High fever just before you know you had PPCM

[Yvonne]

In different bios/ stories on the board girls wrote that there PPCM was diagnosed after a very high fever.
I had a very high fever too, just within 12 hours after delivery. The doctors thought it was a sepsis (caused by a streptococ they never found in my blood!!) and threated me with very high doses of different types of antibiotics. This worked and within one week I was admitted from the hospital. Three months later, after a period of increasing symptoms, I was diagnosed with CHF and PPCM. Now, in retrospective, I think I didn't have a sepsis, but I had a myocarditis. Oke, so far, I don't like to look back in anger, I can't change the past. I can only make the best out of the future.
But ...I am just curious how many of you had a start of becoming ill after a very high fever?

[SerenaWelsh]

I developed a high fever during the delivery of my son (second child) - when I believe the CHF started.
The fever went away soon after the delivery.

[melissamph]

No Temp before, during or after delivery!

[mom2gageandkeely]

I believe I had PPCM in 1996 when I delivered my son Caden. It was a terrible delivery, 5 days and they gave me every drug that they had available. As a last resort my doctor sed a drug she had to read about that was very dangerous, she did not want to use and I had to sign a consent. I cannot remember what it was. My water broke at 22 weeks but labor was not progressing. I developed a very high fever and my blood pressure was 200/200. They used ice on me while I was delivering to cool me down. I begged for a csection and they would not give me one, not only was i deliveringa premature baby I knew wouldnt live but i was in extreme labor for 5 days with an epidural that leaked in my spinal cord and caused extreme headaches. After delivery I was swollen and had a cough all week and was tired ( emotional with a stillborn delivery) so we contributed everything to that. In 1997 I developed PPCM in my 7 month but it was not caught until after delivery. I did not develop a fever that time just every others ymptom in the book :)

[mikeyandBellesmommy]

I had a low grade fever about a week or so prior to delivery which was due to a UTI, I don't remember having a fever during or after delivery, I could have though I don;t remember anything for about two days before or after the birth of Belle..it is all a HAZE

[Becca]

I had a 103 degree temp when I went back into the hospital. They said I had an infection in my uterus and they put me on heavy duty antibiotics. That was the only reason they kept me in the hospital. I thank God for that fever, because otherwise I wouldn't have been diagnosed!

[JAMESFETT]

In my experience, it is very uncommon to have significant fever with PPCM. Yes, the two may exist at the same time, but the cause of the fever is usually something other than PPCM, unless there is serious dehydration (and usually fluid overload is the problem). At some time BEFORE PPCM develops there may well have been a period with fever and an infection, particularly a viral infection, since that may have been the origin ofa myocarditis that leads to dilated cardiomyopathy and heart failure. But the peripartum time puts any women at risk for a number of complications that can cause fever, such as urinary tract infection, intra-uterine infection, etc. That does not mean they have caused the PPCM, just that they are co-incidental. If there is fever, and if the fever is found to be coming from the heart, such as a valve infection, then the diagnosis is not PPCM as a cause of the heart failure. Does that seem clear?

James

[mandyb]

I, too, had a high fever during delivery and until tx for ppcm. Like Dr. Fett said though, I had serious fluid overload (probably 40+ pounds in a couple of days!) Interesting though, isn't it, when we find common symptoms?

Mandy

[momofthree]

Hi. No fever here either. I did have strep throat while pregnant but that is it. I did have protein in my urine and test positive for group B strep so I had to have antibiotics when I went to L&D to have my daughter. Otherwise felt great and had a great delivery. Dx was at 5 weeks post partum.

Alison

[KarenV]

Two days after delivery I broke out with a high fever (104 degrees), they thought it was some sort of infection, so they treated me with 4 types of antibiotics. They also suspected a blood clot, so I had numerous scans and ultrasounds to rule that out. It was only after a lung xray that they saw the fluid buildup around my lungs and put all the symptoms together to properly diagnose me with ppcm. I was also hugely overloaded with fluid... about 30lbs.

[Anny311]

I had a low grade fever when I went to the ER (99.9 or something--it wasn't over 100) and like Dr. Fett said, it was a UTI which is pretty common if you've had a catheter. That thing was NASTY. It was listed in my discharge summary as a "complicated" UTI or something like that. I just remember being so surprised I even had a fever. That and my BP was 150/100 when it had been normal 4 days before when I was discharged. My dad said it was just nerves :rolleyes: But he was wrong....

Anny311

[tabs]

I, too, had a fever during my labour with my first. In this case, it was felt that my fever came from the long labour, the long time with ruptured membranes, the internal monitor, and the fact that I had no amniotic fluid only mecconium.
Twilah

[ncwahoos]

Was just reading this old thread about people having a fever during or shortly after the delivery during which PPCM diagnosis occurred. I think it is very interesting that so many of us ran fevers during this period. I myself was fine until I came down with a fever the second night after delivery. I went downhill from there with all the classic PPCM symptoms appearing. I often wonder if that fever was the onset of myocarditis which triggered my PPCM. I guess we'll never truly know.

Stephanie

[Yvonne]

Wow, this is like I read my own story!

[2girlsand1boy]

I don't recall having a fever before delivery...just being absolutely miserable! But, I do recall something about everyone being concerned while I was in ICU that I had a fever....It's all such a haze that I do'nt even remember how long it lasted, or what they gave me.

Jennifer