Neely Pennington

 Peripartum Cardiomyopathy Support Network

home

about ppcm

NY PPCM

Study Group

news

support

how to help

contact us

Hello, my name is Neely I am 30 years old and I live with my husband Brandon and my 1 year old son Jett.

I had a wonderful pregnancy. I worked 5-6 days a week as a bartender/server my whole pregnancy. My water broke about 2 hours after finishing a serving shift, I was at home and it happened over the toilet, who could ask for anything more! I made some phone calls and was taken to the hospital by my husbands best friend. After two hours of pushing I gave birth to a beautiful baby boy.

We were discharged from the hospital a couple days later in great health and great spirits. I gave birth on May 8th, 2004. Flash forward almost two months to late june. I noticed I was gaining weight. I had lost 30 of the 50ish pounds I gained during pregnancy immediately after and I began to notice that I had gained back close to 20. I could not understand this, I barley had time to eat what with all that cuddling I was doing with Jett and I never felt hungry, although I was drinking a ton of water I was not doing so good eating and this extra weight was disturbing me. I decided that it was time to exercise. I got out the ol’ step and tape and started doing step aerobics four times a week. This lasted two and a half weeks and at that time I came to the conclusion that I had bruised my sternum or diaphragm during an ab workout. I was having a heck of a time breathing in a standing or laying position and it made a strange cracking sound when I took a deep breath in. I went to my internist and he agreed that I had done something while working out. He told me to dial it back a notch and he gave me vioxx (great!). He told me to come back in two weeks for a follow-up. Well I toughed it out for one week and then called him and moved my appointment up to that day. I remember how horrible the walk from the parking lot to the his office was. As it was I had been sleeping in a chair (well really spending all my time in a chair) for two weeks because I could not stand or lay down, I even had to sleep in a straight backed chair for the last several days it was so bad. I had trouble walking to the bathroom and taking a shower was the hardest thing ever. I had to stop and sit down four times on my way to my doctors office that second trip. It was horrible. This time he decided to do an EKG and after viewing the results he said he would have to admit me to the hospital, there was something wrong with my heart.

So I took all the tests and got hooked up to all the gizmos and when all was said and done, my EF was below 10% and my BNP was well over 1000. Doom and gloom, doom and gloom. I was put on aspirin, lasix, digoxin, altace, and furosemide. I lost over 40 pounds in 5 days…WOW!

I am doing great now. My BNP is down to 100, and probably better by now. My EF was at 30% at last check and I’m due for another check-up in less than two weeks. They did discover that I have a thyroid problem as well so I take synthroid now too, but that’s not so bad. The low sodium diet (less that 1000mg per day) and the fluid restriction (no more than 1 liter per day) still kick my butt but it is a small price to pay for life!

I go to my internist every month and I see my cardiologist every three months and every visit I get better and better news. I think the worst news of all is not being able to have more children.

I plan to keep my options open after reading all these wonderful, and inspiring bio’s on this website, but when all is said and done I know I need to stay strong and healthy for the one blessing I already have.

Thanks for reading my story