Nurs-6501 Case Study Wk4 Module 2 ALL ANSWERS 100% CORRECT Latest Fall 2021/2022 GUARANTEED GRADE A+

Scenario 76-year-old female patient complains of weight gain, shortness of breath, peripheral edema, and abdominal swelling. She has a history of congestive heart failure and admits to not taking her diuretic, as it makes her “have to get up every couple hours to go to the bathroom.” She now has to sleep on two pillows in order to get enough air. Introduction The heart and lungs are two body systems that work closely together, they have this symbiotic relationship which helps to maintain homeostasis. When one system is out of balance, that places a demand on the other system to work harder to maintain that balance. Over time the system that’s working harder begins to become weak and start going into failure. It is important to make sure your heart and lungs are in the best condition possible, both systems play a major role in the proper functioning of the body. The purpose of this paper is to explain the pathophysiologic reason why the patient is experiencing certain symptoms, discuss specific variables that may impact proper functioning, and explain how the two systems not working together produced this patient’s symptoms. Cardiovascular and Cardiopulmonary pathophysiologic processes Heart failure is the inability of the heart to supply the body with enough blood to function properly (McCance et al., 2019). Most heart failure patient’s symptoms are due to the left side of the heart not functioning properly, typical symptoms are difficulty breathing, fluid retention, pulmonary and peripheral edema and decreased exercise tolerance (Malik, Brito & Chhabra, 2020). The development of heart failure creates a set of compensatory mechanisms that tries to fix the problem but because the heart is working that much harder, this leads to a decline in heart function overtime (Malik, Brito & Chhabra, 2020). The lungs supply the heart with blood, when the heart is weak or damage it doesn’t have the ability to pump out the blood it receives from the lungs (McCance et al., 2019). This decline in heart functioning allows pressure to build up in the heart and blood backs up into the lungs where it doesn’t belong causing congestion or fluid buildup, this buildup of fluid interferes with gas exchange which leads to shortness of breath (Osmosis, 2020). In Right-sided heart failure blood backs up in the venous system leading to fluid buildup in the liver causing hepatomegaly, (that’s why the patient abdomen was swollen), and fluid buildup in the legs causing edema, leading to an overall increase in weight due to the backing up of fluid into the interstitial space (Osmosis, 2020). The patient is experiencing orthopnea which is shortness of breath that is worse when lying down because lying flat pulls more blood from the veins into the heart which increases the hydrostatic pressure in the pulmonary capillaries making it that more difficult to breath, that’s why the patient is having to sleep on two pillows (Osmosis, 2020). The decision to stop taking the diuretic was a bad decision on the patient due to knowledge deficit because the diuretic is what’s helping to get rid of the excess fluid she’s holding on to.