Amanda

 Peripartum Cardiomyopathy Support Network

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Hi. My name is Amanda. I'm 24 and just had my first son on Feb. 15. He was born two months early. My entire pregnancy was not normal. I had morning sickness the first four months, morning, noon and night. I was so sick that I lost 7 lbs those months. On the fifth month, the sickness stopped suddenly, but then I started having heartburn daily, all day. My OB said it was normal. I was gaining weight but not much. About 2 lbs a month. In total I gained about 6lbs.

At 31 weeks, I started feeling short of breath, but my OB wasn't worried.

What she was worried about was the size of the baby who at that point was 2lbs when he needed to be almost 4lbs. Two days later my breathing was becoming more difficult, especially lying down. I had not slept in 3 days because i was trying to sleep sitting up. I couldn't even breath reclining at an angle. So I go to the ER, who tells me that I have a cold and there is nothing he can give me so he sends me home.

Two days later a nurse in my OBs office calls to set up an appt. at MUSC, a hospital two hours away for an ultrasound. I tell her of my symptoms and she tells me to come into her office in the morning. So I go in and by this time, I am very jaundiced. I had lost a lb so my  OB thinks I have the flu and puts me in the hospital for fluids. Once in the hospital they notice my oxygen levels are low. They then move me from my room to the ICU where I proceeded to worsen.

They put me on a mask, which was not helping at all. At about 4 in the morning, the nurse tells me that she is giving me a shot of morphine, despite the effects it might have on the baby, and that they have called my husband to come in and my OB had come in to try to get my transferred to MUSC. This was Wed. and I don't remember anything until Sunday morning.

I was told later that in the ICU, my heartrate had gone up to 160 and my oxygen level was at 10% and I was not breathing on my own. So they intubated me. They got my oxygen up to 90 with the help of 4 tanks. Then they medic vacced me to MUSC. Once there, in the CCU, it takes a whole day to get my stats up enough. Then on Thurs. they give me and emergency C-section, which a day afterwards, my stats start to slowly go up and get better on their own. I was told that before they took my son, they had a chaplain read me my rites, because I was close to not making it.

3 days after the c-section, I awake, to find myself tubed. I was able to breath on my own that day so they took the tube out. The next day I was out of CCU and in my own room.  I finally got to hold my son 4 days after he was born. He was fully developed, he was just small. 2lbs 2oz. He was only on the ventilator for 2 hours after he was born.

I had another echo before I was discharged and my EF doubled. I was at 20% when I was first admitted into the CCU, and I left MUSC with it at 40%. I went home but had to leave my son. It's been three weeks now and I can feel myself getting stronger each day, and my son will be home soon. The cardiologist at MUSC won't know for sure until about 6 months if I will have any permanent damage. I have to go back to see him every month for an echo.

My first one is in 2 weeks, so we will find out.

Before all this had happened, I was very healthy. I never had high blood pressure, even during my pregnancy. I didn't swell at all during my pregnancy either. It almost seemed like this came out of nowhere one day.

One day I'm fine, the next I can't breath and a week later I'm in congested heart failure and 7 months pregnant.