If the signs of heart failure arent obvious, you might live with it for years without knowing.
Here, three Black women share the symptoms that led to their heart failure diagnosis.
I felt like I was drowning.
Seba Cestaro
After I got my epidural, my blood pressure dropped dramatically, Sawyer tells SELF.
Despite that scare, she and her newborn were discharged 48 hours later.
At home, Sawyer was so fatigued that she could barely carry her baby up the stairs.
She also had trouble breathing as she slept.
I felt like I was drowning, she recalls.
Sawyer went to the emergency room to get things checked out.
My heart was racing, and I was dizzy, she recalls.
After her initial diagnosis, Sawyer found out she had afamily history of heart diseaseon her fathers side.
I did not know my fathers family, so I wasnt aware of my risk, she explains.
My mitral valve had prolapsed, she tells SELF.
(A normal resting heart rate is between 60 and 100 beats per minute, per theAHA.)
Dixons cardiologist diagnosed her with heart failure and prescribed her a diuretic and blood pressure medication.
Dixon still deals with some lingering symptoms, like fatigue, a racing heart, and a low appetite.
But shes hopeful about the future.
I have two kids, and I want to make breakfast for them.
I want to see them off to school.
Thats important to me, Dixon says.
If I can keep this heart for as long as I can, thatll be perfect.
I stopped eating, and I was sweating with a fever.
In 2017, Latasha Haynes, 41, thought she had the flu.
I stopped eating and was sweating [with] a fever, she tells SELF.
She was diagnosed with heart failure.
[The hospital staff] had me sign paperwork for medical power of attorney, Haynes recalls.
They asked my husband if I had a willI was worried that they were prepping for me to die.
After 16 days in the hospital, Haynes recovered from pneumonia and was discharged.
She believes those steps led to her heart failure reversing.
It was like the heart failure never happened.
Heart failure can be treatedand even reversed, in some cases.
