Women And Heart Failure
Women are just as likely as men to develop heart failure, but there are some differences:
- Women tend to develop heart failure later in life compared with men.
- Women tend to have heart failure caused by high blood pressure and have a normal EF .
- Women may have more shortness of breath than men do. There are no differences in treatment for men and women with heart failure.
How Can Heart Failure Affect People Towards The End Of Life
At any stage of someone’s illness, heart failure can have a significant psychological impact on a person. People experience different emotions, including anger, sadness and worry. Life may feel very up and down, with good days and bad days. People can feel low about their symptoms and limitations, or they may feel that they lack control over their life. It can be particularly shocking for someone if they have been told their outlook is poor.
Symptoms can fluctuate at the advanced stage of heart failure, making it hard to estimate prognosis . This can make it difficult to know how and when to discuss the future and find out how someone would like to be cared for at the end of their life.
People with heart failure are more likely to have renal failure. Renal failure can make prescribing certain medications difficult which can, lead to more symptoms and discomfort.
What Happens When A Cat Has Fluid Retention In The Abdomen
This leads to fluid retention in the abdomen. If your cats abdomen feels squishy to the touch, and you notice a limp, with the affected leg having a cold feeling, this should be considered a medical emergency. Additionally, if fluid retention is not properly treated, it could lead to congestive heart failure.
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Is My Loved One Eligible For Care Heres When To Call Hospice For Heart Failure Heart Disease And Chf
- End-stage heart disease, advanced heart failure and congestive heart failure symptoms to look for: chest pain, shortness of breath, cognitive decline, increased confusion, recurrent hospitalization for heart-related condition, treatment resistant dysrhythmias, fatigue, unintentional weight loss, significant limitations in physical activity, loss of appetite, anxiety, lightheadedness, fluid retention and/or swelling and increased sleeping.
- The presence of other chronic disease or conditions such as diabetes or chronic pulmonary obstructive disease may also be a factor in determining eligibility for hospice care
- A prognosis of 6 months or less, if the disease takes its regular scientific course. No one really knows a definite timeframe.
- Curative treatment is no longer the patients choice or option.
- Comfort care, symptom management, and goals of care are the primary focus.
What You Can Do For Your Loved One
In addition to symptom management, its important for the family caregiver to learn how to recognize the end-of-life signs for CHF, and when they should contact hospice. Hospice care will be able to address the specific needs of CHF patients in their final days, and help them to get the most out of what time they have left.
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Hospice For Heart Disease & End
If you are reading this, it is likely you or someone you love has been waging a difficult physical and emotional battle against heart failure or some form of heart disease. Your search for comfort, support and answers does not stop when you accept that you must learn to live with heart disease. Thats when VITAS can help.
Hospice helps patients and their families deal with the significant impact of heart disease after curative treatment has stopped. On this page, we’ve provided answers to these questions:
- When is the right time to ask about hospice?
- What can hospice do for a person with heart disease?
- What can hospice do for the family of a person with heart disease?
- What are the overall benefits of hospice care?
- How can I approach my hospice discussion with family members and loved ones?
What Does Moving To Hospice Care Involve
If you and your family have made the decision to pursue hospice care while receiving inpatient care, a case manager or social worker can help facilitate the process. If you are at home and would like to transition to hospice care, hospice agencies can help make the arrangements. Hospice agencies will review your needs and have a doctor order the appropriate medications for you. These medications will focus not on treating your condition, but on managing your symptoms and comfort as much as possible.
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How Can I Approach A Hospice Discussion With Family Members And Loved Ones
The final months of life are frequently marked by strong emotions and hard decisions. Talking about hospice, even with those closest to you, can be difficult. Here are some tips to get the discussion started.
For patients speaking to families
Education is key. Educate yourself first. By now, youve probably done some research online. It may be helpful to read and share Considering Hospice: A Discussion Guide for Families at HospiceCanHelp.com. This discussion guide is a tool for you to print out and use in a family discussion.
Determine what your family members know. Before bringing up hospice, make sure your family members and caregivers have a clear understanding of your health status. People handle difficult information in different ways. If family members do not accept or understand your prognosis, ask your physician, clergy, a VITAS social worker or a trusted friend to speak with them on your behalf.
Discuss your goals for the future, as well as theirs. As a patient, your greatest concern might be to live without pain, to stay at home or not to be a burden. Ask your family members/caregivers about their concerns as they consider the coming days, weeks and months. Explain that hospice is not giving up. It is an active choice to ensure that everyones needs are met.
For families speaking to patients
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Stage A Treatment Options
Treatment options in stage A mainly focus on promoting your overall health and disease prevention. If you meet the stage A criteria, your doctor will recommend lifestyle changes to slow or stop disease progression.
Heart Failure Doctor Discussion Guide
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What Are The Stages Of Congestive Heart Failure In Cats
In stage A, a cat has heart disease, but doesnt have any symptoms. Stage B is when heart disease is present, but there arent any occurring symptoms. In stage C, heart disease symptoms have manifested themselves. Stage D is when a cat is experiencing congestive heart failure and treatment is necessary.
Take Care Of Your Health
Congestive heart failure death is a very real proposition. About 670,000 people are diagnosed with congestive heart failure annually. As a matter of fact, congestive heart failure is the leading cause of hospitalization in people older than age 65. Lets talk about the final congestive heart failure stages of dying.
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What Causes Congestive Heart Failure
There are several conditions that can impair the pumping efficiency of the heart. Below are a few common and rare conditions that can cause congestive heart failure:
- Coronary artery disease : This is the most common cause of congestive heart failure, as the arteries become blocked or severely narrowed, which decreases blood flow to the heart.
- Alcohol abuse
- Disorders of heart valves
- Thyroid abnormalities, viral infection, and heart rhythm abnormalities are a few rare cases that can cause congestive heart failure.
How To Use The Congestive Heart Failure Life Expectancy Calculator
To find a person’s survival odds with our heart failure life expectancy calculator, you’ll need the exact values of:
- The age of the patient
- The patient’s weight/height, or BMI
- Their creatinine levels – creatinine is a product of the muscles’ metabolism. It is found at increased levels when the kidneys do not work properly
- Ejection Fraction – the amount of blood that is pushed out of the heart during systole, out of the total amount of blood in the heart and
- Systolic blood pressure – the larger value of the blood pressure measurement made during a routine blood pressure check-up, given in mmHg.
In addition, you need to answer the following questions:
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What Are The Types Of Heart Failure
There are many causes of heart failure, but the condition is generally broken down into these types:
Left-sided heart failure
Heart failure with reduced left ventricular function The lower left chamber of your heart gets bigger and cannot squeeze hard enough to pump the right amount of oxygen-rich blood to the rest of your body.
Heart failure with preserved left ventricular function Your heart contracts and pumps normally, but the bottom chambers of your heart are thicker and stiffer than normal. Because of this, your ventricles can’t relax properly and fill up all the way. Because there’s less blood in your ventricles, your heart pumps out less blood to the rest of your body when it contracts.
Right-sided heart failure
Heart failure can also affect the right side of your heart. Left-sided heart failure is the most common cause of this. Other causes include certain lung problems and issues in other organs.
Final Thoughts On Heart Failure In Dogs
Heart failure in dogs is a serious condition that requires extensive care.
Your veterinarian can help you through this process but eventually your dog will pass away with this condition.
Be sure you watch for the signs of heart failure to really understand where your pup may be in this process.
Review the information that we discussed above so you can better understand the stages of your dogs condition going forward.
My name is Amber. I am a dedicated animal lover that turned my passion into my career. I am a Licensed Vet Tech with 12 years of experience in veterinary medicine, but I recently took my career online to help spread accurate information on animal care. With how vast the online world is, I have a strong desire to ensure that the reader always walks away with helpful pet advice. With the experience Ive gained from my time in this field, I have been able to travel the world, offering my services to as many animal rescues as I can find. If I am not at my laptop, or back home visiting family, you can find me somewhere in the world, cuddling every furry friend that I can find! More About Us
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Hospice Criteria For Heart Failure
by Tamash | May 17, 2022 | Hospice Care |
These guidelines are intended to supplement a physicians best clinical judgment when determining hospice eligibility. Due to comorbidities or rapid functional decline, a patient who does not meet these guidelines may still be eligible for hospice care.
If a patient meets the criteria below, they are considered in the terminal stage of cardiac disease. Criteria 1 and 2 MUST be present factors 3 and 4 may be present but are not required. What are hospice criteria for heart failure?
Prognosis At Different Ages
In general, younger people diagnosed with CHF tend to have a better outlook than older people.
A report averaging several smaller studies found that people under age 65 generally had a 5-year survival rate of 78.8 percent following CHF diagnosis. The same report found that people over age 75 had an average 5-year survival rate of 49.5 percent following diagnosis.
Older people diagnosed with CHF may already have other chronic health conditions. This can make it difficult to manage CHF and create a more challenging outlook for them.
for congestive heart failure. The treatment thats best for you will depend on:
- your overall health
- any other health conditions you have
- how you respond to any medications
- what stage of CHF you have
Common options include:
There are lifestyle changes a person with CHF can make that have been shown to help slow the conditions progression. Talk with your doctor before making changes to your diet or starting an exercise routine.
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Stage C Treatment Options
Treatment at this stage focuses on managing your symptoms, optimizing your heart function, and preventing worsening of your condition.
Medications to treat stage C heart failure include:
- Diuretics to reduce fluid retention
- Beta blockers to help make your heart work less hard
- SGLT2 inhibitors to reduce the risk of cardiovascular death and hospitalization for heart failure
- Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors
- Angiotensin II receptor blockers
- Entresto , which reduces the risk of death and hospitalization among patients with chronic heart failure
- Aldosterone antagonists
- Digoxin to help the heart beat stronger and more regularly
- Possible cardiac resynchronization therapy
- Possible implantable cardiac defibrillator therapy
In addition to the lifestyle changes for stages A and B, you may need to make the following changes:
- Reduce your sodium intake
- Restrict fluid intake
- Keep track of your weight daily
Remember that even if the treatment causes your symptoms to get better or stop, you still need to continue treatment to slow the progression of your condition to stage D.
Hospice Care For Heart Disease Patients
If you are reading this, it is likely you or someone you love has been waging a difficult physical and emotional battle against heart failure or some form of heart disease. Your search for comfort, support and answers does not stop when you accept that you must learn to live with heart disease. Thats when VITAS can help.
Hospice helps patients and their families deal with the significant impact of heart disease after curative treatment has stopped. On this page, weve provided answers to these questions:
- When is the right time to ask about hospice?
- What can hospice do for a person with heart disease?
- What can hospice do for the family of a person with heart disease?
- What are the overall benefits of hospice care?
- How can I approach my hospice discussion with family members and loved ones?
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Where To Get Support
If youre finding it hard to speak to friends and family, you could phone your GP or nurse for help. At this time, nurses may have been redeployed so it might take a little longer to get in touch with them. You could also try speaking to people in a similar position to you, through online channels like Health Unlocked. You could also visit a Death Café. This sounds scary, but they are a place for people to gather and normalise conversations about death. Death Cafés arent operating due to coronavirus, but many are holding virtual meetings online instead. If you would rather get support over the phone, Soul Midwives have set up a free telephone line, available for anyone facing the end of life or caring for someone who is.
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Get support and information from Compassion in Dying.
Congestive Heart Failure In Cats When To Euthanize
Deciding when to end a pets life involves the owner and their veterinarian weighing a number of factors: the animals current quality of life, what type of disease he or she may be suffering from and how it is likely to progress. Cats with congestive heart failure can live anywhere from a week to three years, depending on severity of the disease and treatment. The right time to euthanize a cat with congestive hear failure is completely dependent on the severity of the diagnosis, as well as the severity of symptoms. Most cats with congestive heart failure have to be euthanized within one year of their diagnosis.
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How Does A Cats Heart Work
The heart of a cat has the same function as a human, with its main job being to provide blood and important nutrients to different parts of the body. The heart must pump blood 24/7 in order to keep your cats body tissues healthy and nourished. When your cats heart begins to lose its ability to pump the proper amount of blood, the cats body usually has other mechanisms to make up for it. However, as the problem gets more severe, it becomes known as congestive heart failure.
End Stages Of Heart Failure: What To Expect
Congestive heart failure is one of the most common reasons for hospital admissions for senior citizens. In fact, over 5 million adults in the United States experience heart failure.
Heart failure occurs when the heart muscle becomes damaged and can no longer pump blood effectively. Although symptoms can be managed, this is a chronic condition with no cure. In time, patients will reach the final stages of congestive heart failure.
Patients in the end stages of heart failure want to know what to expect. The symptoms of end-stage congestive heart failure include dyspnea, chronic cough or wheezing, edema, nausea or lack of appetite, a high heart rate, and confusion or impaired thinking.
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When Should We Consider Hospice Care For Chf
Hospice can be appropriate for many types of end-stage heart disease, including heart failure, valvular heart disease and coronary artery disease. Regardless of the type of heart disease, hospice is a fitting choice when an individual begins to experience persistent, severe symptoms that interfere with their daily life. Hospice care should also be considered if an individual begins to have recurrent hospitalizations or complicated hospitalizations, such as an ICU stay.
One of the earliest symptoms of a declining heart is exercise intolerance. This begins with symptoms present with significant exertion and can progress to symptoms present with doing our activities of daily living, such as bathing and dressing. At its worst, symptoms are present at rest. Heart disease, depending on the etiology, can present with other more specific symptoms, including fluid overload, chest pain, lightheadedness, shortness of breath and arrythmias. Patients may experience unintentional weight loss despite a normal appetite. As the disease progresses, cardiac output can decline, resulting in low blood pressure and poor prefusion of our vital organs. This can lead to dysfunction of further organ symptoms, such as worsening kidney function.