You may want to make an appointment to meet with your healthcare provider or seek emergency medical attention if you have a combination of the following symptoms, or if one symptom is severe enough to cause you distress:

Breathlessness or Shortness of Breath

When your heart begins to fail, blood backs up in the veins that are attempting to carry oxygenated blood from the lungs to the heart, which further causes fluid to pool in the lungs. As this happens, your lung capacity becomes limited, interfering with normal breathing. You may begin by feeling out of breath during exercise or other physical activities, and as your heart failure worsens, you may have shortness of breath while resting or sleeping.

Fatigue

Our bodies require a certain amount of blood flow to get enough oxygen to our tissues. As our heart failure worsens, the heart is unable to pump enough blood to meet the body’s demands. To compensate for this, the body diverts blood from less crucial areas, including arms and legs, to maintain an adequate supply to the heart and brain. As a result, patients with heart failure will often state that they feel weakness, particularly in the extremities. They also experience fatigue and have a hard time performing normal, everyday activities, such as walking, climbing stairs, carrying groceries, or walking a pet.

Chronic Cough or Wheezing

As a heart failure patient’s lungs begin to fill with fluid, they will put up quite a protest. People who are experiencing heart failure will often report a persistent cough or wheezing, with or without phlegm, that may be tinged with blood. This is the body’s way of letting you know there’s something in our lungs that the organs want out, stat.