Heart Failure - self care

Self-care management  

We advise that you ensure that you have some weighing scales at home (not to look at how much you are eating) but to look for any fluid gain that may develop due to your condition. 

Remember Wake, Wee and Weigh (the three Ws) and then write it down in a note book each morning, so you can compare it to the previous day. 

Patients have found the ‘Traffic Light Self-Monitoring Tool’ below very helpful to understand and help keep an eye on their condition. 

Every day:  Weigh yourself in the morning before breakfast, write it down and compare to yesterday’s weight. Take your medicine as prescribed. Check for swelling in your feet, ankles, legs and stomach. Eat low salt food. Balance activity and rest periods.

GREEN - Your usual symptoms are under control and you have:

•No increased breathlessness. •No extra swelling of you feet, ankles, legs or stomach. •No chest pain. •No extra weight gain (of more than 2-3lbs some days). •If weight increases up to 3lb and continues to increase the next day move to amber zone.

AMBER - Contact your doctor or nurse as soon as possible if you have any of the following:

•Rapid weight gain of more than 4-5lbs over two consecutive days or weeks. •Increased breathlessness and tolerating less activity. •Increased swelling of feet, ankles, legs or stomach. •Loss of appetite / nausea different to usual. •Worsening dry cough. •Dizziness or feel different to usual. •It’s harder for you to breathe when lying down. •Feeling uneasy, you know something is not right. •You need to sleep sitting up in a chair.

RED - Call 999 or 112 (from mobile) if you experience any of the following:

•Struggling to breathe. •Severe and persistent shortness of breath. •Unrelieved shortness of breath whilst sitting still. •Have chest pain not relieved by nitroglycerin (GTN). •Fainting.