She Rules Our World : My Daughters Birth Story

Ready??? here we go

I had just turned 36 weeks pregnant and notice that I was starting to get short of breath and terrible palpitations after mentioning it to my OB's nurse practitioner plenty of times and her telling me that it was normal because Chyanne was not head down but across my belly. I started having a very hard time sleeping at night because when I would lay flat i would not breathe well and this took place every night but Sunday night was different I laid in bed gasping for air and decided to sit on the couch and try to sleep while my dear husband tried to help me get comfortable. Very early Monday morning Aug 23, 2010 when my husband left to work I decided to call my local hospital and tell them my symptoms, I was told to go in because it sounded like i had severe pneumonia or bronchitis. I arrived at the L&D triage and after monitoring the baby i was told that everything looked good and that i could go back home. I thought they were crazy because i was literally gasping for air so i decided to wait in the emergency waiting area, while I was there the admitting nurse got worried and took me back and was stunned when she checked my vitals my heart was beating at 140 beats per minute, my oxygen levels were 78-80%, my blood pressure was so high that she thought i was going to have a stroke in the 130's, she could hear a crackling sound in my chest and my heart was only pumping at 50-55%. The sweet nurse that helped me put me on high oxygen and called my husband and told him to leave work and hurry to the hospital (my poor husband was 1:30 away). I was sent for xrays and an echocardiogram to see what was happening since the nurses had not seen this before. My husband was at my side when a couple of doctors came in to tell me that I was in congestive heart failure, pulmonary hypertension and leaking aortic, mitral and triscupid valves. We were stunned and I was moved into the intensive care unit for a couple of hours until a group of doctors and nurses came in to tell us that I was going to have an emergency c-section in 30 minutes and that I was going to be put under general anesthesia and that my husband was not going to be allowed in the room because they were going to pump fluids out from around my heart and from my lungs. My poor husband was heartbroken because we both wanted to see our little girl be born and he was looking forward to cutting the umbilical cord. It was then that i called my family to tell them what was happening once they arrived at the hospital I was rushed into the operating room and woke up later that night. I was terribly sad since everyone had seen my daughter but me, my husband showed me picture after picture of our much anticipated little girl and I couldnt wait to meet her. The next day i was allowed to leave the ICU to meet my little girl SHE WAS BEAUTIFUL. We were at the hospital for 5 days and after my cardiologist told us that if my valves didnt close then he would have to fix them we were discharged only to get sick again the next night and head back to the hospital. I was again gasping for air and shaking and the doctor ordered a cat scan to check for a pulmonary embolism which came back normal and I was sent back home again only to be rushed back to the hospital by ambulance because I felt like I was going to pass out, shaking, short of breath, throwing up and a hot/cold sweat. This cardiologist gave me my diagnosis Peripartum Cardiomyopathy (PPCM) and adjusted my medications (Hydralazine 10mg and Metropolol 50mg) and gave me lasix (water pill) and I lost 25 pounds overnight from peeing and peeing every 15 minutes and having nothing to drink, I was discharged 3 days later to enjoy life as a new mommy.

It has been a year since my diagnosis and after numerous EKG's and Echos I have been told that I am what is considered recovered. I have made it my mission to educate pregnant woman about this rare but deadly disease since I had never heard of it before and when I mentioned it to my OB she said "It is to rare to mention it to every pregnant woman that comes in". I had an appointment with my cardiologist two days ago where he decided to take me off medications and give me an echo in three months to check for any relapse.

I got to finally meet my beautiful daughter almost 24 hours after she was born.