Heart failure

More than half a million of people suffer from heart failure in Canada

The Takostubo syndrome is a heart disease from the cardiomyopathies family. It is also called the broken heart syndrome or more figuratively, apical ballooning syndrome or acute stress-induced cardiomyopathy. There are different types of damage but it is usually the tip of the heart (apex) that is weakened.

Thank you for letting me into your home. I would like to tell you about my first experience with the medical world. I am 52 years old and had never been sick in my entire life, until the eye-opening incident that happened to me recently.

Cardiomyopathies are diseases of the heart muscle. One of them is called Arrhythmia-Induced Cardiomyopathy, where the main heart muscle, the left ventricle, weakens due to abnormal heart rhythms. This condition is potentially reversible.

An athlete’s heart includes all cardiac changes secondary to repeated, high-intensity physical activity. Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is a disease in which the heart muscle thickens. It is one of the changes that can be observed.

Heart failure requires regular health follow-ups, which are in fact regular medical monitoring in an external clinic. The frequency of these follow-ups varies according to the evolution of your symptoms and the progression of the disease.

The title is striking and a little disturbing. Do not get me wrong. A non-cancerous chronic disease such as heart failure has two treatment phases. The first is well known. It is the standard or “active” care. The second, palliative care, focuses on patient comfort.

Active therapy has two elements that always go hand-in-hand. On one hand, there is the pharmaceutical therapy, or a treatment consisting of pills to be taken regularly. The combination of these drugs varies from one patient to another.

Successful treatment of a severe chronic condition such as terminal heart failure depends largely on the implementation of an "individualized action plan". This plan includes tips for dealing with a particular situation and / or changes to the medication during this period.

Supportive treatment should be considered as soon as a diagnosis of severe heart failure is made and not at the end of one’s life when the disease progresses. Early palliative care has shown to improve the patient's quality of life, reduce the frequency of hospitalization and even prolong life expectancy.

When it is possible to assume that the patient is likely to have only a few months to live allows the patient and his family to be prepared adequately for a peaceful and dignified departure in the chosen healthcare facility or at home. Imminent end-of-life signs ...

The goal of this type of treatment is to provide maximum comfort to the patient, both physical and psychological. Active Listening is part of the comfort care therapy and is more than likely its most useful component at this stage.