Anyone, (I'm 72) dealing with reduced ejection fraction? If it's been a long time, did you improved your percentage? Been on losartan and carvedilol for about 2 and a half months. I am at 35-40%. After every repeat I'm gasping for air...advice/

I'm 59 and had a massive heart attack 3 1/2 years ago and my ejection fraction also went down.  I'm around 40% and have been since.  I did damage to heart and was told it would not improve.  Two years ago, I had a atrial ablation because I had severe atrial fibrillation.  I'm on clopidogrel and xarelto and have been for 3 years.  Some days when I swim really hard, I gasp for air.  It takes time to learn how to manage your swimming and training.  Just make sure you let your doctor know what you do and how you do it.  Mine knows that I'm not just a lap swimmer and it took a while for him to allow me to compete again. 

I would be happy to talk to you about how I trained then and what I do now.

Steve Newman

Steve, thank you. I swim most everyday and do weights 2 per week. My Heart doc says I should improve though its too early to expect anything after just 3 mo.on the meds. He also says I am not a ticking time bomb in the pool. My main test set I do most every w/o is a series of broken pull 100s ..20 sec at  50/10 at 75, trouble is i have to do them with long send-offs (2:30--3min) before this virus hit my heart and caused this short, short! breath I do this same set on 1:45. I think your right about the doc not knowing exactly the urge i have to push my efforts,  tho we've talked about swimming and being a tri athlete himself he nods like he understands. The gasping scares me. Again thank you for introducing yourself and I'd be happy to correspond more. 

I was on Losartan for a few months and had breathing problems.  I'm off it now, but read that 2 percent of the population will have breathing problems on it.  You may want to see if you could be prescribed something else.  Lynn

I had tachycardia but it was induced by emotional stress (death in family). I avoided drugs because I knew it was not chronic.

Start at the beginning. One lap at a time. Go through the motions - easy. For my events I just went through the motions without effort. For the mile my times were better. Just relax. Rebuild confidence in your body. I'm not a doc.