Congested Heart Failure

One of the many reasons why I am moving is because my grandma Kelly was recently diagnosed with Congested Heart Failure. I did some research to learn more about what is happening to her so I can know how to help, and this is what I found.

All the following info is from this site : http://www.chfpatients.com/CHFinfo.htm

CHF stands for congestive heart failure. CHF is not a kind of heart disease. Heart disease is called cardiomyopathy and it's cardiomyopathy that causes heart failure. Heart failure is the set of symptoms that hit you when your heart can't pump enough blood to meet your body's needs. It's called congestive because fluid settles in your lungs, "congesting" you. Honestly, I usually think of CHF as meaning Chronic Heart Failure.
Your lungs take the oxygen you breathe in and put it into your blood. Your heart pumps that oxygen-rich blood out of your lungs into the rest of your body. Your other organs and tissues get a good drink of oxygen-rich blood and then it goes back through your lungs, picking up oxygen again. The heart pumps it out again and again and again - we hope.
A weakened heart can't pump hard enough to keep up with this cycle. It receives more blood from the lungs than it can pump out into the body with each heart beat. The blood it can't handle backs up, spilling over into the lungs and other tissues. Cells get waterlogged. This causes swelling called edema.
This swelling often happens in the ankles and legs first. That's because gravity pulls the backed-up, "loose" fluid straight down. The fluid also backs up into your lungs, which makes it hard to breathe. When you're lying down, gravity isn't pulling the fluid out of your lungs down into your feet, so it is even harder to breathe.
With proper treatment, you may live a long time with heart failure.
CHF is a chronic illness because it doesn’t go away and generally worsens over time.  Although the symptoms can be treated, the disease cannot be cured. (This is something I think my grandma has a hard time understanding.)
The two questions I hear most are, "How long do I have?" and "Can I be cured?" No one knows how long you have - not the doctors, not me, not anyone. Other health problems, the cause of your heart failure, your life style, genetics, and many other factors figure into it. Concentrate on living - not on dying. A positive outlook literally increases your chances of living longer.

Symptoms/Complaints:
Shortness of Breath
Fatigue/ tiredness
Good Days/Bad Days, the see-saw
Edema, swelling
Lightheadedness, dizziness, poor sense of balance
Memory Trouble-poor short-term memory
Strange Feelings a swollen feeling in your chest and/or stomach
dry cough
palpitations
nausea Happens in end-stage CHF
difficulty sleeping
lower leg or foot pain
feeling of physical "wrongness"

From another website:
Stages of Dying from Congestive Heart Failure:

At the outset there may be a slight feeling of fatigue with exercise.
The condition becomes worse with increased fatigue and heart palpitations with limited exercise. The fatigue is often relieved with rest.
The third stage is when the patient is comfortable only when at rest. Normal activities of daily living result in shortness of breath with accompanying fatigue. The person’s ability to function as usual is severely impaired.
The end stage, even the smallest movements are difficult, bringing on shortness of breath and tiredness. It is at this stage the patient's movements are drastically reduced as the slightest task causes a strain on the heart. The inability of the heart to function properly becomes noticeable even at rest.
The best anyone can do for a patient in the end stages of dying from congestive heart failure, is to provide love and comfort measures to ensure that the patient or loved one suffers no more than is necessary. Eventually the patient will slip into a coma and become unresponsive. At that point death is imminent and arrives in about an hour or two.

I don't know about you, but reading this all is a little... well, depressing to say the least. It's also a little intimidating to think that I am moving to help her to endure to the End. Granted, she can still live for years... I think that's what stresses me out, too, not knowing how long she has or how long I will live there. The last paragraph quoted really intimidates me... Gradually, as the symptoms and everything increase, she will need more and more of my help. (I think I will learn a lot about selflessness from this experience.) The end stages will be awful to watch... seeing her slip into a coma and ... die! Wow. I can't even imagine that. I shouldn't dwell on that though. I need to take advantage of every opportunity and try to keep her end of life comfortable. I am grateful I am in a position that I can help her like I am. I'm also grateful that I could learn a little about this so that I can help her the best and have a better idea of what future will hold.  It's just one aspect of the new adventure I'm about to begin.

With all this, I believe (but it's not a doctor saying this) that currently my grandma is probably in stage 3. She gets tired and out of breath easily when she moves around, but she is usually okay when she is just sitting and resting. She still drives herself places and goes places with her siblings or siblings-in-laws, but that usually wipes her out or increases symptoms. She doesn't sleep well. Her heart is enlarged and is palpitating. The doctor is putting her on a heart monitor for a day. She has a dry cough most of the time because of the medicine she is on (which is normal). Her feet, calves, and ankles are very swollen. Last week they found a few blood clots in her leg so they increased her medicine, but when she went to the doctor they had to change it again because her INR was too high. INR is her chances for having a blood clot. Before they up the dose her INR was too low, hence why she got blood clots.