sorry to hear about your situation with you brother.. i hope i can help you with some information...
my dr's name is heather ross.. she works out of toronto general hospital in toronto..
the medications im on are lasix 40 mg once a day(i usually take it 4 hour before bed, so that the water in my legs doesn't stop me from getting a good sleep) your brother has probably noticed that his breathing get worse when he lays down, this should stop that eventually...
coreg 17.5 mg twice a day... they tried to make me take 25 mg twice a day, but i couldn't handle it
ramipril 5 mg twice a day
THINGS THAT MIGHT HELP
everyday i walk for 45 minutes drs orders... everyday i stretch for 15 minutes.. every night i sleep on my right side or my back, i find i rest better this way, and rest is very important.. i eat a lot of fruits and vegatables... i've cut out bread from my diet...every day i weigh myself to see if i'm retaining any water... i've cut stress out of my life( i use to worry about everything)...
how do they know you brother's ef is 20%? did they do an echo, because echo's can have an high error, sometime + - 5%.. (the techs would do echos on me, and tell me i was normal but i didn't feel that way) the best way to determain the condition of the heart is a "cardiopulmanary study"... they also told me 5 years ago that i might need a heart transplant, my ef was 24%... with a lot of dedication and medication i got all they way up to somewhere around 50%. how did your brother get dilaited cardiomyopathy ?i hope your brother can too..
you can email me at matttthomsen@hotmail.com
Posted on Feb 4, 2006, 12:54 AM from IP address 69.199.114.34