william joseph eckerson the 2nd

Posted On Saturday, November 10, 2012  by amber

Hello my name is Amber. I am 23 years old. I already know a pain most parents don't have to feel.

I had to bury my son before he even got a chance to live.

He was 29 weeks when I found out he no longer had a heartbeat. I went for an appointment on a Wednesday and had told my doctor I had severe swelling in my hands; it didn't go away, and that they went numb when I slept every night several times a night. I also told her about flashing lights I saw if I turned my head a certain way. On that Wednesday, I also had high blood pressure and proteinuria, the biggest signs for preeclampsia. They sent me home with a bunch of tests to do and follow up with a doctor in 1 week.

I didn't get the chance to follow up. On Saturday, I checked my blood pressure at home and it was very high (175/110) and I hadn't felt my son move in a few days. I freaked and went to the emergency room. Once there, they couldn't find a heart beat. He hadn't been dead long, but he was gone. I was transfered to another hospital to deliver him, where they explained to me what happened: preeclampsia more severe then they had ever seen. A normal protein count that qualifies for proteinuria is in the hundreds; severe is 5000. My level was 10000.

The hospital then told me I would have to go into labor and deliver my dead son. They started me on a magnesium sulfate drip, nasty stuff. It makes you feel weak: I couldn't even push myself up in bed with my feet or walk to the bathroom without leaning on my iv drip. But the medicine is used to try to control seizures, a dangerous side effect known as eclampsia. I was given a very slow acting pill that would take up to 12 hours to soften my cervix, and a slow low does of pitocin. Within 6 hrs, I was in full active labor and within 11 minutes my baby boy was delivered (I say delivered and not born because he wasn't alive). No time for pain medications because all I felt before then was pressure and a little pain. I was going in and out of sleep between contractions.

After I delivered my son, I was kept on magnesium sulfate for a further 24 hrs because the time when most seizures happen is 24 hrs postpartum. Pretty much all seizures occur within 48 hrs.