My 61 year old husband was diagnosed with hypetrophic cardiomyopathy a few years ago. He has been seeing a Cardiologist ever since and a pacemaker/difibrilator was placed to reduce his risk of sudden death. In March his legs started swelling and he was very short of breath and was taken to the ER where he was diagnosed with CHF. He was hospitalized for one day while the fluid was removed and was sent home with strict diet instructions. He s on several medicines to which they ve now added a low dose diuretic. He s done very well sticking with the low sodium diet, exercising, and following all of the lifestyle chances. He has maintained his weight and feels better than he has in a year or more. I m very confused as to his prognosis. When I asked his cardiologist about a prognosis I was told that he has the good kind of heart failure and that the main issue to worry about is sudden death which is why the device was implanted, but when I talk to our family doctor he doesn t seem to think he ll live very long. The ER cardiologist mentioned that he didn t think the HCM was being managed well enough and changed several dosages of his medicines. He also mentioned that there are two surgeries that are options if his condition worsens. One is an alcohol ablation and the other is septal myectomy. My question is two-fold: Realistically does he fall into the dreaded 50% chance of dying in 5 years, or since the heart failure seems to be caused by the HCM can either of these two surgeries turn the heart failure around? What is the good kind of heart failure? I ve never heard of such a thing. I m younger than he is and we have a young child together the stress of constantly worrying about his life expectancy is overwhelming.