Jeanee Rose Andrewartha

Hello all, My PPCM story: I was 24 when I found out I was pregnant at 5"8, 108lbs. I always have been extremly thin and frail my entire life. Anyways, I had a pretty rough pregnancy and at about 7 weeks I started throwing up all day everyday ! When I was about 7 months, I would only get sick when I brushed my teeth. Anyways, towards the end, I was struggling to walk

My name is Holly Borrelle and I am a 33-year-old Peripartum Cardiomyopathy survivor.  I am only recently diagnosed in October 2011. Prior to my diagnosis I had never heard of PPCM and, looking back, I believe I had the “classic” symptoms  as early as 32 weeks into my pregnancy but they were dismissed and chalked up as “normal” pregnancy symptoms.  Here’s my story with PPCM: I gave birth to my first, and now possibly

It sounds like the work of a novelist or science fiction but in a real life story of survival, a woman who goes into heart failure during pregnancy has a heart attack, is shocked, goes into a coma, is stabalized while put in a state of hypothermia for an hour, is revived, has a device implanted during a 10 day hospital stay, returns to work a month after being discharged from hospital, and then delivers

Hi, my name is Rya, I am 34 years old. I have a beautiful 6 year old daughter, a 2 year old son, and a baby boy who will be 3 months old this Friday. I was diagnosed with ppcm 3 weeks postpartum on May 11, 2012  with an EF of 50%, BP of 160/100, and a Bnp of 778.3. Doctor put me on Torsemide 20mg and Lisinopril 10mg .  On May 15, 2012

It all starts six years ago when I got married. After our honeymoon I went to the ER for possible heart failure. They found "nothing" wrong. Soon we found out I was pregnant. The pregnancy was hard the whole way through. At 20 weeks I knew something wasn't right, but my doctor just said it was "normal" I only gained 5lbs the first 20 weeks. After that I blew

My beautiful daughter, Gwendolyn Grace, was born at 3:16pm via c-section on January 8, 2012. Even though my entire birth plan went out the window (no drugs...definately no epidural & vaginal birth) I was very excited to FINALLY be a mommy after wanting for 7 years to have a child. She was a beautiful 8lb 11oz baby, but had to be rushed to NICU since her blood sugar had dangerously dropped causing her

I am a childhood cancer survivor who at age 11 had to make the choice either to have my leg amputated or bone replaced. They said if I were to have the bone replaced the cancer would likely return and I wasn't able to be active. So I chose to have my leg amputated. They said due to the chemo I might not be able to have children, at age 11 I wasn&

So I dont know really know where to start. I had bad swelling from the end of the 2nd trimester, but my midwife sent me to the womens hospital a few times with swelling and a bit of protein and they checked me over and sent me home. It wasnt until i woke up just over 2 weeks before i was due with what i thought was a horrendous chest infection i also have athsma,

The use of bromocriptine to treat severe cases of PPCM remains controversial and has not been fully studied. In a medical journey, there is a report of a woman with PPCM and in severe heart failure receiving 2.5mg of bromocriptine and recovering from an EF of 15% to 60% in 2 months. http://eurjhf.oxfordjournals.org/content/10/11/1149.full Bromocriptine and cabergoline, prolactin inhibitors can have dangerous side effects, even fatal, so

Women with PPCM are generally given a few months to recover before further intervention like ICD or LVAD are implanted. An LVAD is a heart pump that is operated with a battery that helps the heart to pump blood but unlike an artificial heart, it only helps the heart to do its job of pumping blood around the body. LVAD is abbreviated for Left ventricle assist device. Women with PPCM may have an LVAD implanted

Below is a video from the UPMC discussing why it is important to know the signs of heart failure in pregnancy. PPCM is a diagnosis of exclusion and it affects from 1 in 3,000 to 1 in 4,000 women in the US. Doctors should consider the possiblity of PPCM, if a women reports symptoms of fatigue or shortness of breath. Other symptoms can include: * Difficulty breathing while lying flat * Cough * Shortness of breath

I was diagnosed with PPCM in September 2011.  I had my second son 2 weeks early on 08/25/11.  He was a beautiful boy weighing in at 9 lbs, 3 oz.  I was so excited that our little family would be complete.   My pregnancy was pretty uneventful until the swelling began at about 7 months.  It continued to get worse each day.  I swelled a lot with my first son, but this was much

Well it's been a year. Two days before fathers day last year this time I was in the ER. I never wrote my story before because I don't like to remember that I like to pretend it never happened. This was my third pregnancy ( not expected)  and I was 39. I have two boys now 11 and 13. I always wanted a daughter and used to say if I don'

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