15 years ago today, our journey into the world of prematurity, birth defects and the NICU was beginning, even though we didn't know it yet. I had been on home bed rest since Dec. 27th and that morning Mike and I went to my ob/gyn's office for a stress test and to turn in my 24 hr protein test. Stress test was fine, BP was somewhat under control (this is why I was off work and at home) and they said they'd let me know about the test results. They needed to check the protein in my urine as it's an indicator of the severity of pre-eclampsia.
Once I was back home, my parents came and picked me up to take me to their house so I could get a change of scenery. I couldn't drive and was going crazy at home. I mean crazy. I had watched every single episode of "A Baby Story" on TLC and of course while watching, thought Evan's birth would be just like on TV. Ha!! I have to say, while it was boring to be at home, it was stressful. I had to take my blood pressure 2-3 times a day as well as lay on my left side once a day and count Evan's movements. I prayed every time I did it that I would feel him move. We went to eat at Dutch Kitchen in Plain City before heading to their house in London-I can tell you exactly where we sat. I hit the couch when I got to their house and took a little nap. I woke up feeling really weird and off. I took my blood pressure and it was 160/110, the highest it had ever been. I was scared and immediately called Mike who then called my doctor. Mike called me back right away with the news that I was to go to the OSU ER right away-Mike would meet us there. I felt so bad that my parents had to drive back into Columbus! It turns out I did elevated protein levels in my urine and my doctor had planned to call ME to tell me to go to the hospital. Obviously my body was starting to let us all know that I needed to deliver the baby.
By the time we got to the ER, my BP was 180/120 which of course is dangerous and they immediately took me up to L & D. Just like that, I was in a gown and they started an IV of magnesium sulfate, something I would be on for the next 5 days. This is something that is used to help control seizures. I'll never forget the resident telling me that I'll feel like I have a bad case of the flu. To this day, I would LOVE to hook him up to this stuff and have him discover that it does NOT make you feel like you have the flu. It makes you feel as though you are paralyzed and that you are on fire from the inside out. And with the flu, you are able to drink and eat if you want to. On this stuff, I could not. Once I was in a room, they catheterized me and I was in that bed for the next 96 hours. To be honest with you, I don't remember much after that. The next two days were a blur. I couldn't watch TV, I couldn't read. I was so miserable. I do remember my mom making the decision to cancel my baby shower which was going to be on the 20th but I figured we'd just have it a couple weeks later. I still didn't really understand that I was going to be delivering my baby prior to his due date in March. It finally hit me when my doctor came in and said my BP wasn't coming down and they had to take the baby. I remember that I started crying and all I could say was that it wasn't time to take the baby. It turned out that we weren't going to meet our baby in March after all. We were going to meet him on January 18th. The doctor kept assuring me that the baby would be fine because I had received steroids shots that would help his lungs and his weight was good. Other than probably a few weeks in the hospital, the baby would be fine. Little did we know.
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