Pumping Marvellous

Heart failure affects close to 1,000,000 people in the UK, so you are not alone. This is the last time we will refer to heart failure as such; we all like to call it an inefficient heart because that’s what it is. Sufferers and their families are at the heart of what we do. All the information we produce, just like this booklet, is developed by people who have an inefficient heart.

* Available in multiple languages * Our pocket guide will provide you with some initial information, answers, support, and give examples of how you can live life well with a diagnosis of heart failure. This “Marvellous Pocket Guide” is as a result of the experience gained by our marvellous team of patients here at The Pumping Marvellous Foundation who started just like you, with a diagnosis of heart failure.

* Available in multiple languages * Use our Marvellous Symptom Checker to work out where you are on the NYHA Scale and to learn about the different levels of heart failure symptoms.

* Available in multiple languages * Use our printable Appointment Diary in conjunction with 'My Marvellous Symptom Checker' to keep track of how you're feeling, dates of appointments and discussion points for within your appointment.

Several medications are designed to improve/stabilise the heart muscle’s pumping function. The type of medication used may vary depending on your ejection fraction. These medications are designed to: relieve congestion, improve heart function, reduce the risk of you being hospitalised due to Heart Failure, improve your prognosis and reduce your risk of dying prematurely...

* Available in multiple languages * Welcome to the “Marvellous Guide for Medicines for Heart Failure”. Over the last twenty years there have been significant developments in the treatment for heart failure, and these have been shown to improve your quality of life and extend your life expectancy. There has also been tremendous development in care and services that will support you going forward to live well with heart failure.

A number of heart failure patients now live with complex cardiac devices. This Marvellous Guide has been created by the Pumping Marvellous Foundation (PMF) and Patient Educators who all live with a cardiac device. The aim of the guide is to give you the information that we HOPE will be helpful when you are about to have your cardiac device fitted. There is technical information here in ‘patient speak’ and discussion around the various emotions that you may be experiencing at this time.

Welcome to the Marvellous Guide to having an Echocardiogram (echo). The Pumping Marvellous Foundation is the UK’s patient led heart failure charity, however this guide is for anyone who is having an echo regardless of the reason why. As with all our guides, it has been put together by our marvellous team of patient educators. We would also like to thank the marvellous clinical technical team at Grantham Hospital, part of the United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust, who ensured that all the clinical details in this booklet are correct.

This guide has been created by women who have all been diagnosed with Peripartum Cardiomyopathy (PPCM). We wish to thank all the mums who came together to share their emotions around their own experience of being diagnosed with this condition, many a tissue was required as the women discussed the impact on them and their families.

You may live 24 hours or 240 miles away, or share a 24 hour day with someone who has heart failure. To them you are their significant other, someone that they recognise as being instrumental in successfully living with heart failure. This “Marvellous Guide” has been written by fellow carers and patients with heart failure as a result of their day-to-day experiences of caring and living with heart failure, their joys and tribulations, their coping strategies, and their emotional journey.

Relationships with family and friends can be frustrating and even damaging as a result of not being able to fully understand the challenges of living with heart failure. This guide, therefore, seeks to explain what living with heart failure is like for the patient, seen through their eyes, in their shoes.

Welcome to the Marvellous Guide to Travelling with Heart Failure. We know people with heart failure, along with their carers and families, very much see going on holiday as getting back to normal after a diagnosis of heart failure. With the availability of better treatments and care, travelling with heart failure, especially abroad, has become more achievable.

Glyceryl trinitrate (GTN) is prescribed to relieve angina. Angina is pain, discomfort or tightness in the chest due to narrowing of the arteries supplying the heart muscle with blood (coronary heart disease).

Download our Sick Day Rules card.

* Available in multiple languages * From the moment you’re diagnosed with Heart Failure you’re opened up to a whole new world. Changes seem to come at you all at once. You will experience new terminology, tests, scans, lifestyle changes and a bewildering array of medication.

Our Guide to Heart Failure due to Valvular Heart Disease will provide you with some initial information, answers, support, and give examples of how to treat problems with heart valves. This guide has been developed in conjunction with Lauren Connolly, who is a leading Specialist Nurse in Structural Heart Disease at the Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospitals.

This guide is all about why Iron matters. Iron is critical to the production of red blood cells that carry oxygen around your body. If you are living with Heart Failure, then you may have an increased risk of low iron levels.

The Ejection Fraction (EF) is the amount of blood pumped out in the left ventricle in one beat. Your doctor or nurse, with other measurements will use your EF to measure the efficiency of your heart as a pump, in relation to your clinical circumstances

A guide to why Potassium matters, and tips on managing potassium in your diet developed in partnership with the National Kidney Federation and funded by CSL Vifor

This booklet, explains a HFpEF diagnosis of Heart Failure. It is estimated that 50% of the 1,000,000 people living with Heart Failure across the UK have this type of Heart Failure, which is called Heart Failure with preserved Ejection Fraction, often referred to as HFpEF. This booklet is designed to help understanding about the condition and what treatments and care are available.

See our guide to Relationships & Romance when Living with Heart Failure

This info sheet has been developed for healthcare practitioners to provide guidance on managing iron deficiency specifically in the context of Heart Failure.

In this Discharge Pack, you can find out how you too, can live well with Heart Failure.

Cholesterol is a fatty substance, vital for good health. It helps form cell membranes, various hormones, bile and vitamin D. We get some cholesterol from our diet but most is made in our liver. Read More...