New Cardiologist is Hopeful
Last Friday we met with Steve’s new cardiologist, Dr. James Rider, who was highly recommended by our new internist, Dr. Ed Bongiorno. I can’t stress to you enough how important it is to find the right doctor that you feel comfortable with. Even though Steve has been seen by at least 20-25 different doctors since his stroke, we did not feel most of them were right for him. But we kept looking, and finally, our efforts and persistance paid off. With two new doctors on our side, I can breathe a sigh of relief that I don’t have to manage his care by myself.
The Echocardiogram showed that Steve’s heart ejection fraction is 40-50, and normal is 50-60. The ejection fraction (EF) is a number that measures how much blood the heart pumps out in the left ventricle into the arteries with every contraction. If your heart pumps out 55% or more of the blood on each beat, you have good heart function. When it falls below 55% on each beat, you’re slipping. That means your heart muscle is too weak to force as much blood out on each contraction as it should. The EF can be improved with medication, so the doctor prescribed Carvedilol, a drug that increases the pumping action of the heart. Steve has been only taking a small dose every day (so his body can slowly acclimate to it reducing side effects), and already his breathing has improved considerably. Every day it’s getting better. Thank God for that!!