Interview Section : Healthtalkonline

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Discovery :
What is heart failure?
Getting the diagnosis
Impact of the diagnosis
What causes it: heart attack and angina
Other causes: valvular disease and cardiomyopathy
People's ideas about causes
Stress and heart failure
Feeling breathless, tired and lifeless
Oedema, palpitations and wakefulness
Looking for information

Tests and treatments :
Tests to measure heart function and strength
Angiograms and angioplasty
Beta-blockers, ACE inhibitors and diuretics
Warfarin, digoxin and statins
Side effects of medication
Surgery and medical devices for heart failure
Heart transplants

Follow-up and support :
Specialist nurses
Cardiac rehabilitation and support groups
Follow-up visits, hospitals and GP's
Communicating with medical staff

Living with it :
Home life and everyday routines
Sports, hobbies and activities
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Coping with medication
Eating, drinking and exercise
Bad days, anxiety and depression
What carers think
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Heart failure

People's stories

Aged 61-70

Interview HF19

Interview HF19

Age at Interview: 64
Sex: Male
Age at Diagnosis: 63
Background: Retired sales manager; married with 2 children.

Brief outline:Stroke 2001. Heart attack 2002. Heart failure diagnosed 2002.

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Feels that the amount of medication he's on has affected his appetite and taste.
Print I'll give you another example if you like. From time to time I used to enjoy tinned salmon. I just liked it, it was lovely. And one day [wife] said 'how about some nice salmon from a tin, I got a tin specially in for you if you would like to try it?' I said, 'Yes, sure' because when you're looking after somebody who's not very well it's difficult to find things that they like and the first mouthful of this salmon was quite normal, very nice and I think well I'm going to enjoy this and the next mouthful was like metal polish. It was really disgusting and I couldn't eat it. A few months later we went to [a friends] and you can't be too choosy can you? And what did she give us but tinned salmon and on that occasion I thought it was lovely. Oh, no doubt about it. It's absolutely down to the medication. I mean, if you think about what I said earlier about the quantity of drugs chucking it down in your tummy, it's not all at once, it's some in the early morning and then after breakfast and every meal I have to have Metformin which is to counteract sugar.

He enjoyed strimming his lawn but it tired him out.
Print Everything! The fact that I was active. As you can see, [wife] does all the gardening and previously I would do all that and enjoy every minute. The only thing I've done in the garden is about 3 or 4 weeks ago when she got the strimmer out and I strimmed the front lawn. And that was a great lot of pleasure but then I had to sit down, and it took me a couple of hours or so to get enough strength to carry on, which is silly, really, isn't it?

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