I was only 18 years old when I have birth to beautiful brown eyed little girl . Sept 3, 2001 was one of the happiest days of my life! I had carried my daughter full term perfect pregnancy I even worked up till the night my water broke! 2 am I woke in labor got to the hospital and they confirmed my baby was ready to be introduced into this world! labor was normal for the first 12 hours but I was not progressing I then was takin in for a csection. A few days later we were released from the hospital both of us with a clean bill of health ( or so I thought) . We went home surrounded by family I was in a lot of pain and exhausted but that's normal after having a major surgery at least that was what I was told. The second day I was home I noticed my feet was so swollen i couldn't wear anything but houseshoes and those were even tight! But I thought it was normal...then came day 3 at home...grandma decided to take the baby to visit family I felt horrible and decided to stay home and try to rest. I laid down on my back to rest and that's when it hit me, I couldn't breathe! I got up still couldn't catch my breath. Scared to death and alone I called my best friend she came and got me and rushed me to ER. I get there my o2 was really low . I don't remember much the next couple of days however I do remember if I took off my oxygen my o2 would drop dangerously. After a couple of days in the hospital and still no progress and a doctor standing there telling my family they didn't know what was wrong my family decided to have me transported to a larger and better hospital . I remember getting to the new hospital and a young girl coming in taking my vitals and telling me I was the youngest patient on the heart floor. By the next day they had pulled 30 pounds of fluid off me and I was starting to feel so much better and was able to actually take my oxygen out with alarms sounding! I will never forget the day I was in the hallway waiting for another chest X-ray as I laid there in the bed waiting on the room with the nurse there with me it came on the TVs in the hallways and waiting rooms people started to cry and get frantic ... 9/11/2001...I was scared , I didn't understand what was going on . I had my newborn baby a 100 miles away from me , I was fighting for my life and now thousands of americans killed. I had all I could take I started to panic wanting my daughter crying uncontrollably that I had to be sedated. 9/12/01 was when I was given hope and told that I was finally well enough to go home. I felt better by this time I was almost recovered from surgery and i was estacic I would hold my daughter soon. The hospital released me with the diagnoses as CHF (Not ppcm) at this time ppcm was more rare and unheard of than it is now. I was not given meds just instructions to follow up with cardioligost. My 6 week check up the doctor he basically I'm sorry I don't know what caused this and you most certainly should not have anymore babies! I was ok with that after all I had a daughter to live for! I had my echos every year without fail and all was normal . about four yrs later my husband and I decided since I recovered with no complications I would go to the cardiologist and get cleared to have another baby ( keep in mind I still had not ever heard of Ppcm) the doctor cleared me and I got pregnant two mos later I had a miscarriage but we didn't give up. 1/20/06 I had my miracle post ppcm baby 5 weeks early! Normal pregnancy they didn't consider me high risk until about 33 weeks my heart started beating out of control. I went to my doctor he put me on meds and to slow my heart which didn't help. The next week I was in the hosp with a heart rate of 130+ my doctor told me to calm down I was just anxious but I knew something wasn't right! I kept pleading for them to listen to me and finally with hesitation my doctor took me in for emergency csection. My baby was then life flighted to a ICU out of town to be monitored since his lungs was not developed and had to placed on a feeding tube. Once again I find myself not being with my newborn baby 100 miles away! As soon as my son was born my heart rate and everything was normal. I finished my hospital stay and then went to be with my baby, who is now a healthy 9 yr old boy. Some of the happiest times of my life were also the scariest. just a couple yrs ago I went into the ER sick and was explaining my health history to the doc and told him I had CHF he looked at me puzzled said you are so young . I told him the story and at that time was when I learned about ppcm . He explained to me what he knew and told me that was exactly what I had experienced. I am happy to say my heart is beating healty and no current problems. That's pretty much it. Lesson learned for me was to always listen to your body sometimes doctors aren't always right and you have to fight for what you think is right!
My Details
- Date Diagnosed: 09/09/2001
- Child: 2
- Initial EF: ?
- Current EF: NULL
Story By Misty Wingo Brooks
