Postpartum (Part II): Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy
Postpartum
(Part II):
Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy
Please Read Prior to Reading: First off, thanks for reading my story. It means a lot! I want to make it clear that all of my writings are raw, real and not sugar coated (the only thing sugar coated is the ice cream cone I have almost every night). My sole purpose in sharing my story is to help other moms relate and know that they are not alone. Motherhood can be extremely challenging sometimes and I want to be someone that helps moms feel heard, seen and know that their emotions are valid. I truly believe that postpartum is not talked about nearly enough as it should be. By no means is my blog meant to shine a negative light on being a mom. I absolutely LOVE being a mom and would not trade this for anything in the world. It’s my pride and joy. I would definitely say I struggled with postpartum at the beginning of motherhood. I think everyone does to an extent. Every pregnancy, every birth, every postpartum experience, every mom and every baby is different. Remember that! Just because my postpartum experience was difficult, doesn’t mean that yours will be too. The crazy thing is after all I dealt with postpartum, I would do this over 10x again in a heartbeat. Women’s bodies and minds are truly amazing. My little “stinky butt” Abby was SO worth it. Enjoy!
If you haven’t read Postpartum (Part I): My Story, you can read that here.
Alright, now that you’re all caught up on my “dumpster fire” postpartum experience, mental breakdowns, and one week straight of no sleep, let’s get to Part II! You’re probably thinking…what the heck is Takotsubo? Spoiler Alert: no, it’s not another Japanese restaurant that just opened in town. Sit tight and I’ll let you know, I promise.
I Need to Sit Down
We have a very routine bedtime with Abby and do the same exact things with her every night. I mean I’m a sleep consultant, what else would you expect! In February of 2024, when my daughter was just short of 5 months old, my husband Max was giving our daughter a bottle while I finished cleaning and straightening up downstairs.
After I was done cleaning, I went into the nursery to sing songs and finish bedtime with Max before putting Abby down. While I was downstairs, I did have some chest discomfort, but really thought nothing of it. As I was standing up to sing to Abby, the pain started to get a little bit more intense, so I told my husband I needed to sit down. After putting Abby to bed, we went downstairs and I sat on the couch. The pain wasn’t going away and was actually intensifying. If you couldn’t tell from reading my first story about postpartum, I’m a pretty anxious person to say the least - ha! I decided that I wanted to get checked out, so I had my cousin come to stay at the house with Abby while Max and I drove to the ER.
The Emergency Room
We got to the ER and thankfully it wasn’t very crowded, so we were able to get right in. First, the nurse did an EKG (the test with all the wires around your heart that looks at the activity of your heart). The good news was that everything came back normal from that test!
After about two hours, we were then able to get a room in the hospital. They ran some more blood tests on me and we received news that my troponin levels were extremely elevated, about triple the normal range. Troponin is a protein that is found in the heart muscle and when the heart muscle is damaged, troponin is released into the bloodstream. The cardiologist had explained that these levels were concerning because it means that something was going on with my heart, they just weren’t sure what, especially since the EKG came back normal.
The cardiologist decided to put me on blood thinners and wanted to do a heart catheterization procedure. A heart cath is a procedure where a thin, flexible tube (the catheter) is inserted into your blood vessel. It’s inserted through either your neck, groin or arm. The cardiologist explained to me that this procedure would allow him to look at the arteries, pressure, blood flow and perform any procedures, like putting a stent in, if necessary. This would essentially give him a way to really look at my heart and see exactly what was going on. As you can imagine, I was extremely nervous and immediately started to think of the worst case scenario: that I was having a heart attack and either needed a stent put in or heart surgery. Anxiety man - it’s rough!
I was lucky because the cardiologist that was working with me was SO great. The first thing he said to me when he met me was, “what the heck are you doing here, you’re a perfectly healthy 30 year old. My usual clientele is about 85-90 years old. What’s going on?” I laughed.
He could tell I hated hospitals and was really scared with all was going on. Between him and the nurse I had, I knew I was in excellent hands. They really did help me feel a little bit better, although I was still terrified. The nurse was a god sent and just her conversing with me helped me stay somewhat calm. I told her to just be up front with me. Even if I was dying or having a heart attack, just let me know. She promised me she would.
My husband ended up having to leave the hospital late that night since he had to be home to be with our daughter. My parents were in Massachusetts at the time (where they live), but were obviously concerned about my health and wanted to stay in the loop. Later that day, the cardiologist took the time to facetime my parents and explained everything that was going on to both myself, my husband and my parents. He explained that they wanted to get to the bottom of why my troponin levels were tripled and that the heart cath was going to be the best way to figure that out. He was very honest with us and explained that he really wasn’t sure what could be causing my chest pain, but this procedure would help them figure it out. They were going to check me for SCAD, a condition where a tear occurs in the outer layer of the coronary artery, which supplies blood to the heart. He also said it could be a mild heart attack, but the likelihood of that was very low based on my age, health, family history, weight, etc, so again, they really they weren’t too sure.
The Procedure
A few hours later, two nurses knocked on my hospital room door. They said they were here to take me to the heart cath procedure. All of a sudden I started bawling. I was terrified. I had a 5 month old at home who I was thinking about and just wanted to be with. I was scared of this procedure and what they were going to find. The nurse gave me a hug and held my hand as she wheeled me to the room. She said I know this is scary, but we are going to figure out what’s going on and do what we need to help you. You’re going to do great.
This is actually so embarrassing, but I was nervous that I was having a heart attack, for one specific reason. I am an ice cream fanatic. LIKE OBSESSED. I ate so much ice cream in high school (a huge bowl nightly) and even when I was pregnant. I honestly thought my arteries were clogged from all the fat in the ice cream that I had ate in mu life and that’s what was causing me this chest pain - LOL. Anxiety much?!
After wheeling me into the room, they gave me local anesthesia and some meds to calm down. I vaguely remember the procedure room. It was freezing. I also remember that there were about 4 or 5 medical professionals there, including the cardiologist. Before they started, one medical assistant was making small talk with me to try and make feel more comfortable, which I appreciated. He was asking about my daughter and telling me about his kids.
Once the procedure started, I could hear them talking in the background. I was lying on the table, looking up at the ceiling. They would ask me questions and I would respond, slowly and kind of delayed. I’m not sure how long the whole procedure took, but it wasn’t very long. The cardiologist told me that everything looked great! No tears, no clogs in my arteries and everything looks completely normal. All the ice cream I had ate in my life did not clog any of my arteries - phew!
After they wheeled me into the recovery room, I was so relieved that the heart cath had really found nothing wrong with my heart or arteries. However, they were still confused as to what was causing my chest pain.
Diagnosis & Recovery
That night, a new cardiologist came to my room. He introduced himself to me. This doctor had told me that the team had looked at my results and diagnosed me with something called Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy. This is also known as “Broken Heart Syndrome” or Stress Cardiomyopathy.
He explained that literally every test they did came back normal, except for my troponin levels, which did eventually decrease. The cause of Takotsubo is not fully understood, but it is thought to be triggered by a surge of stress hormones, like cortisol and adrenaline. He said that this is often times seen in older people who have recently lost a partner, due to the grieving process and all the stress that their body goes through.
He then proceeded to ask me if I had any new or recent stress in my life. I had been feeling SO much better, but I did explain about my pretty recent postpartum experience. They do think that my body had been through so much stress due to postpartum anxiety and depression, that this is what caused my chest pain and troponin levels to triple - CRAZY right! If you look in the picture above, you can see that the stress of your body actually causes the left ventricle of your heart to become enlarged. The name Takotsubo comes from the Japanese word Takotsubo, meaning “octopus trap” because that is what the enlarged heart ventricle looks like.
I was discharged from the hospital the next day. I was also prescribed two types of meds. I forget exactly what they were, but they were related to my heart. I stayed on those medications for a month and then slowly weaned off of them. Usually it takes a week or two to recover and your heart’s function will just return to normal on its own, which is exactly what happened to me.
I also had a follow up with the cardiologist and an echocardiogram scheduled to check my heart’s function a few months later. Everything came back normal on the ultrasound. Now, I have a yearly echocardiogram scheduled just to continue to check on my heart and make sure everything is okay.
During this recovery, I was not able to pick up my daughter for a few weeks. My aunt flew out to help and was SO helpful. She stayed with us for a little bit and helped around the house and to watch Abby. I’m so lucky to have such an amazing family!
My Take Away
So obviously this part of my postpartum journey was scary, but I did learn a lot from this. Taking care of myself (both my mental and physical health) is SO important. When you become a parent, yes, your priority is now to care for your cute little baby, but you also need to take time to make sure that YOU are okay so that you can be there for your child. Please don’t ever forget this. Whether taking care of you means hiring more help, scheduling time for yourself, grabbing a coffee, taking a nap, signing up or continuing to go to therapy, noticing physical or mental symptoms and seeking help, taking medication, choosing to use formula, etc, do what you need to do take care of YOU!
Pregnancy #2: How I’m Preparing
So if you haven’t heard, I’m pregnant with baby #2, due 11/11/25. We are so excited! After my first postpartum experience, I honestly thought I would just have one and be done. One week after having my daughter I remember crying hysterically and thinking, there is absolutely zero chance I’m ever doing this again. It really is crazy what women’s bodies go through. Trust me, I still remember every bit of my traumatic postpartum experience with my daughter, yet here I am, signing up to do it all over again with baby #2.
Now, although I am so excited for this baby, I definitely still am a little nervous too. I know that every pregnancy, birth, and postpartum experience is different, even for the same person. Just because I had a SHIT SHOW postpartum with my daughter, doesn’t necessarily mean that it is going to happen my second time around. However, I know it very well still could with this baby. Hopefully not though!
After finding out I was pregnant with my second, I was talking with one of my best friends on the phone. She said, “Congratulations! I’m SO happy for you. My hope for you is that you really get to experience and enjoy the newborn phase this time around, because I know with Abby, that was something that you didn’t get to.” I think about this a lot!
Looking back, I truly did not get to enjoy the newborn experience because of my PPA, PPD and lack of interest in bonding with my daughter. Now, I truly wouldn’t change anything about my experience. I LOVE Abby with all my heart and I am so lucky to be her mom. She truly is the best. Yes, it’s unfortunate I had the postpartum experience that I did. However, from that time in my life, I learned a lot! I learned that making my mental and physical health a priority is important, I grew even closer to my husband, found a new passion, started my own business and have helped lots of families get the sleep they need and deserve! So although it wasn’t ideal and I wouldn’t wish that on anyone, there was good that came out of it. Everything happens for a reason. I really am a true believer of that!
Going into this postpartum experience, I think there are TWO major things that are giving me hope to actually enjoy this postpartum and newborn experience: Sleep and Feeding.
Sleep
As I explained in my postpartum blog (part 1), one of the major things that enhanced my postpartum anxiety and depression was definitely lack of sleep. I had trouble sleeping because of anxiety. I could not shut my brain down and really didn’t understand that the frequent night wakings, waking every 3 hours, and sleep deprivation was something that was temporary. I didn’t see a light at the end of the tunnel and thought that this was going to last forever.
Now, having been through this experience before, I know that those first few weeks are tough due to lack of sleep, but it WILL get better. Also, knowing all that I have learned about baby sleep and all the things I can do to help lay a good sleep foundation for my baby, I feel WAY more confident in tackling this newborn stage. This combination of new knowledge and confidence definitely gives me hope that this postpartum experience will be different for me!
Feeding
The second major thing that enhanced my postpartum anxiety and depression was definitely feeding. I tried to breastfeed for 3 days and then pump, but that quickly changed into me feeding my daughter formula. The stress of being the only one to provide nutrition for my baby, on top of everything else I was experiencing, definitely did not help and played a major role in the way I was feeling and my declining mental health.
To be honest, feeding is still something I am pretty unsure about. I will actually talk about this a lot in a future blog post, but I am hoping to go into this newborn and postpartum phase with a plan for feeding. I don’t exactly have that plan yet, but I want to sit down with a lactation consultant and figure out what is best for me, my mental health, my baby and my family.
I do understand how important and nutritious both colostrum and breast milk are for babies, especially when they are so little. However, at the same time, I want to try to take care of my mental health and wellbeing this time around. Ideally, I would love to be able to give my baby colostrum in the first week and pump. However, pumping exclusively is something that I know will put a strain on me and cause me major anxiety. I think combo feeding (pumping breast milk and using formula) will be helpful to not put pressure on me to pump all the time and make enough milk, but also give me the opportunity to sleep longer stretches if or when I’m completely exhausted and/or struggling.
I will keep you updated on how my postpartum journey goes the second time. Hopefully it’s better, I mean it has to be right?!
If you or anyone you know have experienced anything similar to my story, please feel free to reach out. I love to hear other mom’s stories. It really filled my cup receiving so many DMs from new moms who had read my first blog post and said that they definitely related to parts of my story, it made them feel less alone and they loved reading my story. Remember, you got this mama! :)
