My name is Jennifer and I am 29 and was 27 when I was diagnosed 3 days after the birth of my second child. He was 3 weeks early due to my b/p being grossly high. I was retaining water clear up to my upper thighs and was miserable. They decided to induce me immediately and after 10 hours of labor and not getting very far, his heart rate dropped with contractions, so I had a second c-section. After the c-section they basically let me lay there for 3 days and did nothing, they said the cure for pre-eclampsia was delivery of the baby.

This however didn't happen with me. I just gained more weight over the 3 days. I gained about 3 lbs a day. I was then told I needed a blood transfusion and needed 3 units of blood. That was a long night of alarms going off on the machine and no sleep. As the night progressed I noticed I couldn’t breathe if I laid on my left side or my back. My chest felt funny and weird. I told the nurse and the doctor was called and the next morning I couldn’t even say two words without taking a breath. I had to sit absolutely straight up to breath and it was scary. The doc was scared as much as I was. He had never had this before. He ordered an xray and echo and ekg and cat scan and they all showed congestive heart failure. I was put on all kinds of meds for b/p and for water retention and I was also running a fever and my b/p was still soaring even after the delivery. The b/p meds did nothing, I still have to take those.

I was put on tons of Lasix and it took the water out fast, it took about 3 days to get it all out and it totaled about 40 lbs of water I lost over 3 days. I felt like a new person after that, my skin was saggy from being stretched so much. My legs felt like jelly. After that it was just about getting my heart better and being able to breath with laying down. I was on 10 meds when I went home and now I am down to 2. All this happened 2 3/4 years ago. My EF at diagnosis was 40% and it is now up to 58%. I take Ziac 10mg, which has both the diuretic in it and the beta blocker. I feel great now and do anything I want to and live a normal life. I do get out of breath around time for my period and when I do exercise. I also gain water weight up to 10lbs when its time for my period. Otherwise, I am doing great and they say of course no more kids. I got fixed but didnt really want to, they say it will come back worse if you have another, I dont plan on cutting out on the 2 kids I do have, so I got the tubal.

I hope this story helps someone out there. Thanks