With all of these newly pregnant celebrities as of late, Ashley Simpson, Angelina Jolie, Gwen Stefani and the lovely Jamie Lee Spears, I decided to remind everyone about the complications of the heart when pregnant.
We all know that pregnancy brings extra fluid, ie. fat fingers and very swollen feet. The heart is also affected by the increase in fluid. When there is extra fluid floating through ones vascular system the heart has to work harder and beat faster.
Extra weight and water retention—common during pregnancy—make the heart pump harder. …read more

This is a little venting on my part today. Call it my therapy for the week. Do you want to know what bothers cardiac nurses more than anything? Patients that come in with heart attacks, chest pain, in cardiac arrest, or CHF and their toxicology screen is a big fat positive! Uh huh. And you know, it is always a mix and match of illegal drugs. It’s never just one. No, they have to mix cocaine with pot with heroin.
Now these are the same patients that can’t understand why they had a heart …read more

What came first, the chicken or the egg? That is a question I often ask myself while “taking care of” my cardiac patients. As a nurse, my mind often wanders to the thought of, “what if they had taken better care of themselves years ago”? Now, I know that genetics and family history plays into cardiac disease, but so does obesity, lethargy and an unhealthy lifestyle.
So when my patients that haven’t exercised in years, not even a walk to the end of the driveway, are admitted to the hospital with CHF, MI, STEMI’s, angina, ACS and high …read more