When I first heard my doctors talk about my heart, my spleen, and some funny rhythms, I won’t lie — I felt my stomach drop. But the more I learned, the more I realized that understanding what’s happening is the best way to stay calm and take control.
My Heart: Weak but Fight-Ready
My left ventricle — the heart’s main pump — wasn’t squeezing as strongly as it should. The ejection fraction, a measure of how much blood leaves the heart with each beat, was only 20–25%. That’s much lower than normal, and it explains why I often feel tired, short of breath, or swollen in my ankles.
It sounds scary, but modern heart failure treatment is powerful. Medicines help the heart pump more efficiently, control blood pressure, and reduce fluid buildup. Lifestyle changes — like managing salt, staying moderately active, and following my doctor’s guidance — make a huge difference. My heart might be weak, but it’s far from giving up.
My Spleen: A Small Bruise, Not a Catastrophe
I also had something called a splenic embolic infarct. That’s a fancy way of saying a small clot blocked part of my spleen’s blood supply. It might sound dramatic, but in most cases the body heals the damaged patch on its own. Pain or tenderness can happen, but often it’s just something the doctors watch over while they treat the underlying cause — in my case, my heart.
The Heart’s Little Mischief: Ventricular Bigeminy
Finally, my heart sometimes throws in extra beats — every normal beat followed by a little early beat. It feels like a flip-flop or a brief pause in the chest. Doctors call it ventricular bigeminy. It sounds alarming, but it’s usually harmless and easy to manage with medication and monitoring, especially when you already know the triggers and have a care plan.
What I’ve Learned
At first, hearing all these medical terms made me feel like my body was betraying me. But breaking it down helped me see the truth:
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My heart has a plan, with medications and follow-ups.
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The clot in my spleen is being managed.
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The extra beats are just signals, not a crisis.
Understanding each condition, rather than letting the words overwhelm me, has been the key to staying calm, proactive, and hopeful.
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Raymond Brian Duggan, Immingham
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