Daniel Lewis

I have been mulling over whether to make this post or not, and I decided that I will, so here we are.

I had to go to hospital yesterday for various scans to check whether I had something or not (I’ll get onto this “something” in a minute). My mother and sister were both diagnosed with it a few months ago, and it was recommended that I get checked, so I did. Its rather unfortunate to say that I have got this “something”.

What is this something?

This something is Familial Dilated Cardiomyopathy.

Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is a disease of the heart muscle that causes the heart to become enlarged and to pump less strongly

{image and quote are from The Cardiomyopathy Association website: cardiomyopathy.org (a registered charity)}

Luckily, my heart is not as severe as it could be and I will be going onto long-term medication to help my heart. I don’t exhibit any major symptoms, but it is clear that I have it from my irregular pulse, and by looking at the Echocardiogram results.

Treatment & Care

• I will soon be taking an ACE Inhibitor and mild Beta-Blocker daily. (Doctor recommendation)
• I will need to get a bit more fit, but without doing very stressful exercise. I’ll probably do more yoga at home, and continue doing as much walking as I can. (Probably good thing, which I have needed to do for a long time)
• I will be making sure that I do meditation and giving myself Reiki Self-Treatments. (My own recommendation)
• Taking CoQ10 (a.k.a. Coenzyme Q10) daily. (My own recommendation, based on research into Complementary Therapy)
• Keep a low alcohol consumption. Reduce Caffeine in-take. Continue to not take drugs and not smoke.

Familial

The familial part means that it is a genetic/inherited thing. There is around a 50% chance that a child of a Familial Dilated Cardiomyopathy sufferer will also have Familial Dilated Cardiomyopathy.

More details (Links)

• The Cardiomyopathy Association (Charity): https://www.cardiomyopathy.org/
• Dilated Cardiomyopathy on Patient UK: https://www.patient.co.uk/showdoc/27000294/
• Dilated Cardiomyopathy on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dilated_cardiomyopathy

Technorati Tags: dilated, cardiomyopathy, dcm, heart, familial, genetic

(p.s. I mentioned Reiki… I’ll be looking to do a Reiki Level 2 course some point soon, because I feel that it is a beneficial meditation/relaxation/healing technique)

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