What are some of the difficulties with living with congestive heart failure?

I have had open heart by-pass surgery (quintuplet) and then 2 years later had 5 stents placed into my heart. Now I have increased edima and sevre sweeling and pain of both my legs and ankes. I saw a couple of vascular surgeons and they all tend to believe my situation is more heart disease than any blod clots or blockages.

Your doctor should have given you education prior to discharge from the hospital. From a nurse's view and the scant information provided, I would initially think you had CHF. You should contact your cardiologist and see him, if you have questions. Right off I would suggest a minimum of:
1. Take your medications religiously.
2. Limiting your fluid intake to around 1000- 2000ml a day.
3. Weighing yourself every morning (same time with same clothes). If you find a 3-5lb increase you should call your doctor before it gets worse. (This is fluid weight that is going to effect your lungs.)
4. Educate yourself!!!!!

I prefer to focus on what you can do yourself to control your symptoms:
1. watch the salt in your diet
2.eat healthy foods you make yourself to control salt , fat and sugar.
3. make sure your blood pressure is under control.
4. weigh yourself daily and see your doctor if you gain 2-3 lbs in a day.
5. see an internist-who you see is what you get in most cases.
6. Watch your fluid intake.

Hey, the difficulties you will be having in CHF are Orthopnoea. That is, when ever you lie down, you wil have difficulty in breathing. This is because when you are in supine posture, the force of gravity is greatly reduced and all d blood that was in your limbs will come to the heart. This causes volume overload which leads to dyspnoea.