I was diagnosed 5 days after delivering my little one in mid May. I had not shown any previous symptoms during my pregnancy ( I did have HBP prior to pregnancy but was controlled throughout my whole pregnancy up until wk 38). They induced me 2 weeks early and I was able to have a really smooth vaginal delivery. After delivery, they were having issues getting my bp down so they put me on a high dosage of bp medicine and once it stabilized I was able to go home. The night after I was discharged I started having issues breathing and tightness in my chest. I honestly thought I was just engorged since my breast milk had just come in. The tightness and shortness of breath got very bad very quickly to the point where I could barely walk. Luckily, my husband noticed that I was having issues breathing and called my Ob who told me to go immediately to the emergency room. When I got in, they rushed me back, did chest X-rays, Echo, put me on oxygen and immediately put me on a nitroglycerin patch and determined I was in congestive heart failure. My EF was 15% and my NT Pro BnP was 1673. I was a 28 year old in severe heart failure. I spent 4 days in the hospital where they constantly monitored me, adjusting meds, trying to stabilize me. Once they got my vitals stabilized, I was finally able to go home. I was exhausted, overwhelmed, and terrifed. Two months out and they currently have me on diuretics, ACE inhibitors and beta blockers hoping to get my bp down low enough to allow my heart to repair itself and have me wearing the external defibrillator as an extra precaution. Right now it's just a waiting game - if it repairs to over 35% by August when we repeat my echo I'll just continue on my current meds with oversight by my advanced heart failure docs, if not, then we will proceed to a surgical defibrillator.
My Details
- Date Diagnosed: 21/05/2015
- Child: 1
- Initial EF: 15
- Current EF: 15
Story By Heather Burnett