HealthInfo Waitaha Canterbury
Advanced heart failure
Hinganga wawe ā-manawa
Heart failure can often be managed for many years using modern therapies. But if you have complications or your heart is just getting weaker, the treatments may be less effective. You may develop symptoms that do not disappear so quickly with treatment and start to affect your day-to-day life.
Some of the things you may notice include:
- needing more help with personal care such as getting dressed and preparing meals
- spending more time in a chair and being unable to walk far
- having more admissions to hospital or GP visits
- losing weight, feeling sick and not feeling hungry
- getting short of breath while doing very little, despite medication
- being tired
- feeling more anxious and worried about your future
- having more chest pain.
If you have these symptoms, your heart failure may be becoming more advanced. Speak to your GP or specialist if you're worried or unsure.
Sometimes when heart failure becomes more advanced, you cannot get any better. Then your treatment plan might focus on giving you a good quality of life, rather than saving your life at all costs. Some treatments may become less important and others may be added to help control your symptoms. Usually your doctor will keep giving you heart failure medications as long as possible to help with symptoms. Other medications may be used to help with breathlessness, nausea, constipation and pain.
Talking about what comes next
It's helpful to have a discussion with your whānau/family about what is important to you, especially your future care needs. Things to consider include:
- where you want to be cared for when you are less well
- what is most important to you now
- what treatments you will accept at this time of life, including resuscitation
- making a will and appointing an enduring power of attorney.
An advance care plan is a really helpful way to document all of these discussions. It's a plan that gives you a voice when you cannot communicate and it tells your family what you want to happen.
Getting extra help
Other community support is available. This may include:
- equipment to make doing everyday things easier, such as chair raisers and shower stools
- carer support arranged through your GP. This may include temporary respite care in a residential care facility to give your carer a break, or arranging a regular sitter so your carer can do other activities for a few hours each week
- needs assessment if you want respite or are thinking about moving into residential care
- counselling through your GP practice
- funding through your GP or through having a community services card to help with the cost of GP visits. Talk to your GP team about this.
HealthInfo recommends the following pages
- Canterbury DHB:
- Management of breathlessness
Information about managing breathlessness.
- Deciding about CPR (resuscitation)
Information for patients, whānau and family about deciding whether or not to be resuscitated.
- Management of breathlessness
Written by HealthInfo clinical advisers. Last reviewed December 2021.
Review key: HIHFA-27478
