It all started Thursday May 13, 2010. It was a day that would forever change

Posted On Wednesday, September 08, 2010  by

It all started Thursday May 13, 2010. It was a day that would forever change my life and the way I look at things. The day before I had a scheduled ultrasound to look at how my baby was growing because I was very small for how far along I was. I had only gained 10 pounds and I was already at week 30. Everything seemed to check out fine and the only thing the ultrasound tech could find was that my little boy was just small for his gestational age. That would all change Thursday when I woke up around 7:00AM when my boyfriend left for work and I was clutching my side in pain, but figured I would try to sleep it off for a few more hours. I woke up around 9:00AM feeling a little bit better but the pain in the upper left side of my body remained. After 30 minutes of being awake I began to feel ill and began vomiting and not being able to stand very well. Right then and there I knew something was wrong because I had not once thrown up my entire pregnancy and at this moment I felt weak and helpless because I was home alone. Around 11:00AM I called the hospital and told them something felt wrong and they told me to come in right away, and right after I called my mother to drive me to the hospital.

When I arrived I was taken in to a room to get a urine sample and take my blood pressure, both of which seemed to be in the normal ranges; however, I was still very ill. The doctor came in and checked my cervix and found out that at 30 weeks I was already dilated 1 cm and would need to go up to labor and delivery to be watched over. When my blood work came back about 4 hours later, I was told that they thought I may have a form of preeclampsia and that they were going to give me a steroid shot and start me on magnesium and then send me over to a hospital with a neonatal intensive care unit in case I delivered. I was poked 4 times before they were able to get an IV in me because I was so cold and pale.

Soon after I was taken by ambulance to another hospital and hooked up to a baby monitor to check how his heart rate was and at this point everything seemed to be fine and the magnesium was making my pain and illness to away. By Saturday I was doing much better and was taken off the magnesium and taken to triage to be watched over and make sure that I was truly feeling better. When Sunday came around I thought I was going to be able to leave; however, later that night I started throwing up again and having chest pains, which the nurses thought was just heart burn. Again I was made to stay until Tuesday, at which I finally felt better until later that afternoon after I had lunch. I started to get sick again and started to slowly getting a pain in the right side of my chest that seemed to be getting worse and worse and no amount of medicine was helping. The doctor finally came in and gave me another blood test and when the result came back 30 minutes later, she immediately set me up to be on magnesium again and told me I for sure had preeclampsia HELLP syndrome this time and it was severe and I had to get my little baby out as soon as possible.

I was induced around 4:00PM and taken down to labor and delivery where I was watched closely and eventually given oxygen because my baby