- Cardiomyopathy was diagnosed in a 30-year-old pregnant woman with no family history of heart disease.
- The woman was treated to return her heart to a normal rhythm.
- Experts believe that women should insist on seeing a specialist if they think something is wrong.
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As the mother of one with another baby on the way, 30-year-old Jessica Diede from Phoenix, Arizona exercised regularly and ate a healthy diet. But 20 weeks after her pregnancy, she finds herself on an indoor playground with a worryingly fast heartbeat. When Diede lay down next to her, her heart rate returned to normal.
“It was one of my red flags. I was like, ‘Okay, if I just lay there and walked it normally, it’s not right,'” said Diede, a volunteer for the American Red Association. Women ‘Real Women’. campaign, told Insider.
The incident was the beginning of Diede’s long journey to find a correct diagnosis. She now advocates that other women should see a specialist if they feel something is wrong with their health.
After the scare, Diede follows every time her heartbeat climbs, bringing the stump to her next OB-GYN date. Diede’s doctor thought that anxiety was causing her heart problems. Diede knew this was not the problem, and insisted on visiting a cardiologist.
“If I had not asked him to give me the reference, he would never have given it to me,” she said.
She was shocked at the cardiologist’s diagnosis: ” You actually have cardiomyopathy and your heart is weakening ‘and I said what I did not expect,’ ‘Diede said.
Cardiomyopathy is a disease in which the heart is unable to pump blood effectively.
By this time, Diede’s delivery heart episodes had increased to about three to four times a day, lasting at least five minutes each time.
Diede needed two procedures to restore a normal heart rhythm after giving birth to her baby.
As Diede’s pregnancy progressed, her oxygen levels dropped and her medication for cardiomyopathy stopped working. “The bigger I got, the worse it was in my heart,” she said.
Due to these problems, Diede had to give birth at 34 weeks. She received a pair of forceps, in which doctors had to use a forceps-like tool to pull the baby out.
Diede’s heart episodes do not stop after the birth of her child. After meeting with various cardiologists, one of her finally diagnosed another heart problem: AV nodal rainbow tachycardia (AVNRT), which is a type of rapid heart rhythm. She had two procedures to restore her heart to a normal rhythm.
Since then, Diede’s heart episode has decreased. She now needs to take a beta blocker to keep her heart health in check for the rest of her life.
Diede advocates that women should fight to see a specialist if they feel something is wrong
This experience inspired Diede to educate women before pregnancy as well as during pregnancy ‘to listen to their bodies and then manage their own health’, she said. “I want the women to just refer to referrals and fight for your health if something does not feel right.”
Dr Suzanne Steinbaum, a volunteer medical expert from the American Heart Association Go Red for Women, said pregnant women should exercise themselves if they suspect they have health problems. “The worst case scenario is that you’re wrong, but that’s the best case scenario,” she said.
Steinbaum said pregnant women should talk to their doctor if they have shortness of breath, chest pains or swelling of the ankles.