Heart
February is American 💙❤️💚 Month!!
February is American Heart Month, a nationwide observance that spotlights cardiovascular disease and the need for more lifesavers.
Being a lucky, blessed, and grateful heart recipient, I really try to raise awareness about heart health in general. After being diagnosed with Congestive Heart Failure (CHF) in 2008, and after several procedures (including open heart surgeries, thanks to an organ donor, I was blessed with a heart (my Gift of Life) on April 20, 2015.
Heart disease is still the #1 cause of death in the 🇺🇸. So, let's all please get involved and make heart health a priority. Heart disease doesn't discriminate at all. Someone has a heart attack approximately every40 seconds! I survived a massive heart attack 2008.
Throughout the month of February, I will post materials related to heart health, including information about the risk factors etc. Uncontrolled blood pressure is one such risk factor. It is extremely important to monitor regularly and manage our blood presure to avoid strokes and other cardiac events (along with other diseases). Please download the blood pressure log and try to track/monitor. (See link)
Please feel free to comment about your experiences related to heart health.
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@Sdey0522 thanks brother for sharing this. With kidney disease also comes the potential issues with the heart, so these are good things to have in your back pocket. Also as someone who is half african american and half latino, i think its important to bring back to your community the importance of early detection and the risk factors mentioned above.
Transplant Patient
Absolutely, @Berriosa1234 ! As you already know that blood pressure issues may lead to kidney damage. Also, as you indicated, many who have kidney issues also end up having complications with the heart. So, it's all inter-connected. Best wishes to you, my friend and fellow-transplantee. Keep your heart healthy!! 💙♥️💚
Ps. Feb. is also Black History Month. As you mentioned, folks of African American descent (and other ethnicities) are particularly susceptible.
@Sdey0522 Thanks for the post! One of the care tasks I struggle with is taking a daily or every other day blood pressure reading. I have peeled it back to taking blood pressure readings pre-transplant when readings were so low. I would get close to asking out. Now, I notice my anxiety starts to build, then I end up with high readings so I don’t have an accurate reading. Numbers have gone up with my weight and blood pressure post transplant. I have had to add medication for the first time and that made me really sad. But I think the main cause might be medication? Could Tacro be the culprit? Have you heard of this?