How to lose 17 pounds in two days

Although I would never recommend losing weight the way I have over the last couple of days, it was a small silver lining after a tough 2 days.

Cohen and I were released from the hospital on Saturday afternoon and started to get settled at home. Then on Monday I started to notice that it was difficult to take deep breaths. Once it was time for bed, I wasn't able to breath well laying down and I could feel my heart skipping a beat. It was scary! So we decided to go to the emergency room.

Boy am I glad I did! My body was taking on so much fluid that my heart was having to work really hard to keep up with it. The ER doctor said it looked like Postpartum Cardiomyopathy and Acute Congestive Heart Failure. I was shocked! They worked quickly to get the fluids off of me and kept me there for 2 days to monitor me and run lots of tests.

From what I understand, during pregnancy I took on a lot of fluid and once Cohen was born I continued to so much so that my heart was laboring to keep up with all of it. So fluid started going anywhere in my body that it could, including my lungs. They put me on an IV that would cause all of the fluid to drain out, and boy did it! In doing this quickly we were able to help my heart out and drain the fluid from my lungs. All of my heart tests came back well, which is such a blessing. We caught it in time before there was any damage to my heart. Before being released today, the doctors decided that I had Postpartum Preeclampsia. They say it is rare, and I don't have most of the symptoms, but since my heart tests were all good, this is the closest diagnosis they have.

The worst part of all of this is that I missed Cohen's first pediatrician appointment, and his cord fell off today while mom was watching him. It made me sad, but I am just glad that it is all over now. I am due to meet with the cardiologist on Friday to double check everything, then hopefully we will be in the clear.

I just want to take a second to really thank everyone that helped us out the past couple of days. It was so great to know that we could call friends in the middle of the night to keep Cohen. I am also really thankful for everyone's prayers and thoughts. It was amazing to hear how many people had me on their prayer lists, thought of me in their prayer meetings, and all the well wishes from strangers.

Thank you, Thank you!