Your heart is at the center of your cardiovascular system. Your heart is the organ that pumps blood to all of the cells in your body through your bodys blood vessels. Your blood has oxygen that your cells have to have.
Cardiomyopathy literally means heart muscle disease. It refers to the deterioration of the working of your myocardium (heart muscle). This medical condition hinders your hearts ability to pump blood.
There are three major types of cardiomyopathy. They are dilated cardiomyopathy, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and restrictive cardiomyopathy.
Dilated cardiomyopathy is the most common form of this disease. It is when your hearts main pumping chamber becomes dilated (enlarged), and its pumping ability becomes impaired.
Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is a form of cardiomyopathy where your heart muscle (myocardium) becomes hypertrophied or abnormally thick. The result is that your heart may have a harder time pumping blood. This disease can also affect the electrical system of your heart.
Restrictive cardiomyopathy is the rarest kind of cardiomyopathy. It is a disease where the walls of your ventricles (lower chambers of your heart) become abnormally rigid. They do not have the flexibility to expand as they fill with blood. With the passage of time, restrictive cardiomyopathy can cause your heart to lose its ability to pump blood properly. This can then lead to heart failure.
You may experience several signs and symptoms that may be an indication of restrictive cardiomyopathy. These include:
Fatigue
Swelling of your ankles and feet
Poor exercise tolerance
A persistent cough
Swelling of your abdomen
Difficulty breathing when you are lying flat, at night and especially with exertion
Weight gain
Chest pain or pressure
Fainting
Palpitations (fluttering in your chest because of abnormal heart rhythms)
Bloating, nausea and poor appetite that is related to retention of fluid.
You or a loved one may have restrictive cardiomyopathy. Restrictive cardiomyopathy and/or complications that have resulted from this disease may be the reason why you or your loved one is disabled. It may be preventing you or your loved one from working.
You may need assistance if this is the case. You may need financial help.
You or your loved one may be intending to apply for the financial assistance that you need from the Social Security Administration by applying for Social Security disability benefits or disability benefits because of the disability caused by restrictive cardiomyopathy and/or complications that have resulted from this disease. You or your loved one may have already taken this step, and your application was denied by the Social Security Administration.
If you or your loved one plans on reapplying or appealing the denial, you really ought to consider this important fact carefully. The fact of the matter is that people who have a disability lawyer standing with them like the one you will find at Disability Case Review are approved more often than people who are not represented by a disability attorney.
