I am a 27yo f with 3 boys. Found out i had a heart condition after the birth of my second child in 99. Have been told I have post partum cardiomyopothy left ventricular dysfunction and an abnormal heart beat. They don't know how I got it and all that has been done for me is medication. I find it very hard 2 deal with I can't do a lot of things 'normal' people my age can do and a lot of people do not understand how bad it is some even think I'm using it as an excuse for not doing things. I need support bad I also suffer from manic depression and this situation certainly does not help! Can any1 help me?

Hi Suz,
I am sorry to hear of this. I don't really know what it is. But I can kinds understand how stressful it may be. Especially being only 27. I am 26 and have 2 girls ages 3 and 7. I just had a stress test done last month and the dr said it came out positive for ischemia. But he said he thinks I am fine even though I have a large family history of heart issues. And my mom passed away from a heart attack at 46. I told the nurse I had some shortness of breath but must have not told the dr becasue he thinks I had no symptoms. Anyway my dr is sending me to a cardiologist next month to do further testing. Ever since then I have been very anxious that usually doesn't happen much. I am only 26 and not overweight or anything.
I just wanted to try and give some input that you are not alone.
I am not on this board very much, I would have answered sooner.
I hope you find out what you need to be healthy and be strong for your family and friends.
Take Care,
C

Thanks C my boys are 9,7 and 3 the eldest 2 have add and adhd this also adds 2 my concerns along with that i have depression which runs in the family but heart conditions do not it is very confusing. add to that the fact that im having gyno problems and im at my wits end! It doesn't seem fair 2 me i mean you know why me????
Hope all goes well with u, good luck

suz,

Peripartum Dilated Cardiomyopathy often relsolves itself during the year after the birth. It is strongly recommended that no more children are considered.

If you still have it, you were not so lucky and thus you need to control the progression of the disease with diuretics to eliminate water retention and beta blockers or calcium channel blockers to ease your heart's workload.

What kind of ejection fractions are you showing.

Probably good advice to consider another pregnancy as life threatening becasue a sizeable number of people with the condition suffer heart failure with a subsequent pregnancy.

A heart transplant down the road may be in your cards,

i had another child after being diagnosid and pregnancy and birth was fine. The things i have do not go away in time perhaps i explained wrong. i have an enlarged heart irregular heart beat and left ventricular dysfunction simply put severe heart failure am on coversyl lassix and dullatrend have echo's at least once a month it is by no means simply cured

i had ppcm after the birth of my first child in 93. i was fine after a month or so. didn't stay on any meds. then in 97 i had my second child even though they told me it wasn't a good idea. i was fine during and after that pregnancy. had my tube tied. now i am divorced and have a bf. thinking about getting a tubal reversal to have one more baby. i haven't had any problems since the first time. and am very healthy. anyway i was 20 when it all happened. its hard i know. good luck!