Heart Failure Support Group

i dont know what pulmonary edema is like..some others here may know..when i was first diagnosed with heart failure..i had classic symptoms...not able to lie flat, and coughing up bubbly liquid (sorry for the 'grossness') i didnt know these were HF symptoms until i was hospitalized...i have right sided HF..symptoms under control with meds diet and exercise...
i would not let any of those symptoms go on without seeing a physician or going to the ER..good luck

sorry...left sided HF...i am really tired

i keep thinking that the bubbly liquid cant be from pulmonary edema .. which is from left sided heart failure.. becase everything i read says it should be pink .. not white..but i definately cant lay flat lately without coughing like crazy..

I ended up in the hospital when I got that bad. I have diastolic dsyfunction. I would definitely get to a doctor. When I was at that point they told me I was so "fluid" overloaded I had almost drowned.

Gingerege,
i was like Rer when i was 1st diagnosed after my second hospital visit i had fluid built up & was sleeping in a chair. i thought something was wrong with my bed because i couldn't lay flat. my ankles were swollen, i think that is where the edema comes in. i believe it is swelling due to heart failure. i think you need to get to the doctor so that they can get you on meds. i didn't realize how sick i was until the meds made me feel normal again.

i am sorry, i looked u pulmonary edema & this is what i found.
Symptoms of pulmonary edema include difficulty breathing, coughing up blood, excessive sweating, anxiety, and pale skin. A classic sign of pulmonary edema is the production of pink frothy sputum. If left untreated, it can lead to coma and even death, in general, due to its main complication of hypoxia. If pulmonary edema has been developing gradually, symptoms of fluid overload may be elicited. These include nocturia (frequent urination at night), ankle edema (swelling of the legs, in general, of the "pitting" variety, wherein the skin is slow to return to normal when pressed upon), orthopnea (inability to lie down flat due to breathlessness), and paroxysmal nocturnal dyspnea (episodes of severe sudden breathlessness at night).

I have CHF also but about 4 years ago (long before my diagnosis) I was scuba diving and have pulmanary edema (so the doctors said) I was coughing up pinkish fluids by the time I got to the surface and had to be administered o2. Took about 2 hours to get to where I could breath normal, kind of scarry being 6 hours out to sea! Since then I would get bouts of coughing and coughing and spitting up clear fluids. Then about 3 months ago was diagnosed with CHF. I never had any problems lying down though. My original doctor gave me an inhaler to use and it seems to stop the coughing and fluids. Still use it when this happens.

I would make sure the doctors try to find the reason. Or something to make it stop. I would cough and cough until my ribs would hurt and then it was very painful.

Some of my meds for my CHF have a side affect of coughing.

Hope all goes well with you.

i called the cardiologist and the nurse said looking at my records its NOT cardiac related.. i dont know .. they told me last year that i had mild diastolic dysfunction and mild thickening of the left ventricle.. but it wasnnt bad enough to get symptoms from..i asked for a copy of the report and the exact wrods were "evidence of impaired relaxation" didnt say how much.. and the report says over and over "suboptimal views" they couldnt actually see most of the valves.. but they feel confident enough to say my heart is fine...my EF on the right was 86% and the left was 60% i guess as long as those are above 55% they are sure you are fine.. im not too trusting of drs though .. seems like alot of people die every year due to them being careless.. thanks so much for the supportive responses!

coughing up could be anything, including bronchitis, etc. Sleep apnea can cause a need to sleep sitting up. some people with COPD or emphysema ditto. I dont know about asthma but my husband was from infancy and he never coughed up anything. Asthma is a constriction where you cant breath in, emphysema where you cant breath out. Big difference if you're the one doing it. They used to try to get me to take all the asthma medicines, wouldnt beleve me when I said they did no good until finally they did a day-long test trying all the normal medicines and they didnt change my breathing one click on the machine.
Pulmonary edema is when the bottom of your lungs fills up with fluid, sometimes because your heart cant pump it back out and sometimes because you've got pneumonia, etc or because your enlarged, "waterlogged" heart muscle is pressing on the lungs so there is no room for them to move. (My problem. I sleep better on my left side now so the lungs are free).