expecting and I don't know if improvement was something even possible. I admit I sometimes have a childish view of medicine, wanting pills to be a cure or at least bring about improvement, not just be for maintenance, but it doesn't always work that way. Also, I'm more of a positive thinker than Dad. When he was told "3-5 years life expectancy after diagnosis" (which I'm pretty sure he learned from the internet, not the cardiologist), he figured he'd be dead in 3 years. I OTOH read all the positive stories about people living for decades with CHF (my brother's former MIL...though that might've been a classic case of neither region in the afterlife wanting her) and listened to people talk about how much better they got after being on meds (bff--a nurse--has a good friend with whom she used to work who was diagnosed with CHF but was able to bring her ef back up to normal through pills). So I was really anticipating an improvement in Dad's ef, even as I'm grateful his condition hasn't changed, especially at his age.
Dad takes 5 different pills for his CHF (including a baby aspirin). The only thing the doctor did was double his dose of lisinopril for the next time Dad needs a refill. Lisinopril is more often given to people with high blood pressure--several other family members, including me, take it for high BP--but it works by widening and relaxing blood vessels, which puts less strain on the heart. The thing is, when Dad takes his BP at home, he often gets readings around 90/60, so I'm not sure if the lisinopril will lower his BP even further and cause him to feel faint or dizzy. I'm absolutely not saying I know better than the doctor but I was surprised at which medicine he chose to tinker with.
