heart failure can lead to many other health issues, it's important to be aware of symptoms. These may include:
- Weakness/tiredness.
- Feeling lightheaded/dizzy
- Difficulty breathing
- Racing heart/palpitations
- Lower limb swelling (specifically in the feet and ankles)
- Need to urinate while resting at night
- Dry, hacking cough
- Nausea
Remember that symptoms of heart failure can range from mild to severe and may come and go and, unfortunately, the condition usually gets worse over time. This means you may have more or different signs or symptoms as your heart failure worsens.
"You could have lightheadedness, you could have fatigue, but a lot of that is based upon the fact that without the necessary oxygen that needs to be in your bloodstream, it'll compromise your ability to do,” Dr. Philip J. Weintraub, a cardiologist in New York, told SurvivorNet. “The body, the heart works best when it's enriched with oxygen and nutrients and to deprive the heart of that leads to a compromised lifestyle.”
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