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I walk to raise awareness to mom's and soon to be mom's about PPCM. PPCM is something not many have heard of or experienced first hand. I had never heard of it before it happened to me. In 2016 I got pregnant with my 3rd and last child. My pregnancy seemed to be going great from the beginning. I felt great, no morning sickness, yay! Everything seemed totally fine. Then I hit my 3rd trimester. I couldn't walk a couple of feet with out loosing my breath. I thought well I am carrying a baby close to my diaphram, this is normal. My dr even agreed that it was totally normal.
On January 20th, 2017 I gave birth to a beautiful baby boy. Delivery was pretty easy. Only one issue popped up and that was that my blood pressure got really low. Some meds through my IV and I was fine very quickly and nothing was mentioned about it anymore.
2 weeks postpartum is when it happened, I went into sudden caridac arrest in my bed on a Sunday morning. I had been feeling unwell since I came home with my new baby and swelling really bad. When I was not feeding or changing my son, I was sleeping. Several symptoms told me something was wrong, but I kept brushing it off as possibily being a cold or flu one of my other children had given to me.
I finally decided to go to the emergency room on Saturday February 5th. I was checked over and given meds to reduce the swelling and begged the nurses to let me go home to my baby. I was released with orders to see a cardiologist on Monday.
That night I had convulsions while holding my son. When they finally stopped I put him in his bassinet and went to sleep. The next morning I was taken by ambulance to Lewis Gale where the OB on call knew exactly what was going on with me and had me airlifted to Roanoke where I was placed on life support.
I coded 2x that morning and my family was told that if I survived I would be a vegetable for the rest of my life. In fact I was given a 12% chance of survival, but here I am. Fully recovered and healthier than I have ever been.
Know the signs of Peripartum Cardiomyopathy (PPCM):
- Fatigue.
- Shortness of breath.
- Swollen ankles and feet.
- Weight gain.
- Waking up at night with shortness of breath.
- Shortness of breath that occurs when laying flat.
- Heart palpitations or a rapid heartbeat.
- Chest pain.