We have a diagnosis!

PostPartum Cardiomyopathy

Cardiomyopathy is a disease of the heart muscle. There are three main types of cardiomyopathy — dilated, hypertrophic and restrictive — all of which affect your heart's muscle, often making it difficult to pump blood and deliver it to the rest of your body. There are many causes of cardiomyopathy, including coronary artery disease and valvular heart disease. Cardiomyopathy can be treated. The type of treatment you'll receive depends on which type of cardiomyopathy you have and how serious it is. Your treatment may include medications, surgically implanted devices or, in severe cases, a heart transplant.

I have Postpartum Cardiomyopthy, which is a damaged and diseased heart due to multiple pregnancies and the strain/stress that puts on your heart during those pregnancies. It is often not diagnosed for years following the last pregnancy. In my particular case, it has been going on long enough for blood clots to form and settle in the bottom left ventricle of my heart.

I will be checking out of Memorial Hospital tomorrow, November 18th and heading home to a few weeks of rest. The first order of business is to take medications that will dissolve the clots in my heart before they can move elsewhere and cause further damage. Thus I have begun Coumadin and Lovenox... and a host of other medications that I will gladly blog about later, once I am home and can figure out what they have me taking... haha! We are all familiar with Coumadin and Lovenox is an injection shot that I have learned to give to myself! Yeah! I can stick myself with a needle.... it is much harder than it looks! Try it sometime! Well, maybe not, but you get the point... not so much fun. The second order of business will be reevaluating my job/stress situation. I will be learning tomorrow from the doctors exactly what I can expect to resume and how to handle this new condition. I know that I am not an invalid... however, some changes will surely need to be made. I look forward to talking with the doctors and rehab nurses tomorrow and finding out all the particulars of my new lifestyle.

I would be in error if I did not say that this has been a very surreal experience. I do not think it has fully sunk in my brain what has truly happened to me over the last few days - other than the fact I have actually been able to sleep and get some rest! lol! So, I look forward to some quiet time of reflecting and talking to God. He is so sovereign and has met every need I have... and will continue to do so... until my last breath. I thank God for this opportunity - even in illness - to bring His faith, that He has given me, into light - so that other's may see His work and be glorified. That the doctor's may be baffled at His handiwork... that the nurses may see His people rally about His child in prayer... that my personal family and friend who are un-churched may see God's people totally supporting and helping a sister in Christ with her every need. May God be glorified in all that I have said and will do.

To God be the Glory!