Post Intensive Care Syndrome and Congestive Heart Failure

Hi @badboys1965 and welcome to Connect.
There is a very active group of members talking about Post Intensive Care Syndrome here:
* Post-Intensive Care Syndrome (PICS) - Let's talk https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/post-intensive-care-syndrome-pics-lets-talk/

I must have been so difficult to stand by and watch your wife goes through 6 cardiac arrests, not to mention the traumatic stay in ICU. Are you both home now? How is she doing AND how are you doing?

Thanks for your thoughts, yes she is home. she has been home now for almost a month. she spent 32 days in the hospital before they put a new ICD back in. she came home with a pic line, so i could do anti biotic injections. that came out last saturday and she is doing good.

Spoken like a loving caregiver, badboy; I'm so glad to hear she is doing well. Now let's talk about you. Seeing and accompanying a loved one through traumatic health events and in ICU can have lastly effects on partners and family members. How are YOU doing?

Last spring and summer my blood pressure shot up to over 200.  My wife was still at home and after 5 years of care giving, I had to do something.  After I had two dizzy spells that required Hospital care, I decided to look into Silverado Memory Care facilities.  She has been there since September 2017 and doing OK, but it took an act of God to get her in there willingly.  She twisted her knee one day and the doctor said she needed rehab exercises.  Normally we would go to our usual rehab center where we had been previously.  I thought I would check to see if the Silverado home near my house had a rehab operation.  Luckily they did. She went there without a fight and after about a month she was so used to the place that the people told me to just go home and she stayed without a fuss.
As you know, I had migraine headaches when I was about 30 and we found a book that explained a biofeedback exercise that stopped the headaches, if you repeated the exercise three times a day for one minute...you did not get the headaches..It really works.  I have been it for 60 years.  The reason it works,  is the fact that the exercise cleanses the brain and sort of dissolves the stress headache.  I think it might also clean out the plaques and gum that cloud the synapses in the brain. I am trying to get the staff at Silverado to help with my wife as she tries to do the exercises.  I also have tried to get the big research organizations to go into their records   to find people like me and see if they contracted dementia in their senior years.  Up until now, none of them have even answered my letters and emails. Finally, I ran across an organization, much like the AMA  They represent doctors in neurology that only use the finger warming biofeedback method to treat headaches.  WHO KNEW  ?They answered and they couldn't believe that no one followed up to see if their patients did or did not get dementia.  There is hope on the horizon  !

i am doin pretty good. some days it's tuff, but all my efforts and energy are to help Trudy with what she needs.

sorry to hear about you and your wife. you both will be in our prayers!! I am only 52 and my wife is 46. She has had heart disease now for 13 yrs. This was her 7th ICD in that time and 2 different staff infections. We have been together almost for 24 yrs this march 18th. It's amazing what you will do for someone you truly love.

If you could explain the biofeedback exercise for migraines would really appreciate it. It may work for sinus headaches also. Get both. My blood pressure gets high also sometimes that’s why I get a headache. I am 71 years old and do forget things but study and read quite a bit for fear of dementia. Thank you for your info. It may help a lot of people. I also have A fibrillation, some regurgitation and thickening of heart walls and 50% blockage.

Hello @carnes,the American Migraine Foundation website has some information that might help explain the biofeedback exercise.

Biofeedback and Relaxation Training for Headaches
-- https://americanmigrainefoundation.org/understanding-migraine/biofeedback-and-relaxation-training-for-headaches/

Mayo Clinic website also has a good explaination here:
-- https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/biofeedback/about/pac-20384664

John

Simply focus on your finger tips.. Say a trigger word about 10 times (any word is OK.)  wait until you feel a tingling in your finger tips..start counting to 100.  soon you will feel your heart beat in the finger tips.  It  will take about 2 weeks of practice before you get the heart beat
Good Luck