Julie Vidinovski

 Peripartum Cardiomyopathy Support Network

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My name is Julie Vidinovski and I am 32 years old.  I have a beautiful daughter Kassandra and a wonderful supportive husband Luby.  I was diagnosed with PPCM immediately following the delivery of my daughter on February 9^th, 2005, at 30 years of age.  At the beginning of my pregnancy I had decided that I would remain with my family physician for the entire pregnancy and that he would conduct the delivery;  however in my eighth month I became gestational and he then referred me to an obstetrician.  At 35 weeks my OBGYN had recommended a planned c-section because the baby was frank breech.  I had concurred with her recommendation and began to prepare for the upcoming surgery. 

On the day of delivery my c-section was scheduled for 1:00 pm.  I was not admitted into surgery until 10:30 pm.  The c-section went well and I met my darling Kassandra at approximately 11:00 pm.  I was very weak and cold following the surgery – a normal reaction to the procedure.  Next, I was taken into the recovery room, where my extended family came to meet the baby and visit with me.  At that time I was so weak that I could not hold Kassandra, so I had passed her off to my sister.  My blood pressure was extremely low so the nurse gave me a shot of epinephrine through my IV.  As the medication entered my body I began to shake and went into convulsions.  I felt this enormous heat and pressure in my head and I could not breathe.  I began to gag and vomit liquid.  My sister was beside me and the nurses asked her to leave.  I felt that something was very wrong and somehow I reached out to her, grabbed her arm and told her not to leave me.  My husband at the time was with the baby.  My chest was so heavy that I could feel the fluid in my lungs, and I could not stop coughing.  It took over 1 hour for the nurses to think to put me on an oxygen tank and two hours until my OBGYN came to see me (she was in another delivery). At 1:00am I was rushed upstairs to ICU, where they gave me a chest x-ray, and hooked me up to heparin. The next morning I  received an echo which showed that I had an ejection fraction of 23%.  This was the first PPCM case the hospital had ever had. 

I was treated as we all are – heparin, lasix, altace, coreg and coumadin.  I was discharged two weeks later and I finally got to go home and be with Kassandra.  Six weeks later I was fully recovered with an ejection fraction of 63%.  My cardiologist was floored at my recover rate; however I still experienced the many symptoms of heart failure for the next year, even with a stable EF.  On the anniversary of the PPCM, my cardiologist began to wean me off the altace and by May 2006 I stopped using the coreg (10mg).  My last echo was in November of 2006 and my EF is just above 50 %. 

I retrospect, my heart palpitations began at about 6 months into the pregnancy, along with the shortness of breathe, a general feeling of doom and inability to sleep. 

I thank god everyday, for granting me the gift of life and the chance to be a mother to Kassandra.