Endocarditis and the Wider Threat of Infection, How to Prevent it, and how to Cope with Preventative Treatment Measures

Endocarditis: A CHD Survivor’s Worst Nightmare and what a Cardiologist or Primary Care Doctor Should do to Prevent it.

This is a big one. Endocarditis is basically a viral or bacterial infection that is attacking the heart directly. We, people with CHD, are both more likely to suffer from endocarditis and less likely to survive it. The microbial menace in question will eat away at the heart muscle which can cause holes and defects where they didn’t previously exist, causing the heart to work less efficiently and possibly fail.

Since the site of the attack is also the center through which the entire blood supply is pumped, and endocarditis infection can also easily turn into sepsis which is potentially fatal for anybody.

There are a couple of steps that can be taken to help prevent endocarditis in the first place.

1.      Keep a CHD survivor, particularly if they are currently in need of treatment, immune compromised, very young, or very old (there are a few…very few), away from anyone with a serious or highly contagious illness of any kind. 

2.      Put them on prophylactic antibiotics, whether this is situational or a regular thing will need to be determined by the doctor prescribing the medication.

I have been on Amoxicillin, situationally, for as long as I can remember. Every time I go to the dentist for example, I down four Amoxicillin pills an hour before the appointment. The same was true when I got my ears pierced. Anytime there is a plan to expose my blood to potentially less than sterile instruments I have to take it. 

Personally this is one of my least favorite things about this. Not that there’s much to like about growing up with birth-defects but most of it has reached a point where no part of my mind even suggests protesting. It simply is. This, for some reason, as necessary as it is, has not become one of those things. The side effects are annoying. It turns my stomach into a churning vat of acid and drains my energy so that by the time whatever I took it for is over I just want to sleep for 2 to 3 hours.

The worst thing you can possibly do is to take it on an empty stomach. It makes the stomach churning that much worse if you do that. What I have found really helps, is to eat a milkshake before taking it. Since milk is a base substance, it combats the acid somewhat, really any food will help, but I have found milkshakes to be the best thing. 

 If you notice that you (if you are yourself a survivor) or a CHD person you know, is sick and worsening quickly or fading fast, get them to a doctor whether that means a visit to an Immediate Care clinic or an Emergency Room. Go!