Daily Symtpom checker

Last Friday I mentioned the red, yellow, and green charts that I use for my congestive heart failure. I say I, but in truth, it is the chart that I was given. It is a daily symptom checker that uses the red, yellow, and green systems. It is actually a great system because I can look at where I am every day. It helps me decide if I need to just call my doctor or go to the emergency room. The thing about heart failure is that many of the symptoms can sneak up on you. You don’t always know when they are happening either.

This chart is available here from the American Heart Association (or download it below) and is printable. I have one on my fridge (it was a magnet the hospital gave me), one that I keep in my calendar, and then one that I have for my brother’s house. I spend a lot of time there and felt I needed one there. I have my doctors’ phone numbers on that one so that they will know who to call in the event of an emergency. 

That yellow looks more orange but on my printed one it is in fact yellow. As you can see I can simply look at my symptoms if I have any and tell what it is I need to do. I don’t use the little checkboxes but I do make a note of where on the sheet any symptoms I might be having is.

When I called my doctor last week I had all of the the symptoms in the yellow section except the trouble sleeping. I called and he told me to come into the office for a check up which led to me spending most of the day this Thursday at the heart clinic getting tests and such done. I will be wearing a heart monito and I promise to post at least one picture on social media of it.

Those tests will let him know what is going on and what we need to do about it all. I don’t know what I would have done without the tracker. Actually, I most likely would have went to the emergency room and spent hours wasting my time as well as theirs for something the doctor could have handled. While the symptoms for yellow and red are similar trust me when I tell you that you know the difference.

When I was first diagnosed I was in the red zone and it was horrible. I couldn’t walk from the kitchen to the living room which is about five feet without having to stop and catch my breath twice. It felt like I couldn’t take a deep breath at all. Like I was choking to death which is basically what happens when the fluid builds up around your lungs.