Is this news to anyone??

[kmcguire58]

I went to yet another doctor yesterday for a possible, "yes, you can have another" and was given a big NO. He informed me that there is no medicine to help my heart get better if I get this again. He said all the medicine that I took the first time just helped my symptoms not my heart. He said that my heart got better on it's own. I'm thinking that ok if the medicine did not get me better did I even need the medicine, could I have gotten better without all that? How true is this??

He also mentioned that there is a 10% chance of reoccurance, but if it does reoccur what is the % of death??

[JAMESFETT]

There is much more to the story than that. I think the data support the following:
--if there is a relapse with a subsequent pregnancy the treatment available is still very effective
--the medications used to treat heart failure in PPCM, especially ACE-Inhibitors and Beta-blockers not only help the pumping of the heart, they also appear to have a great influence in helping to restore the immune system dysfunction towards normal
--if there is a relapse with a subsequent pregnancy in someone who has regained normal, possibly 50 percent of tose who relapse will not recover fully; but the overwhelming majority do improve. Best estimates would suggest that with a relapse there may be a mortality rate of 1 to 2 percent.
--left untreated heart failure PPCM patients have a much higher mortality rate and a much lower full recovery rate. Treatment with ACE-I and B-B is extremely important.


JDF

[kmcguire58]

Thank you for the information. I want to be able to see a doctor that can be positive about another baby so I'm trying to get as much info as possible to send his way and maybe he will feel differently.

[kariefristoe]

Hi!

I'm Karie...you had replied to me with a congrats (thank you by the way) because I'm now 5 weeks pregnant with my 1st post ppcm baby. I read your threads about your inquiries of having another baby. I have some information I could share with you if you are interested. I don't want to post it all online cuz it would be really long :). You can send me a private email if you are interested at kariefristoe@sbcglobal.net or you can click on my profile and it will direct you to my email. I tried to email you but it's not allowing me to.
Talk soon,
Karie