My name is Michele Bernard.  I will be celebrating my fourteenth year of recovery from PPCM next month.  I was thrilled to find this site and wish there had been such a thing when I was recovering.  However, I was fortunate to have much support from family, friends, community and most especially, our church family. 

At the age of 30, and symptomatic in the last few weeks of my pregnancy, I wasn’t diagnosed with PPCM until three weeks after the birth of my third son.  By that time my EF was below 20.  I spent several days in CCU, then the year 1993 on total bed rest with doctor’s orders to not lift anything heavier than a fork.  I hired a lady named Doris, an angel with skin on, to take care of the baby, my two little boys and me while my husband worked. I took fistfuls of pills, rested, and waited to get better.  Several times a day, Doris would prop the baby up on a pillow in my lap so we could bond and be together.  My other two little boys would curl up on either side and cuddle up too. Today, those are the most precious memories I have of that time in my life.  By 1995, I was given a clean bill of health and released from cardiac care.

     What I want to share with those of you living through PPCM today is there is no such thing as ‘false hope’.  It is possible to live with challenges and live well. Not a day goes by that I don’t remember my experience or at some point put my fingers to my pulse and marvel.  I’m thankful for every minute I have, especially with my sons.  At this writing they are 23, 20 and 14.  One of my fondest recent memories happened one gorgeous and ridiculously sunny day last spring when the four of us enjoyed a round of eighteen holes of golf. In 1993, in the midst of the storm, it was difficult to envision that a day like that would actually come to pass.  But it did.  And I encourage each of you to look forward to your day in the sun too.  With much faith and hope for your complete recoveries, Carpe diem y’all, Michele Bernard