Finding Out

When the doctor told me I had, had a "mini" stroke I just sat there and kept nodding my head. I heard the words and understood them. They seemed to "go in one ear and out the other." The words didn't sink in. I mean how on earth does a 27 year old with NO potential causes have a stroke of any kind. It has taken me a very long time to actually come to terms with having a stroke. By the end of the day, I had seen a total of 3 different doctors (Cardiologist, Neurologist, and my primary care). They determined that I had postpartum cardiomyopathy. Essentially when I was pregnant, I had high blood pressure and it caused my heart to not pump effectively. Because of that, I developed a blood clot at my heart. The doctor explained it that it was like a rock in a river where the rock gets stuck and keeps rolling around until it breaks free. It unfortunately broke free and went to my brain.

Not until about a year later did I realize the impact it actually had on my heart. The doctor was worried about my heart and had me do a stress test. This test show that my EF was 5-15%. This of course made little sense. I soon learned that meant that that is how much my heart was actually pumping. This is very bad!

After the doctors finally determined the cause, they started me on all kinds of medications. They started me on a blood thinner to prevent future clots. They also wanted me on two heart pills to help strengthen my heart. A side effect of heart pills is they lower blood pressure. I had "normal" blood pressure so giving me two medications that lower it made my blood pressure drop to 60 over 40. This, of course, was not what the doctor intended. I still remember lying in the bed and the nurse asking me how I was feeling. At this point, I told her I felt fine just really tired. I could barely keep my eyes open and kept smiling and nodding. After that, they were only giving me one of the two. I stayed in the hospital 8 days.

By the 3rd day in the hospital, my speech had gone back to normal. By the end of the first day, I could feel my right side again. Over the 8 days, I saw speech therapist, occupational therapist, physical therapist, and a few more. I had to walk up and down the stairs and hallway, do simple math problems, sit up by myself, and a bunch of random things. I knew they were making sure everything was back to working order. I just got so tired so quickly that I wanted them to leave me alone.  My hospital stay  was uneventful. There were no painful procedures, multiple xrays, or anything. The worst thing that happened was I had blood drawn daily.

My doctors and nurses were great. I was well taken care of. I have no complaints with the staff at all.