by jennm » Sun Sep 18, 2005 11:44 am
Hi, my name is Jen I live in Windsor(originally from upstate NY).
I'm finally getting myself to write. I've been wanting to write for a long time but it took the better part of the past year to recover and try to get used to a family of 4 kids.
I had mysterious high bp at about 21 wks and a migraine around the same time. Nobody thought it was a big deal, stress you know.
At about 25 1/2 wks I was jolted awake at 4am with immobilizing neck and shoulder pain. I have to first say that during the first week of pain I lead the witness and self diagnosed with my doctor. He just said I was right and wasn't concerned. But he also left after that first week for a 2 wk vacation. I never heard or saw him until after I was out of the hospital( 10 days later) and in for a visit with my new amazing survivor, Emma. I vomited, had swelling, had a massive chest pain(this only happened once and was brief), had major vertigo and felt the worst I've ever felt. I kept telling my husband this was worse than labor and I had vaginal birth with no drugs for #2 and 3. My doctor had me come in the first week and get a shot for the pain. We thought I pulled a neck muscle because I slipped on the stairs the day before the neck pain started. Nothing helped. I was just told to take Tylenol. I waited for every four hours to eek by.
The second week came with massive stomach pain followed by the pain on my right side(swelled liver I found out later). I was beside myself with all these symptoms going on at the same time. So I stopped giving reasons for things and just pleaded for help with the pain. Then I was told to take Gas-x and get up out of the chair to move the gas out. So I dragged my rear downstairs to try to do laundry. Meanwhile my 8, 6 and 3 yr old were running the house feeding themselves breakfast and lunch, heating up meals family brought over for dinner and doing the laundry. Can you believe that! Last year ended up being a huge year for them too.
At nights my husband would massage my body to try to relax me and I would take Tylenol pm twice with the tv on all night just to make it through the night with the pain. The last couple nights I had the shakes. I was later told I was probably having pre-seizure signs. I finally was told to go to the hospital when in the middle of the night I started bleeding and said I only felt the baby maybe once a day. I thought she didn't move much because of the 2 doses of Tylenol pm per night. The on call dr said that wouldn't stop her movement. Why didn't anyone ask sooner?!
By the time I made it to the hospital(15 min away) I was hemmorhaging. My bp was 250/150! They tried to get my bp down a bit before surgery but I didn't respond to mag or a beta blocker. But when I heard the dr say "I lost her heart beat but that doesn't mean she's gone yet," off we raced. I'm told nobody even bothered to unplug anything. They had her out in 20 sec flat, a new hospital record. They stabilized Emma and she pulled through too. She was born 5:50am Sunday 8/8/04 2.8 lbs 11 wks early. I didn't get to see her until late morning on Monday while on my way to the maternity ward. But by Wednesday I was back in ICU because of that stinking bp. During my 10 days I hardly saw her because of how sick I was and then I left. Thus, began the trips to NICU. She was there 9 wks.
We count our blessings daily for the miracles during that whole ordeal. I say God had every i dotted and every t crossed. He even sent the electrician for us that day to keep us from going to Estes for our 10 yr anniversary. I felt like crap but probably would have gone anyways. God even had my brother and sister-in-law move next door 3 yrs earlier. The dr said if we had to wait for my mother-in-law to drive over from the next town it would have been too late. We count our blessings daily for the miracles during that whole ordeal. Besides feeding issues which keep her wight small even for her and tactile defensiveness, Emma looks and act great. As for myself, through many drs, tests and drugs, we found out I sustained mild kidney damage. I look forward to this year.
Hi, my name is Jen I live in Windsor(originally from upstate NY).
I'm finally getting myself to write. I've been wanting to write for a long time but it took the better part of the past year to recover and try to get used to a family of 4 kids.
I had mysterious high bp at about 21 wks and a migraine around the same time. Nobody thought it was a big deal, stress you know.
At about 25 1/2 wks I was jolted awake at 4am with immobilizing neck and shoulder pain. I have to first say that during the first week of pain I lead the witness and self diagnosed with my doctor. He just said I was right and wasn't concerned. But he also left after that first week for a 2 wk vacation. I never heard or saw him until after I was out of the hospital( 10 days later) and in for a visit with my new amazing survivor, Emma. I vomited, had swelling, had a massive chest pain(this only happened once and was brief), had major vertigo and felt the worst I've ever felt. I kept telling my husband this was worse than labor and I had vaginal birth with no drugs for #2 and 3. My doctor had me come in the first week and get a shot for the pain. We thought I pulled a neck muscle because I slipped on the stairs the day before the neck pain started. Nothing helped. I was just told to take Tylenol. I waited for every four hours to eek by.
The second week came with massive stomach pain followed by the pain on my right side(swelled liver I found out later). I was beside myself with all these symptoms going on at the same time. So I stopped giving reasons for things and just pleaded for help with the pain. Then I was told to take Gas-x and get up out of the chair to move the gas out. So I dragged my rear downstairs to try to do laundry. Meanwhile my 8, 6 and 3 yr old were running the house feeding themselves breakfast and lunch, heating up meals family brought over for dinner and doing the laundry. Can you believe that! Last year ended up being a huge year for them too.
At nights my husband would massage my body to try to relax me and I would take Tylenol pm twice with the tv on all night just to make it through the night with the pain. The last couple nights I had the shakes. I was later told I was probably having pre-seizure signs. I finally was told to go to the hospital when in the middle of the night I started bleeding and said I only felt the baby maybe once a day. I thought she didn't move much because of the 2 doses of Tylenol pm per night. The on call dr said that wouldn't stop her movement. Why didn't anyone ask sooner?!
By the time I made it to the hospital(15 min away) I was hemmorhaging. My bp was 250/150! They tried to get my bp down a bit before surgery but I didn't respond to mag or a beta blocker. But when I heard the dr say "I lost her heart beat but that doesn't mean she's gone yet," off we raced. I'm told nobody even bothered to unplug anything. They had her out in 20 sec flat, a new hospital record. They stabilized Emma and she pulled through too. She was born 5:50am Sunday 8/8/04 2.8 lbs 11 wks early. I didn't get to see her until late morning on Monday while on my way to the maternity ward. But by Wednesday I was back in ICU because of that stinking bp. During my 10 days I hardly saw her because of how sick I was and then I left. Thus, began the trips to NICU. She was there 9 wks.
We count our blessings daily for the miracles during that whole ordeal. I say God had every i dotted and every t crossed. He even sent the electrician for us that day to keep us from going to Estes for our 10 yr anniversary. I felt like crap but probably would have gone anyways. God even had my brother and sister-in-law move next door 3 yrs earlier. The dr said if we had to wait for my mother-in-law to drive over from the next town it would have been too late. We count our blessings daily for the miracles during that whole ordeal. Besides feeding issues which keep her wight small even for her and tactile defensiveness, Emma looks and act great. As for myself, through many drs, tests and drugs, we found out I sustained mild kidney damage. I look forward to this year.
