u/Forsaken_Phone_4700

34 and currently 9 weeks pp and I have many concerns regarding my heart.

I unfortunately was diagnosed with pp hypertension a week after I gave birth and was hospitalized twice over it. I was on 200mg of labetalol 3x a day with procardia 30 mg once a day. I stopped the procardia about 12 days in due to horrible side effects and was advised to wean off the labetalol as per my OB and cardiologist. I went down to 2x a day for two weeks and now I’m at 100mg 2x a day. My blood pressure seems to be lower in the day and spikes at night 130s sometimes 140s however my diastolic always bounces around from 70s to 90 and in more recent days, it does seem to come down but it’s 9/10 times somewhere in the 80s. My pulse rate is typically 70s-90s. At total rest in bed, it’ll go 60s. I am going to continue to wean off and pray I do not have severe rebound hypertension and that I finally stabilize. Will it actually ever stabilize? What if I need the meds forever? It’s been an incredibly hard experience and my health anxiety is astronomical. I never once had to endure high blood pressure, I have ran lower my entire life until now.

I do vape. I stopped smoking cigarettes prior to pregnancy after smoking for 15+ years. I am currently trying out non nicotine vapes and sometimes still hitting a nic one NOT as much because every time I tried to stop nic in the past, it went horribly. I smoked a lot throughout my life, but not a pack a day or anywhere close. Yes, I know I should quit.

I have been experiencing chest pain for weeks now even prior to weaning off my meds so I did go for testing. I had a CTA, an echo and a CAC score all of which were perfectly fine minus some artifact on my liver which has been a thing for awhile and always ruled out to look like nothing serious. I forget the proper term that they keep calling it.

The other kicker is my cholesterol. A year ago, my LDL was 137 and at six weeks pp, it was 151. My HDL is 63 and my TRI is 109. I gained 60 pounds in pregnancy and ate horribly and did not move by body at all. I was 123 my first appt, 176 before I gave birth and am currently 145. I have made efforts to watch what I am eating and trying to walk. Exercise is a bit tough for me, I live an incredibly lazy life and never watched what I ate ever considering I was always skinny. I know it should be under 100. I also had elevated liver enzymes that went down a week after a retest. This again was all testing done between 5-6 weeks postpartum. I was told this isn’t the best time to test for these things.

I am aware that postpartum is rough on the body and so much is going on hormone wise and etc. Now that I’m two months pp, my question is where do I go from here and when will I get back to normal and what can I do to help myself? I don’t want to be on medication for the rest of my life. I just want to go back to regular.
I am SO upset over the combination of the two, high bp and high cholesterol cannot be good long term on my heart.

My husband went back to work and nights are kinda hard with him and I fortunately have my parents close to help out, but sometimes I just need a break… I haven’t done it yet, but I have a bassinet and etc at their house and eventually he’ll sleepover there some times but for now I’d sleep there with him. I also have severely bad anxiety and postpartum complications and am scared to be alone really :( He’s two months today. My sis in law mentioned this will break his habits, but, he’s so little that he doesn’t even really have actual schedule yet however he does typically go down to sleep around 10-12 and wakes up once or twice a night. I’m kind of really struggling at being a new mom all in all and not being well is making matters worse. I don’t mean to be so selfish, but it’s hard to do this while I’m struggling so badly. My husband is great when he’s home and helps out ofc, but he goes to bed early and works all day. I feel so stupid that I’m struggling so badly, I have such bad health anxiety and it just completely takes over. No one gets it and expects me to be totally fine by now and out and about. I just want all the hands I can possibly have.

PP hypertension here. I believe it was absolutely pre e, but by the time they caught it, no protein in urine. Zero heart issues prior to birth.

So it’s been about 7 weeks since since I’ve been on it and I started weaning two weeks ago.

I was on 200mg 3x a day, then I went down to 2x a day and now yesterday I started 100mg 2x a day. Was also on Procardia for like… 12 days but stopped bc it gave me insane migraines.

Google is telling me this is a significant decrease and I’m incredibly scared bc I have chest pain which also could be very apparent deadly side effect? I had chest pain even prior to weaning though so I sincerely have zero idea if it’s all related. I’ve been to a cardiologist and this is all under his plans. I had an echo and CTA which all came back normal. Chest pain could simply be anxiety and or muscular, but now I’m full blown panicking.

My BP readings have been fairly okay as well.

Anyone have stories to share of a similar experience?

PP hypertension here. I believe it was absolutely pre e, but by the time they caught it, no protein in urine. Zero heart issues prior to birth.

So it’s been about 7 weeks since since I’ve been on it and I started weaning two weeks ago.

I was on 200mg 3x a day, then I went down to 2x a day and now yesterday I started 100mg 2x a day. Was also on Procardia for like… 12 days but stopped bc it gave me insane migraines.

Google is telling me this is a significant decrease and I’m incredibly scared bc I have chest pain which also could be very apparent deadly side effect? I had chest pain even prior to weaning though so I sincerely have zero idea if it’s all related. I’ve been to a cardiologist and this is all under his plans. I had an echo and CTA which all came back normal. Chest pain could simply be anxiety and or muscular, but now I’m full blown panicking.

My BP readings have been fairly okay as well.

Anyone have stories to share of a similar experience?

So we learned today that my son has blood in his stool (not visible to my eyes) and our dr to believe it’s an allergy so we were switched on over from Similac Pro-Comfort to Nutramigen and holy SHIT this kid is screaming like he’s never ever done in his 2 months of life. Was this a mistake?! He’s two bottles in so far.

I mean he’s got something going on to be fair, this entire week he’s been so fussy/crying so much and not like himself, his poops started smelling like metal and liquid green which lead me to take him in today we learned this unfortunate news :(

I was told we need to give it time, but he has never been this horrible before ever… I’m so scared! He was sleeping amazing though this whole week and now here we are just so uncomfortable, I feel so bad. He also gave up baby pepcid to see if it’s acid reflux which we gave him. He just won’t settle. I mean totally
inconsolable. We have another appt Tuesday and doc said he may need prescription formula if this doesn’t work out when they retest his stool.

I am a nervous wreck as is, idk what to do :( Help!

See my previous post in here for more context but long story short my LDL is 151 at six weeks postpartum. A year ago it was 137. I eat horrible, I am lazy and I’ve been a smoker of 18 years? Quit cigarettes before I got pregnant, but I’ve been vaping for about 3 years now. Currently trying non vic vapes. Also currently battling postpartum hypertension which seems to be fairly under control with medication. Pregnancy rocked my world. My health anxiety hasn’t rested and these things are all I think about. I fear I am going to die. Dad and mom both have high cholesterol as well, not as high as mine bc they both made efforts to bring it down and it didn’t show up till they were older. Dad is on statin mainly bc he has an aortic aneurysm. I don’t believe anyone in my family had any heart diseases. I too am making efforts to bring mine down and my cardiologist wants to repeat bloodwork in three months bc right now isn’t the time being I am so freshly postpartum. I am currently 147 pounds which is 30 more than I weight before I got pregnant. The countless milkshakes during pregnancy clearly didn’t pay off well.

I’m doing the CTA for persistent chest pain for weeks now, I am upset it does not show the lungs though. Also in such fear of blood clots. Very scared of it revealing a shit ton of plaque and problems. I almost don’t even want to do it. I can’t handle much more. I am hoping it’s simply anxiety and costocondritis which has happened to me before many times.

Anyway, I’m 34 today. I don’t want to be on another medication and or a for lifer mediation at that unless it’s beyond necessary nor does my doctor.

How old are you and when and why did you go on statins AND OR how was your CTA process/results?

I will be 34 tomorrow and I am currently seven weeks postpartum dealing with postpartum hypertension. I am currently in the weaning process off Labetalol 200mg and currently at 2x a day. I was on it 3x a day and earlier Procardia was also in the mix for a short 2 weeks bc the side effects are horrible. I do believe i am experiencing side effects from Labetalol as well, but I need something to keep my bp okay. I don’t even believe that my blood pressure readings are that low however, my cardiologist does want me to try to continue to wean. I’m supposed to start 100mg 2x a day next week.

I did unfortunately find out that my cholesterol is pretty high. My LDL is 151. I definitely did not eat healthy during pregnancy nor did I eat healthy prior to pregnancy and even then my cholesterol was still fairly high at 134. I’ve been incredibly skinny my entire life however during pregnancy I did gain 60 pounds and I am currently down about 25 at 247 pounds. I was told by my OB that cholesterol is to be expectedly high during and postpartum, and eventually will come back down. However, the combination of the two has completely rock, my world, and I live in a constant state of anxiety.

Aside from both of these issues, I have been having persistent chest pain for weeks now and I don’t know why and it’s scaring me. I did have an echo done which came back perfectly normal and I am going for a cardio CT on Monday. I do wish it was a whole chest CT because I am fearful about blood clots in my lungs considering that is a very high risk when you are postpartum and admittedly, I do vape… I’ve been a smoker since I am 15 years old, but did stop smoking cigarettes before I got pregnant not that vaping is any better, I have been trying to vape no nicotine. I don’t really know if this chest pain is coming from anxiety or if it is just costocondritis which I have dealt with in the past numerous times, but it all feels so incredibly intense and I can’t help but to spiral over thinking about dying of a stroke or a heart attack. I’m completely convinced this CT scan is going super reveal plaque in my arteries and some insane heart issues.

These issues have taken over my entire life all while trying to learn to be a first time, mother. I’ve been completely robbed of this postpartum experience. I am so severely depressed over this.

Has anyone been down a similar road? I’m really just looking for someone to tell me that it’s going to be OK even though they don’t even know that information :(

I was on 200mg 3x a day and last week was dropped to 2x a day however I have been having chest pain for weeks :( I had a normal echo and asked my doctor to send me for a CT scan. I have been down the costocondritis road many times, but this time feels so persistent. My health anxiety is not helping. I also started to see some higher readings around the time I’m about to take my next dose which deeply scares me. I’m almost 7 weeks pp and the stress / no sleep doesn’t help this situation either PLUS really high cholesterol.