Maja Spahic

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Hi my name is Maja, and I am 22 years old. January of 2006 I found out I was pregnant and I was due on Sept.7th 2006, for the first part of my pregnancy I had no problems all except for pretty bad headaches but nothing crazy. I did everything right during my pregnancy too, dont smoke, didnt drink, rested well,ate well,didnt dye my hair,didnt get my nails done I didnt really do anything lol.Then once the summer months hit it all started to get bad. At first I was just really tired, would get somewhat out of breath and things as such. Once the end of July/August hit it got to the point where I would walk to the bathroom and get so out of breath that I would feel lightheaded and would have to lay down for a while in order to even be able to sit down. Toward the end of August I could just be sitting down not doing anything and I wasnt able to breathe.All summer long I was swollen like crazy I couldnt even fit flip-flops!! I mean flip-flops come on who cant fit those lol! I complained and complained but they told me he was sitting high up(Im like well hes not in my airway lol) and that its normal to be swollen. A couple of the nurses even told me I had an irregular heart beat but they just left it at that. Then once I did enough complaining and begging they had originally set me up for induction on the monday August 28th I didnt quite make it. I had a doctors appt that Thursday August 24th and they hooked me up to some monitors and my heart rate as well as the babys seemed to go up and down so they finally decided to admit me and monitor me overnight. Well that night it was decided to induce me the next morning, so at 6:30am they gave me petocin and the journey started! I was in labor from 7 until 6:30pm and only dialated to 2cm!Go figure! At that point the babys heart rate started going down so I had to have a C-section, my beautiful baby boy Da'Marcus Irfan-Amil Green was born on August 25th at 6:34pm he was 8lbs and 2oz and 20inches long, they said that was the reason for all my troubles. Ya sure! My whole recovery was terrible I was in constant pain the strongest med theyd give me was darvacet! I had very high blood pressure, a fever, I was even more swollen than I was before I had him but it was all chalked up to delivery. I was released (they couldnt wait to get me out of there!) that monday at around 5pm, the first night was a typical night with a newborn, that tuesday I felt even worse I had a fever, chills was exhausted couldnt walk,couldnt breastfeed my son and when the home health care nurse came she knew something was very wrong so she sent me to see my OB, she couldnt get me in so I seen the nurse-practitioner, she said to come back if I had a fever over a 102, told me it was normal to be swollen it took a while and told me to drink 10glasses of water (hmm that alone could have killed me!).That wednesday I couldnt breathe I was still feeling horrible but with a newborn I was too busy to think about me, that night I couldnt lay down and sleep so I slept halway sitting up because Id start wheezing when i laid down I just couldnt breathe! I swore I had asthma, that next morning my son had his first check up and I felt better, then around 2pm it started to get worse I could breathe more and more and at 6pm my boyfriend took me to the ER and they did an EKG and sent me right back to the trauma room, I was hooked up to oxygen,iv lasix, given nitroglycerin, given anxiety medicine to calm me down to try and breathe. At first they werent sure they thought it was just pneumonia, at about 3am after many tests, many prods and pokes they sent me in to the CCU and the next morning I was diagnosed with PPCM and double pneumonia, I was like what?Im only 22 pretty healthy no previous signs but I guess desease doesnt look at age, race, gender etc! I was told that they didnt know weather I was going to get better, my ef was at 25% I was put on lasix, coreg, vasotec,an injection against blood clots(OUCH!!) and an antibiotic. It was horrible and on top of beind bed ridden my breasts had to be wrapped up with cold cabbage leaves in my bra to stop the milk from producing! I ended up being in ccu for 5days and to the doctors amazement after 2 more days on the reg heart care floor i was released. (I didnt get to see my son for the first 3 days but then a wonderful nurse let my boyfriend bring him in and all I could do was cry!) As the months passed by I started to get better and things were looking up! I had my beautiful family and my health was progressing! Then on December 6th the worst day of my life as if I hadnt been through enough already my beautiful baby boy passed away. I had found him in his crib and I knew from that second that he was gone and after many tests and an autopsy I found out he had died from SIDS. How though I still dont get it he was so healthy and sooo strong! He could roll over, he was already teething at 3mos!The only problem he had was that it took a while for us to figure out the formula he could digest (I couldnt breastfeed due to the meds). That was 4months ago and I dont know why Im still here and hes gone I guess theres a reason for everything my ef right now is at 50% but without him it feels like a negative there isnt even a number to describe the loss! The doctors say I shouldnt even think about having children and right now its not something Id even want to do, but maybe someday. Not that anything or anyone will ever replace my beautiful angel! He is the only reason (him and my boyfriend Andrew and my parents I owe them all alot) why Im still fighting to keep life going,I know he wouldnt want me to give up and now I have a angel of my own up in heaven watching over me. Im currently enrolled in school for nursing (maybe i can make a change!) and am working partime, trying to exercise to lose some more of this babyweight to stay healthy, am still on meds but hope one day soon I'll be able to come off of them. Thank you all for reading and I hope one day we can diagnose ppcm earlier and find a cure or cause for SIDS too many angels leave this world everyday!  

I want to thank this website for letting us spread the word, and I also want to thank my boyfriend and my parents if it wasnt for them I wouldnt be here and I know how hard it was for them they lost a son and a grandson too, as well almost lost me. SO THANX!!!and I love you with all of my enlarged heart!