Máire Murphy
 

 Peripartum Cardiomyopathy Support Network

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My name is Máire (Myra), I am 41years old and my story began towards the end of my pregnancy when I started to retain more fluids than I thought my body could cope with. When I mentioned it to my doctor, he told me that it was a common complaint in pregnancy and that as long as the swelling went down when I put my feet up it was nothing to worry about. My ankles and feet have always been quite narrow so it was quite alarming to me that none of my shoes would fit. The swelling went down slightly after following his advice but always went right back up again when I started going about my normal activities. I had a very straight forward pregnancy, exercising and eating well and didn’t put on much weight.

I was booked for an induction 7 days over my due date at 8pm on Wednesday December 29, 2004. During delivery I heard the doctor comment that I was retaining a lot of fluid and not getting rid of it. I ended up having a vaginal delivery 32hrs later!! I had received quite a bit of Pitocin which I found out later added to my fluid retention. Our lovely baby girl was born early morning Dec 31st. During the whole delivery I got no sleep coupled with the lack of sleep I had before the birth. I then got very little sleep following her birth. I went home midday on the 1st.

On the 5th Jan, I breast-fed my daughter but was not feeling well. I had been very tired but had chalked it up to new mother syndrome. I became quite warm while feeding her and removed my top, then decided to get into bed with her for a nap. Shortly after I got into bed I started having all over body shakes. I called for my husband who got into bed with me and tried to warm me up. When this wouldn’t work he called the doctor, standing in for my doctor who was on vacation. He told my husband that I might be running a low grade fever and to take my temperature –it was 101F. He then told him to wait an hour and take it again. In the meantime I felt extremely warm and was having severe difficulty breathing, especially lying down. There was a rattling sound and a wheezing a bit like asthma. When we called back my temp was 103. The doctor told us to call 911 as he was worried I had a pulmonary embolism. When we got to the hospital they did a Chest X-Ray and diagnosed that I had a mild case of pneumonia and started me on antibiotics (if this was mild, I thought, I certainly wouldn’t want to have full blown pneumonia). The Pulmonologist did not believe I had pneumonia but realized fluid was pooling around my lungs causing the shortness in breath. Even a simple walk to the bathroom left me gasping for air. They decided to put me on Lasix to drain some of the fluids. I lost 17lbs in 12hrs, this helped my breathing difficulties but the problem of full body shakes and high temperature returned that night. The next day they decided to do a CT scan, I had to pump and dump my breast milk for 2days. Later the Pulmonologist, still not convinced I had pneumonia, decided to call for a BNP blood test. At 4am in the morning the nurse alarmed by the BNP results called my doctor and an echocardiogram was booked for the next morning. After this I was diagnosed with PPCM and told I had an ejection fraction of 35%. I was assigned a cardiologist who put me on 4 drugs –Lotensin, Toprol, Lanoxin and Aldactone. A muscle strengthener for the heart, a beta blocker to block adrenaline, a diuretic and an ace-inhibitor to lower blood pressure to reduce the strain on my heart. All of these he told me would still allow me to breastfeed. I have been doing this successfully for 2mths and just had my follow up echo. My EF is now 68%. Everyone has told me I should not have any more children. Even though my husband and I had not decided to have more children I am upset that this is the result. I really feel the swelling pre-delivery was excessive and could have been managed better. I also feel my lack of sleep around the delivery was a contributory factor to my developing PPCM. Yet, I understand reading these other bios that I am extremely lucky to be alive and to have had my condition diagnosed so quickly. I am very grateful to all the hospital staff that cared for me during my week in the hospital. I am also extremely happy that I was able to continue breastfeeding. Our little girl is thriving and is off the charts for height. She is also 95th percentile for weight and 97th for head circumference.

As an addendum to this I just had a follow-up appointment with my Cardiologist – he has taken me off the heart muscle strengthener and the diuretic and I have to return to him in 2mths to check my progress. Then I will have another Echo a month after that.

I wish all of you here a speedy recovery. I count my blessings and am so happy to have my baby daughter even though the advice to not have further children gets me down sometimes.