My uncle has been living with heart failure for a while now, and honestly, it’s been a learning curve for both of us. Some days are harder than others — like when the fatigue hits out of nowhere or the fluid retention makes simple things feel ten times harder. They’ve been trying to stick to a low-sodium diet (which is so much tougher than it sounds) and track their blood pressure daily. We even use the CareClinic app to log symptoms and meds because it’s way too easy to forget things when there’s so much going on.
One thing that surprised me was how much stress can make the symptoms worse — so we’ve also been exploring ways to manage that, like deep breathing exercises or short walks when they have the energy. But it’s not always easy to know what really works.