{"id":7868,"date":"2023-02-02T09:55:58","date_gmt":"2023-02-02T09:55:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/uosm2031\/?p=7868"},"modified":"2023-02-02T09:55:58","modified_gmt":"2023-02-02T09:55:58","slug":"growing-up-with-chronic-heart-disease","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/uosm2031\/2023\/02\/02\/growing-up-with-chronic-heart-disease\/","title":{"rendered":"Growing up with Chronic Heart Disease"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>My name is Emma and I have Dilated Cardiomyopathy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dilated Cardiomyopathy is a heart condition where the left ventricle of the heart is larger than it should be and the muscle is thinner than it should be. This means that it is a lot harder for my heart to pump blood around my body. <\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/image3.slideserve.com\/6954665\/dilated-cardiomyopathy-dcm-l.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"443\" height=\"332\" \/><figcaption>Visual comparison of a normal heart against a heart with dilated cardiomyopathy. <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>I was diagnosed at the age of one after having parvo virus. This is what triggered the beginning of my symptoms. Dilated cardiomyopathy is also known as &#8220;sudden death syndrome&#8221; as many people never experience symptoms, in this way I was lucky. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My mum took me into the hospital and they noticed that all of my organs had a lot of fluid surrounding them, and I even had fluid on my lungs. I was nearly in kidney failure and heart failure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I was rushed to the Royal Brompton Hospital in London where I was put into the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). My mum was then informed that I had a 1\/3 chance of death, 1\/3 chance of having a heart transplant, and 1\/3 chance of being on medication for the rest of my life. It dawned on her then&#8230; none of those options were me getting better. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Thankfully I was very lucky. Despite being on the list for a heart transplant, there was a new drug that was available called Carvedilol, this along with six other medications and a strict high calorie diet, saved my life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lh3.googleusercontent.com\/6LboHMef_IGfMPXjFwuiU7e3iuES0VFdYGc2ezrrIp6wL38QWJXAP3jnVrxOdC8-IhMmbl7ohNIGqvmPTeCtI8yAttsSNTRrx6Ck6YwzOLsyVhPlkXF2W1RMRAT3KqtgD-ya8Yyp5qXaBrxTw-r0BJAH_dm2lp2Xox2u8H-UZwr6KlrimQrWquMg8-oKGHjbB0C3I9Qydz5cq3jHOEHSleoSB7erhVarB1wqOoTgDILYNl5cH16t0ZDOKz_JjbS-qc9wB27tc6suLc6mVfvXv-HJ2SuEv9LeVxg8fzxbZboOAlohyWD-cs-nGIgS4sgGet57EHwGk0k207EkLzBSvkLv80T_aF5rWuiIp_KnCWvZQugRLPK0OncBZF3TVJ5vN0BasSi0tJKl94W78o2Iv7PZnEQ3u8Hen6NcCqk6PCqiN008GSeQARgbjeJIQhXCviOZWoEr1gIo2SACOe5HvMgLv6Yj8CEFzdulLyUqADIqX7sb1pZUmdiyacM03fuwKY-9Y9pqEBk-t8-qGiFt-BjrJT9wZxmENmJijn5brRfBpbetNbZxLVW2iqYwKRkQq49DaXihnOavGNV_R0_Q_QTxWy_aA3Ob2y6JJfATcplMkv4K140BLIn1lG0_Nosz_c_2urIAFZB0XFsINI_0LLDv_gBo_5jAVIg_Nu54Tf2rmvK12zkGdnL8vsdDvP2i41R11W0NaTVl6DUbFRkTqP3X-Rk3bodiDnZqwiwM-dZA2K31lLZtbJ075qJR34K4nc6b0pPzMLm3XprCgdzWCAdx9btXtWrADgrHed8OhVknkggg8F5HbMdvTev_kL-EgPOAunKi3Htp4yKeqDxdBXZ3SMBBOs1P7YsoE8Vnz4A3ho4HbATDM-okATxbkBS_bnLWoMngxLa1wEYYemPXY2S3LrWdG3XbThXCdx2WxR5j=w1255-h937-no?authuser=0\" alt=\"\" \/><figcaption>Picture of me with the doctor who saved my life &#8211; Piers Daubeney<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, with the help of daily medications I am able to live my life normally. I just have to go once a year for a series of investigations and be slightly more careful than most at exercising and high adrenaline activities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is miraculous really, I feel incredibly lucky to be alive and live in an age that I can rely on medication for the rest of my life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video\"><video controls src=\"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/uosm2031\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/458\/2023\/02\/004.mov\"><\/video><figcaption>Video of an MRI image of my heart beating <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My name is Emma and I have Dilated Cardiomyopathy. Dilated Cardiomyopathy is a heart condition where the left ventricle of the heart is larger than it should be and the muscle is thinner than it should be. This means that it is a lot harder for my heart to pump blood around my body. I [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5488,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-practice-blogs"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/uosm2031\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/uosm2031\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/uosm2031\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/uosm2031\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5488"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/uosm2031\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7868"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/uosm2031\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7868\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7983,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/uosm2031\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7868\/revisions\/7983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/uosm2031\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/uosm2031\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/uosm2031\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}