Noah James

Posted On Tuesday, October 02, 2012  by Jerri Marie

On the morning of August 21, 2012 I woke up at 3am with the worst headache I have ever had in my entire life. I had headaches throughout my pregnancy but this was like no other I had ever experienced. My boyfriend was on nightshift so I laid in bed with a bag of frozen peas on my face until he came home at 9am. I had taken some tylenol but nothing was touching it. He suggested I lay on the couch, relax and wait for my doctors appointment that day, which was at 3.45pm. Feeling absolutly terrible I called my doctor to see if she could get me in sooner because I just wanted to sleep all day. She said no she was booked tight so just wait for my appointment. At about 1030 the headache was so bad that I couldn't wait any longer, and I drove myself to the emergency room without telling my boyfriend, I didn't want to worry him! I honestly thought I would be there for a couple hours then they'd send me home. How wrong I was.

When I got there my blood pressure was 158/122 and I had 10grams of protein in my pee.  had zero swelling except in my head and neck. They instantly gave me some morphine for my headache and an IV. I was drowsy and relaxed, sleeping in the bed but nothing was helping my raging headache. It got to about 130pm and the doctors decided to send me off to a bigger facility about an hour away, since our hospital is so small. As they were prepping me for the ambulance, a doctor was talking to me and the next thing she said was 'Why are you looking at me like that?' and all I could say was 'What the hell is wrong with your face?' My eyes completely blurred out and all I could see was blue and yellow lines and squiggles. Then I went into a seizure.

They called Paul (bf) immediately and told him to get to the hospital right away so he could go with me. He came, and as he was talking to me, I had another seizure. The doctor decided I was too unstable to travel, and they were concerned my next seizure was going to be a stroke. Since our hospital only has one surgeon and he happened to be off that day, they had to call the surgeon from the nearby hospital to come to the local hospital to deliver our baby. He came with a team of 9 doctors and nurses, and all I remember was seeing him putting up the curtain for my c-section and I thought, I am going to die, and I felt a wave of calm go over my body. Noah was born at at 35 weeks gestation, 3.47pm, weighing 4 pounds 4 ounces.  If I had waited for my doctor appointment at 3.45pm, we both could have died. After the delivery, Noah went in the ambulance to the larger hospital and I got airlifted to a different facility, where I stayed in intensive care for 2 days. I had severe swelling on my brain, and I have permanent nerve damage in my tongue where I bit down when I had a seizure. When I came round, I had no recollection of anything that happened; I wasn't even aware that Noah had been born. I was discharged after 5 days and Noah stayed in the NICU for 3 weeks.

Now he is a happy, healthy 6 week old little chunk and we are so, so grateful that I listened to my body and took myself to the emergency room when I did.