Stroke Survivor Blog

Recovering from a stroke is hard enough without the complications of congestive heart failure. Just when we thought Steve’s heart condition was under control, he started having problems with CHF again. The symptoms he’s having are:

• severe swelling in his legs
• water retention
• weight gain
• shortness of breath
• cough
• bloating in the upper stomach area, and
• fatigue

Over the last couple of weeks, the leg swelling (edema) has become so severe that Steve has difficulty walking even short distances. It was only a few months ago that Steve could walk about 275 feet without pain. His weight was under control and it only fluctuated 2 pounds or so. Now he’s up 10 pounds because he’s retaining so much fluid. His diet has not been ideal however, so I’m sure he’s been taking in too much salt.  He argues with me when I try to give him something healthy, and he thinks I treat him like a child because I won’t give him what he wants. So I often give in and let him eat what he wants. This is where caregiving requires a balance between using good judgment and letting the patient take control of his own health care.

In order to keep the swelling down, Steve had to start wearing compression stockings again. They go all the way up to his thigh, because most of the leg swelling is above his leg brace. His leg bulges over that brace and it becomes very painful.

The lack of mobility contributes to the problem too. That’s why I bought the passive exercise machine to help get his blood circulating better, but he didn’t want to use it, so I returned it. Steve sits most of the time, and lately he’s been sleeping at night in a sitting position in his lift chair. That’s because he’s had a cough from a cold, and the sitting position makes it a little easier on him. Sometimes just the thought of walking all the way upstairs is so wearisome to him that he opts to stay downstairs. And this is where the problem comes in, because his legs don’t get elevated high enough, and he wears his leg brace (AFO) all night. So it only exacerbates the problem because by morning his legs are so swollen that he can hardly walk.

His doctor increased the dosage of his diuretic, but it’s so painful for Steve to get up and down all the time to go to the bathroom. So he hates taking it more than he absolutely needs to. I will help him often with the urinal, and sometimes I feel like we’re back at square one. With all these setbacks, stroke recovery is very difficult, and some days it feels like a pipe dream.  If he didn’t have all these complications, we could focus more on his stroke recovery.

To help him get back on track and help him get the congestive heart failure under control, I severely restricted his salt intake today. He hates eating like that and would rather have tacos or pizza, but I just have to override his poor decisions. Steve sees the doctor again tomorrow for a follow-up appointment, so I hope he’ll be feeling better by then. Please keep him in your prayers.

To learn more about congestive heart failure and its treatment, see the post: Heart Failure: What is It?