Reflections on Stroke

cmeade wrote:
While on the health topic___ In April I caught the flu with bad coughing and got better. A month later the cough came back and thought I had pneumonia. Over the year prior I had gained about 20 lbs. I went to the doctor with the cough and was diagnosed with heart failure. My heart was allowing fluids in my lungs and not pneumonia. I could not believe I had heart failure! Open heart surgery and triple bypass 10 days later I have been recovering for the past 5 months. If you feel rundown, gaining weight and can't breathe well it is not that you are getting older but maybe symptoms of heart problems!! (BTW I lost 45 lbs of fluids after surgery)

Glad you're doing better. Your situation reminds me of a problem I had about a year ago, also involving fluid retention. In my case, though, it wasn't due to heart failure. I had acquired a pleural effusion, which was a large collection of badly infected fluid in the chest cavity. I had to have two lengths of plastic tubing surgically implanted in my chest and connected to a pump, which gradually removed the fluid over a number of days. They kept me pretty well doped up, so I handled it pretty well. When it came time to remove the tubing, I thought, "Man, this is gonna hurt". I was surprised when the doctor grabbed a hold of one tube at a time and yanked them out quickly with one quick jerk. There was little bleeding and absolutely no pain. Judging by weight loss, I figure about 25-30 lbs of this disgusting, thick, greyish gunk was removed. I was also informed I had come very close to dying.