July 20, 2014
I had my first child at age 19. As if life wasn’t complicated enough, I had my first heart attack at age 22.
When they told me it was Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection, I was shocked and amazed. I had no family history of heart problems. My mom had three successful pregnancies with no complications, my grandmother had five. In fact, after my heart attack my sister had two pregnancies with no complications.
My doctors basically treated me til I was back to normal with little to no research into WHY this had happened. I had no idea if my daughter needed to worry about this happening to her. As time went on I got back to normal and my life got back to normal. I had gotten divorced from my husband, met someone new, got married again and got pregnant again.
This time I was under the care of a high risk OB-GYN as well as a new Cardiologist at OU Medical Center in Oklahoma City. The pregnancy was uneventful, in fact the cardiologist said that if he did not know that I had this history, he’d never have been able to tell.
I gave birth to my second daughter in 2011. May of 2013 at age 31 I had another heart attack, same cause – Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection.
I love my family practitioner, and my cardiologist, but I’m feeling like I will never have an answer as to why this happens to me and if it will happen again should we have another baby. I understand this is rare and that I’m special, but I have two daughters now and it brings me to tears not having answers.