A Stroke is No Joke – My Scariest Day Of All

Walking Before The Stroke - My PPCM Story - This Mommy's Heart

It has been a bit since I posted. I’ve been busy finishing up cardiac rehab and getting more involved in a club I am in. To be honest though, I’ve been avoiding this post. The day that I had the stroke was the scariest day of my life. Reliving it isn’t something I am looking forward to. Nonetheless, I cannot tell this story without talking about it.
I almost died several times throughout my hospital stay but I was sedated or so far gone that I don’t remember any of it. That was not the case on December 28th.

Hospital for the Holidays

This Mommy's Heart - My PPCM Story - Parade

It’s December 15th and I’m still in the CICU, getting home for the holidays seems unlikely. So, what do you do? Wrap Christmas gifts in your hospital bed! Luckily, I had already finished all the Christmas shopping for my kids before I had my daughter so wrapping them was all I had left. I’m sure if I didn’t feel like wrapping the gifts someone else would have done it for me but this was important. I wasn’t going to let PPCM or the loss of my heart prevent me from enjoying the holidays.

Just Keep Swimming, Just Keep Swimming

This Mommy's Heart - My PPCM Story - Bow

Okay, so I never actually swam while I was in the hospital. Most of the time I was there I had the total artificial heart and you can’t even shower with those. Let me repeat that, you are not allowed to shower when you have a TAH. Whether you have it for one day or one hundred days, you are never supposed to clean yourself in the shower. C’mon Syncardia, I know you created a device that saved my life and all but get that shower situation figured out! (kidding…but seriously)

During my next several weeks at the hospital nothing super exciting happened although I was obviously still sick enough to have to stay in the hospital. After my tamponade there was still a lot of pain in my back which was caused by my chest tubes. I was on a ton of narcotics, baclofen plus used lidocaine patches and heat packs. Even if you are in pain, you still have to move so you don’t get pneumonia so on December 8th I walked for the first time in weeks. Using the cardiac walker, I walked all the way down the hall and back to my room. Woohoo…baby steps!