Heart Fluid Check

v152

Your name

Good morning — let’s check your fluid

Why the doctor says take an extra water pill

Swollen feet are a late sign. Fluid often builds in the body first — weight up, tighter shoes, needing extra pillows, shorter breath. Your clinician may say: take an extra water pill (loop diuretic) on those days so you don’t wait until ankles are big.

This check helps you catch those early cues, follow that plan, then use Reassess to see if symptoms improved. A water pill treats congestion — it does not replace your 4 main heart medicines — guideline-directed medical therapy (GDMT).

As-needed only. Built for when your clinician said take an extra water pill if fluid is building — not for a water pill you’re already prescribed every day on a fixed schedule. Follow the written plan you were given.

Got a past heart report PDF?

Upload it under Heart chart to fill EF and old heart-failure notes from the report.

Today’s vitals, weight, and symptoms

Enter how you are right now. Used with the water-pill check below.

Current vital signs

Set your usual / dry weight in Settings first.

Symptoms (fluid / congestion signs)

Yes = extra fluid may be building. Don’t wait for big swollen feet. A water pill (loop diuretic) helps fluid but does not replace the 4 main heart medicines — guideline-directed medical therapy (GDMT).

Share with family

Text (SMS) works on phones only. On a computer, use email instead — they don’t need the app.

Add people in Settings. You’ll pick who gets each update.

Call the doctor or ER now if

  • Can’t catch your breath at rest or while talking
  • Chest pain, fainting, or feel like you might pass out
  • Weight keeps climbing after your water pill (loop diuretic)
  • Very dizzy, or lips/fingertips look blue
Call doctor / nurse

For educational use only — not medical advice. Follow your treating clinician’s plan. Informed by the 2022 AHA/ACC/HFSA Heart Failure Guideline and 2024 ACC consensus updates.

After your water pill (loop diuretic)

Did symptoms improve?

Check again a few hours after taking your water pill. The app uses today’s earlier Yes answers.

Vitals now (optional)

For educational use only — not medical advice. Follow your treating clinician’s plan. Informed by the 2022 AHA/ACC/HFSA Heart Failure Guideline and 2024 ACC consensus updates.

Home devices and heart-words teaching clips. A search Watch link opens that one video.

How this app works

Welcome walk-through of the app. Closed captions available.

Home devices

How to use a scale, BP cuff, and pulse oximeter. Helpful — not required. Closed captions available.

How to use scale, BP & pulse ox

Same-time morning weight, home BP steps, fingertip SpO2. Devices are helpful, not required. Educational only — not medical advice.

Heart words

Short plain-language clips for Search terms. Closed captions available.

HFrEF — weak pump

Weak pump — heart’s squeeze weaker than normal; often treated with 4 main heart medicines (GDMT). Educational only — not medical advice.

HFpEF — stiffer pump

Stiffer pump — may squeeze OK but doesn’t fill well; fluid can still build. Educational only — not medical advice.

HFmrEF — mildly weak pump

Mildly weak pump — EF in the middle range. Educational only — not medical advice.

EF — pump strength

Pump strength — % from heart ultrasound of how much the LV squeezes out each beat. Educational only — not medical advice.

GDMT — 4 main heart medicines

4 main heart medicines — ARNI (or ACEI/ARB), heart beta blocker, MRA, SGLT2. Educational only — not medical advice.

Edema — swelling

Swelling — extra fluid under the skin, often ankles/legs; late congestion sign. Educational only — not medical advice.

Congestion — extra fluid

Extra fluid — weight up, tight shoes, short of breath. Educational only — not medical advice.

Echo — heart ultrasound

Heart ultrasound — shows EF, filling, and valves. Educational only — not medical advice.

Dyspnea — short of breath

Short of breath — hard breathing; can be fluid in/around lungs. Educational only — not medical advice.

Orthopnea — extra pillows

Need extra pillows — sit up or more pillows when lying flat. Educational only — not medical advice.

PND — waking short of breath

Waking up short of breath — suddenly wake at night needing to sit up. Educational only — not medical advice.

BNP — heart strain blood test

Blood test for heart strain — rises when heart stretched by pressure/fluid. Educational only — not medical advice.

AFib — irregular heartbeat

Irregular heartbeat — top chambers quiver; can worsen HF symptoms. Educational only — not medical advice.

ICD — shock device

Shock device — paces or shocks dangerous rhythms; timing often after optimizing GDMT. Educational only — not medical advice.

CRT — pacing for HF

Pacing for HF — helps left and right sides squeeze more together in selected patients. Educational only — not medical advice.

Dry weight — usual target

Usual dry weight — steady morning weight when fluid at clinician’s target. Educational only — not medical advice.

Educational use only — follow your cardiology team’s plan.

More tools and settings

Home bottles and discharge medicines

Current medicines

Add a medicine by hand. Pick it from the book on the card, or type the name. After it is saved, it folds to a short line. Tap Edit if you need to change it.

Medicines are stored only after you check them against the bottle. Educational use only — not medical advice, not a prescription, and not a duty of care. Follow your treating clinician’s plan. Do not change or stop a medicine because of this app.

Heart chart for the doctor’s office, ER, or clinic.

Upload papers (PDF or photo)

Optional helper. Pull first symptoms, echo, HF labs, and discharge meds from an old report. The full PDF or photo is not stored. Text stays on this device.

Photo of discharge papers, med list, or after-visit summary — stays on this device. Up to 12 photos.

2. First symptoms

What first led to the workup that found heart failure? Short of breath, swelling, chest pain, a cold or upper respiratory infection (URI), tiredness, etc.

Workup after those first symptoms

3. Heart ultrasound (echo)

All echo findings in one place — from the heart ultrasound (echocardiogram) report. Manual entry OK.

Suggested from common guideline timing — confirm with your cardiologist. HFrEF often reassess ~3 months after optimizing guideline-directed medical therapy (GDMT) / revascularization when EF remains low; HFpEF — routine serial echo not required if stable; repeat when clinical status changes (optional ~1 year).

4. Labs pertinent to heart failure

Numbers and the date labs were taken only — lipids when available. Type results by hand anytime — PDF extract can fill some of these too.

Lipid panel

5. EKG (electrocardiogram)

Rhythm and key findings from the heart tracing — date if known.

6. Chest X-ray

Short summary of the chest film — date if known.

7. Lungs / fluid in the lungs

Plain-language focus: congestion or fluid in the lungs from the chest film or notes. Separate from ankle swelling.

8. Medicines sent home (discharge prescriptions)

Check each medicine prescribed at discharge. Use Search for brand or generic names.

Heart and fluid medicines (cardiac / diuretic)

i.e. metformin (diabetes), levothyroxine (thyroid), blood pressure pills, inhalers, vitamins, pain medicine.

9. Usual vitals (when steady)

Typical numbers from the past when you felt steady — not today’s check.

Same number as Settings — one source of truth.

10. New heart failure diagnosis (incident HF diagnosis)

When and where heart failure was first named, and what kind — plain words first.

Hospital or clinic name where diagnosed / seen

11. Stent / vessel occlusion — percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI)

Pulled from the report — edit anything that’s wrong.

For educational use only — not medical advice. Follow your treating clinician’s plan. Informed by the 2022 AHA/ACC/HFSA Heart Failure Guideline and 2024 ACC consensus updates.

Check the heart medicines you take. Show this at the ER or clinic. Saved only on your phone.

Where this comes from

For educational use only — not medical advice. Follow your treating clinician’s plan. Informed by the 2022 AHA/ACC/HFSA Heart Failure Guideline and 2024 ACC consensus updates.

Which kind of heart failure?

Two common clinic names (pick what your heart doctor named — you can change this later):

  • Weak pump (HFrEF) — the heart’s squeeze is low (low ejection fraction / EF). Blood doesn’t push out strongly.
  • Stiffer pump (HFpEF) — the squeeze may look OK, but the heart doesn’t fill well between beats. Fluid can still build up.

Left side vs right side is a different idea: left-side problems often show in the lungs (short of breath, needing extra pillows); right-side strain often shows in the legs and belly (swelling). Many people have both. That video is on setup page 2.

The heart-stent video is on setup page 2.

Weak pump (HFrEF) — usual medicines

Check the boxes for medicines you already take. The first four are the usual main heart medicines for a weak pump. Your clinician chooses doses and timing.

For educational use only — not medical advice. Follow your treating clinician’s plan. Informed by the 2022 AHA/ACC/HFSA Heart Failure Guideline and 2024 ACC consensus updates.

Calendar — skipped days

Saved days are marked. Empty days before today are skipped. Tap a skipped day to add that check. Today’s check stays on the Today tab.

Recent days

Each day keeps weight, BP, heart rate, SpO2, symptoms, and whether a water pill was taken. Bring this to your visit if helpful.

Send the saved log the same way as today’s update. Text works on phones; email is better on a computer. You’ll pick who gets it if more than one person is saved.

For educational use only — not medical advice. Follow your treating clinician’s plan. Informed by the 2022 AHA/ACC/HFSA Heart Failure Guideline and 2024 ACC consensus updates.

About

Know your fluid. Know your heart.

About the creator

Hi — I’m Melody Ann Moore, an adult-gerontology acute care nurse practitioner (AGACNP-BC) with a critical care background (CCRN). I’ve spent years at the bedside in ICUs — medical, cardiac, and surgical — caring for people through the scariest days of heart and lung illness. I built Heart Fluid Check for my dad after he was newly diagnosed with heart failure, because I wanted something he (and we) could actually use at home.

Why I made this

Discharge papers are overwhelming. The goal here is simple: know your fluid, know your heart. Weight, symptoms, water pill, and the key tests — echo, labs, EKG, chest X-ray — in plain words, so you can spot fluid building up early and feel steadier between visits.

This is guidance for families — not medical advice. Follow the written plan from the cardiology team.

Prime Nursing Consultants PC

Tip the maker · Zelle PNCMoore

For educational use only — not medical advice. Follow your treating clinician’s plan.

Install on your phone

Add to Home Screen so morning and after-pill reminders can fire. They do not work inside the chat browser.

  • iPhone (Safari): Share → Add to Home Screen
  • Android (Chrome): Menu ⋮ → Install app / Add to Home screen

You can upload a PDF even without special setup. If a scan has no selectable text, paste the words instead.

Daily reminders

Gentle nudges on this phone. Educational only — not medical advice. Times use your phone’s local clock.

An on reminder sounds at that clock time while this page is open. Turn it on, set the time, then leave this screen up.

Default 8:00 AM — “Time for your morning heart-fluid check.”

Rings at this time even if no water pill was logged.

Default 3 hours after you tap “I took my water pill.” Works together with the afternoon time.

Notifications not enabled yet — tap Allow notifications.

If notifications are blocked, you will still see in-app banners on Today and Reassess.

Family people

Text (SMS) is phone only. On a computer, use email. They don’t need the app. When you share, checkboxes let you send to some people and skip others.

Teaching videos

Heart-words clips live under More → Videos. Left vs right and stent are under More → Guidelines.

References

Citeable sources for teaching pictures used in videos. Not shown or spoken during video playback — listed here only.

Title License Source Used in

Full list in the app package: media/credits/CREDITS.md and media/credits/sources.json.

App background

Pick a calm look for the whole app. Changes right away — tap a large color to preview.

Password option

Optional. A 4-digit password keeps this daily check on this phone. Leave it blank and the app opens as usual.

Set or change the password, continue setup, or start fresh on this phone.

About you

Enter your own name and age so this app is yours.

Water pill plan

As-needed (PRN extra dose) or every day on a set schedule. Weight watching stays for both.

Weigh each morning after the bathroom, before food or drink, same clothes. Synced with Heart chart.

i.e. Lasix (furosemide), Bumex (bumetanide), Demadex/Soaanz (torsemide), or Edecrin (ethacrynic acid). Sometimes metolazone (Zaroxolyn) is added if fluid is hard to clear.

Your doctor’s plan for extra fluid. Use with your 4 main heart medicines — guideline-directed medical therapy (GDMT) — not instead of them. See Guidelines.

Run setup again walks through the same steps — it does not wipe your saved data.

Show how-to walkthrough explains Today, Reassess, Log, Heart chart, and More — one screen at a time.

For a fresh start or a new person on this device. Clears today’s log, heart chart, and papers — then restarts setup.

Suggestions

What should this app do next? Saved only on this phone. Nothing is sent.

Support the maker

Heart Fluid Check was built by Melody Ann Moore for her dad. If it helps your family, a tip to Prime Nursing Consultants is welcome. Optional. It does not change the app or the medical plan.

Zelle: PNCMoore · Prime Nursing Consultants. In your bank app, choose Zelle and send to that name.

Paste a Cash App, Venmo, or PayPal link, then Save settings. The Tip button in the header stays hidden until a real link is saved.

Optional. No card is stored in this app.

For educational use only — not medical advice. Follow your treating clinician’s plan. Informed by the 2022 AHA/ACC/HFSA Heart Failure Guideline and 2024 ACC consensus updates.