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Joey's birth story--finally! (it's long)
Sorry it has taken me so long to post this--shameful I know!
My story begins on September 29th.....
I worked a 10 hour day and during that time, I felt some braxton hicks contractions. I also felt what I thought was a little bit of heartburn. I didn't think anything of it because I had been having some reflux due to the pregnancy. After work I went home, ate some cereal, took some tums for the 'heartburn' and went to bed around 10pm. Around 11pm, I woke up with more heartburn like pain, I rolled over and did my best to go to sleep. Around 2am (now Sept 30th), it was so severe I could barely take it. I got up and took more tums, then tylenol, then started searching the web for home rememdies. I tried milk and who knows what else. Nothing worked. I then called my doctor in tears. I had recently been diagnosed with Pre-eclampsia, and she felt that I had HELLP syndrome which is a life threatening complication of Pre-eclampsia. She told me to go straight to OB triage at Sparrow. I dragged Jeff out of bed and off we went. Thinking I would be home relatively soon, I didn't take anything with me. On the drive to the hospital, the pain got so bad that I knew it wasn't just heartburn. In triage, tons of labs were drawn, I was hooked up to the monitor, and my blood pressure was through the roof. The doctor's decided that it may have been terrible heartburn, until they got my labs back. My liver enzymes were elevated, meaning that the pain I was having was due to my liver enlarging. After this, I recieved the first of two betamethasone shots, which were to mature Joey's lung quickly in case he had to be delivered. We were moved into a room in L and D because OB Special Care was closed. At this point I was considered a high risk pregnancy.
September 30th
Over in L and D we tried to get some sleep, yeah right. Suddently I had a doctor wake me up and telling me that he planned to deliver Joey in a matter of hours. I was only 33 weeks and 5 days pregnant. I told him that there was no way unless it was absolutely necessary. My pain had gone away and I just wanted to go home! Unfortunately, my platelets had dropped drastically, which is part of the HELLP sydrome. Infact, they dropped so much the doctors thought they wouldn't be able to give me an epidural. If this happened, I would be put completely under and Jeff would not be allowed in the room when Joey was born. I refused and told them to deliver Joey before we got to this point.
After an uneventful afternoon, I was moved over to OB Special Care. I knitted and hung out with Jeff and our family.
Oct 1
I was now spilling proteins in my urine, which means that my condition was worsening instead of getting better. My platelets had also dropped again. The good news is that now I was 34 weeks pregnant and Joey had a great chance if he were to be delivered now. I had already recieved my second shot of betamethasone, so his lungs were maturing.
I was told by my doctors that I wasn't going home until I went into labor. The doctors told me that they would not allow me to go past 37 weeks because of the risk of me having a seizure, but they couldn't allow me to go home either....super. Somewhere in these two says I had started seeing things (part of HELLP), like little black things scurrying across the floor. I thought I was mental.
Oct 2
I woke up around 2am and could not go back to sleep. I felt fine, until 8am and then everything went bad. I was so nauseated and my abdominal pain was back in full force. I literally felt like I was dying. My liver enzymes were both well over 500, normal is less than 40. This was much worse than what it had been previously. My doctor took one look at me and told me that I was having an emergency c-section that day. Jeff had been with me every second, but had actually gone back to work since things had been looking up! I had an emergency ultrasound so that they could determine Joey's size, he looked about 5 pounds. Since I had drank some juice, my c-section couldn't be for 8 hours. It was the longest 8 hours of my life!
Soon I was moved over to L and D again, I got bombed with Magnesium to prevent seizures, I got a catheter, and felt like a pin cushion with all of the labs that had been drawn. I swear we talked to every doctor in the bulding! My pain kept getting worse and with the Mag I was literally out of my mind. My pain got so bad that I was trying to get out of bed. They finally medicated me and I started to hallucinate. My blood pressure went up to 160/110 and my doctor rushed me back for my c-section.
I don't remember much of what happened in the OR. Joey was born weighing only 4 pounds, 9 ounces. He was 17 inches long. I saw Joey twice briefly. I was so bombed with Mag and Dilaudid, that when I reached out to touch him, I reached in the complete opposite direction. Joey was taken up to the RNICU because he would only cry when he was recieving oxygen.
I spent the rest of the evening in recovery and then back to my room. I was kept on Magnesium the rest of the night and until the next evening. During this time I was so out of it from the Mag, that I couldn't even tell people who I was when they came to draw my labs. I tried to cheat and look at my wrist band, but I couldnt see anything because my vision was so affected. I also couldn't walk or even move in bed...it sucked. I could not go see Joey until I was off of the Mag. I saw him 1.5 days after he was born and wasn't allowed to hold him until he was 2 days old. Poor Jeff spent all of this time running back and forth to see Joey and I and worried, since Joey and I weren't in the best condition!
Joey was taken off of his breathing machine (CPAP) that same night. He spent a week in the hospital, I had to go home without him. We struggled with getting him strong enough to eat. When he was discharged, he was right back up to his birth weight....he has not stopped gaining since!
Even now I'm still learning who came to visit me! It's kind of funny now because I just can't remember who was there! Hopefully I didn't say anything dumb!
Sorry it took so long to get this posted!!!!
Re: Joey's birth story--finally! (it's long)
Thanks for posting! I am still working on my birth story....I am already starting to forget things.
You had quite a scary time! I can't imagine the feeling of being out of my mind.
Yeah it took me a little bit of time to write because I was taking care of Joey at the same time! I left out so much so that it wouldn't drag on and on... I was there for a week!
Ellen...Jeff was so excited today because he was able to see Emma at daycare!
Hopefully it was in her cute outfit before her blow-out
I actually saw joey AWAKE this morning....he is always asleep.
Thanks for posting, Amber
) I'm so glad you're both ok.