My husband and I tried to have a secong baby for a while, my first is 4 years old i had miscarried 6 times before we heard his little miracle heartbeat, when it was time to have another we thought it would be okay but again a tubal and a miscarriage then finally she hung on. 10 pregnancies we had. My first pregnancy I felt amazing full of life, and so healthy. This one was completly different I felt sick, tired and I felt like something bad was going to happen. It wasnt until the last month or so that things started turning bad. I had crazy backpain, my legs and ankles were so full of fluid, also my face and I kept saying to my girlfriend and husband that I had an awful feeling that I wasnt going to make it through labor.
It was the evening of August 11th 2013, I got up with severe back pain went to draw a bath, then my water broke. To the hospital we went the contractions were 30 seconds apart, we got up to labor and delivery, they checked me and said sorry dear no time for an epidural. Holy shit is what I thought the pain was so intense and I could not catch my breath. 3 pushes and little Cedar was born. After delivery I had severe chest pain and my voice was girgily. I just had a new baby but felt so bad, they gave me a drug called cititek to stop my uterus from bleeding. The side effect to that is you shake uncontrollably. literally, it was awful. I shook so bad, could not catch my breath my lips were blue(so I was told) I just remember crying and thinking this was it. I think that drug is what pushed my heart over the deep end.
I got wheeled up to my room feeling awful, then thats when the tests started. I had an echo, a ct scan and an mri. They thought at first it was a bloodclot in my lungs, an hour later a team of interns and a cardiologist came in and started talking to me about heart transplants and how hes sorry to give me such bad news. I was floored, I did not even understand what he was saying because the only thing going through my head was that I was going to die and who would look after my family. They transfered myself and Cedar up to the Cardiac floor. It was crazy getting all the looks from all these old patients, wondering what such a young person was doing on that floor, especially with a crying day old baby.
I was informed that the next day I was going for an angiogram, didnt at the time know what that was. Thats when they saw that half of my heart was working good and the other half was not beating at all. I was told I had an ejection fraction of 21%, which is low but after 2 days on meds it was allready up to 43%. Very good news. But Im still stumped and it seems nobody can give me answers as to if that piece of my heart will restart or is it a good sign that my ef% jumped that much in two days. I just want to get better and recover as soon as possible.
A week after we got home the doctor phoned me at my home from his personal home phone number asking me to meet him back at the hospital in 2 hours and that he wanted to redo the angiogram because I was having such severe heartburn. I was sad because I didnt know what to expect and because I had to leave my kids again. But the good news is that piece of my heart that stopped working, he saw that the tip of that muscle was starting to beat so hopefully it will recover.
5 weeks in now and Im starting to somewhat adjust to all the meds and there side effects. Im apart of the cardio rehab program at the fieldhouse 3 days a week and we have a girl that helps out with my oldest and the house duties until Im able to do them all myself. I want to do everything possible to get myself better not only for myself but for my family. Iam greatful for that drug citatek and for any angels watching over me that helped the symptoms come through immediately, many women go home with symptoms and end up in icu or worse die. I have had an overwhelming amount of support through family, and friends. I am very strongly now focusing on getting better instead of the negative of what could have happened.
Thanks for listening to my story and if anyone has any suggestions to what they think, or if they have had anything like this please let me know. Before August 12th I had no idea what PPCM was now I will do my best to educate anyone on this. It is a very silent but deadly killer that more people including the healthcare professionals need to know about and be educated on. The cardiologists we have in Saskatoon are amazing,and the support from the heart clinic at RUH and the cardiac rehab program are amazing.
My Details
- Date Diagnosed: 12/08/2013
- Child: 1
- Initial EF: 21%
- Current EF: 43%
Story By Erin Robson
