Mrs. A, 78 years old, reports to her health care provider (HCP) that she has been...

Mrs. A, 78 years old, reports to her health care provider (HCP) that she has been waking up in the middle of the night feeling like she was going to suffocate. She has also noticed that her legs are tight, and it takes every bit of energy she has to walk to the mailbox.

What additional information would be helpful?

Expert Solution

The patient might be experiencing warning signs of heart failure. It will be helpful if the patient can tell you if she is experiencing confusion sometimes?

Disorientation may be cause by some changes on certain substances in the blood like low sodium level or hyponatremia. Hyponatremia is a result of fluid overload in the body. The patients leg tightness might also be associated with hyponatremia if the blood flow out of the heart slows down, the blood returning through the veins backs up producing the fluid to build up in the tissues.

The kidney less likely to remove sodium and water causing fluid retention in the tissues. It is also important to know if the patient is having consistent coughing, her lungs might have a fluid build up. Because the lungs cannot supply enough oxygen and the heart cannot adequately pump oxygen-rich blood to the body the patient is experiencing shortness of breath, and the body also divert the blood away from less vital organs like muscles and limb and send it to the heart and brain which causes feeling of tiredness and fatigue.

If the patient is experiencing all this warning signs she should immediately get an appointment to her doctor for an immediate treatment to avoid further more life threatening incident.

Nightingale answered 2 years ago

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