I am a strong believer in God-given intuition. God can lead you to the right place at the right time with the right people. That God-given intuition can, if listened to, change the course of your life for good and if ignored, not so good. That God-given intuition saved my life. That God-given intuition saved my son's life.
February 6, 2020: I had no intention of attending the health fair at my younger 2 siblings' school. That was typically not how I planned on spending my Thursday night but for some reason I was eager to go. Halfway through I passed the UTMB booth where they were taking blood pressures. I was 28 weeks pregnant and my blood pressures had been perfect at every prenatal appointment, including the one just 3 days prior. For some reason (God-given intuition), I decided to just get it checked. 160/119. Extremely high for anyone but especially a pregnant woman. The person taking my pressure asked me to come back a little later to check it again...which I didn't. Let the googling begin.
February 7, 2020: First thing the next morning I was on the phone with my OB who wanted to see me immediately. I went in, my blood pressure was still very high and she sent me over to labor and delivery for observation. After a few hours of observation and medicine, I was sent home with a large plastic container for a 24 urine sample.
February 10, 2020: Urine sample dropped off. Follow up scheduled for the next week.
February 17, 2020: Something just didn't feel right. The day before my feet were extremely swollen and I chalked it up to being pregnant. Yea I had gained a lot of weight over the last few weeks but again...I was pregnant. But the weird headache was something new so I decided to check my blood pressure. 172/124. Then I took it again. Same high numbers. I immediately call my OB who asks how quickly I could get to her. 30 minutes. I picked up my boyfriend and headed to the doctor. I got there, my blood pressures were taken twice, once manually and once with an automatic machine. Both high. I was sent down to L&D ER again but this time was different.
I was immediately put on an iv and given iv meds to lower my blood pressure. No response. Another dose. No response. One last dose. No response. Maybe a different medicine. Slow response. At this point my OB made a decision that ultimately saved me. She let me know that she had called Texas Children's Hospital Women's Pavillion in the Medical Center and an ambulance was on its way to transfer me. I was supposed to deliver there, with her but she knew she had to send me where I could get the help I really needed. A hospital with some of the best high risk OB's and one of the best neonatal ICU's in the country. They hooked me up to magnesium in order to keep me from seizing and to protect my unborn baby's brain. If anyone has ever been on mag you understand how hard it is. It literally feels like you have the flu along with not being able to eat or walk while on it. I was given a round of steroid shots to speed up the growth of my son's lungs as delivery was on the table. That day at 29 weeks I went to the doctor, was transferred and admitted to the hospital and did not know when I would be going home.
February 17, 2020 part 2: My arrival and the first night was a blur. I was on mag and Benadryl, in and out of sleep and completely out of it. All I knew was that they kept throwing around the word preeclampsia. It was something I had heard before but was not really educated on. Little did I know preeclampsia would become something that would change my life.
February 18-March 16, 2020: Every day I did the same exact things like clockwork and every day was a waiting game on when I would deliver. Nurses came to take my vitals every 4 hours (except the first night where it was every hour...). Around 5:30am the resident came in to check on me. Same questions every day. "Vision changes? Headache? Upper right quadrant pain? Leaking? Hows the swelling?" Then back to sleep. 6am the rotating med student would come in and ask the same questions. This was also about the time I got bloodwork done. For the first 2 weeks, it was every single day. They finally let up and only did it every other day. I would order breakfast around 8, meds, blood clot shot in my stomach and fetal monitoring at 9. Now my son hated the fetal monitor so a process that should've taken a measly 30 minutes would many days take an hour or 2. Towards the end this led to daily ultrasounds to make sure he was doing fine. Doctors would round between 9-11, a snack, more vitals, a little tv, a lot of sleep, lunch, a shower, more vitals, sleep, dinner, fetal monitoring, tv, and then bed. Every day. There was a little variation here or there but this was typically my daily schedule. And every day I asked my doctors the same thing. "When can I go home?" I already knew the answer, delivery at 34 weeks unless my blood work came back off.
March 17, 2020: That night my blood pressure went out of whack. Even with the medicines I had been on for 4 weeks, it would not lower. So they added medicines, increased dosages and told me that if my morning blood work came back off (liver enzymes high or platelets low) I would be induced that day.
March 18, 2020: 6 am blood work. 8 am I shoved down all the food I could because in the event my blood work came back bad I knew they wouldn't let me eat. Doctors in around 9 letting me know they would update me once my results came back. Around 11 they let me know I was in the clear and could stay pregnant another day! So my day continued as planned. Fetal monitoring went terrible...per usual.
March 18, 2020, 2:00pm: I was sent over to do a check-in ultrasound as I always did but this time was different. The blood flow through the umbilical cord was low. My amniotic fluid was almost nonexistent and my 3 lb IUGR baby wasn't moving as much as he should've been. On their medical scale he scored a 1/8. The ultrasound tech told me to head back to my room as he called my doctor to check the scans ASAP. I already knew what was about to happen. I rushed back to the room and told Tyler to hurry and go fix me some food. He was gone for 3 minutes. In those 3 minutes my room was swarmed with doctors and nurses preparing me for an emergency c section. Body wiped down with sterile wipes, anesthesia papers signed, and me yelling telling Tyler to call everyone and let them know what was going on. I was about to deliver my baby.
March 18, 2020, 3:11pm: My son was born at 32+5 weeks, due to severe preeclampsia. He was an IUGR baby with a weight of only 3lbs as my placenta couldn't provide enough nutrients due to the high blood pressure. After an hour of throwing up, a room full of people and feeling the pressure of my insides being taken out and put back in, I had finally had my baby. His soft first cry brought tears to my eyes as my month hospital stay was finally worth it. As he was whisked away to the NICU, they sewed me up and took me to the high risk recovery room. I was back on mag and wouldn't be able to see my son until after I got off in 24 hours.
March 19-21, 2020: I was moved to a regular recovery room and finally able to go see my son. He was so small and fragile but a fighter. C section recovery is hard as it is a major surgery but I was determined to walk. I was still on medication as preeclampsia doesn't just immediately go away after delivery. My vitals were still being taken every so often to make sure I did not develop it postpartum. By the morning after, I was walking down to the nicu to see my son multiple times a day. Still swollen. Still in pain. But thankful that we had made it. On March 21, I was released from the hospital. I was able to go outside for the first time in 33 days.
He spent 23 days in the NICU gaining weight and learning how to eat. My baby is now 8lbs, so calm and one of the strongest people I know. He survived a traumatic few weeks and emergency birth. I survived preeclampsia.
Now there are a few people I have to thank who quite literally saved my son and I's lives:
1. God. For allowing his God-given intuition to guide and protect me
2. QVE and UTMB for being at the school health fair. If it would not have been for them, I would not have learned of my high blood pressure until my next prenatal appointment a month from that week.
3. My OB, Dr. Shah. For taking all of my concerns seriously, transferring me where she knew I would get the best care and checking in all the while I was there. I literally cannot thank her enough.
4. Texas Children's Women's Pavillion 11th-floor nurses. For making my month stay so comfortable. For taking care of my son and me and making sure we got through this happy and healthy.
5. My MFM doctors and specifically Dr. Kelli Barbour and Dr. Jenifer Dinis. Dr. Barbour, thank you for making me smile every single time you came into the room. I know I promised you i'd still be pregnant when you came back on rotation...oops lol. Dr. Dinis thank you for being such a positive doctor. I can still remember the day I first met you and you asked if you could hug me. You have no idea but that meant the world to me. Thank you for delivering my son. You all never neglected my concerns and made sure I was well informed of my condition, what was going on, and our plan. I could never thank you all enough.
This was my birth story. A month-long journey with many moving pieces. It was an unexpected journey with a beautiful end.
To learn more about L.E.N.D. ( Let’s End Neonatal Deaths) go to www.lendnow.org
Photos by: @theallygreen
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