At 41-weeks pregnant, I delivered via c section on May 6th, 2024. I had planned for a vaginal birth, but the OB told me that due to my baby's position, I couldn't dilate completely. We had a 72-hour stay at the hospital and the morning we were discharged (a Thursday), I started feeling unwell. I was more anxious than usual, and despite not swelling throughout my whole pregnancy, my feet were very puffy. The most alarming symptom was that my pulse felt abnormal. I asked the nurse to check it for me, and it was 38 BPM. The nurse explained that the low heart rate could have been a result from the medication/epidural. So, I went home. I was exhausted, sore, and in pain.

On Friday, I kept feeling worse and worse. My symptoms were flu-like achiness, nausea, headache, and still a super low heart rate (it was staying at around 45 BPM). I called the on-call OB, and I was instructed to check my blood pressure, it was at 142/91. I was told to go into labor and delivery and get it checked out. I hadn't had any problems with my blood pressure previously. Once I got to labor and delivery, my blood pressure fluctuated between 135/88 and 180/99. They did urine and bloodwork, but this was a smaller hospital, and the results would take a couple of hours to come back.

They offered to start me on a magnesium sulfate drip, but I refused and asked to go home until the results came in. I planned to go home, get rest, and come back in to get treatment if the test revealed that I needed to do that. The nurse said "Ahh, I've seen higher" blood pressure readings, so I took that and ran. I got home, set an alarm for 4:30am and called the hospital. They told me that there was protein in my urine, and my bloodwork did not look good. I decided to go in at 6:30am and I told them that I would be coming back in. I laid back down to give my husband and baby more time to sleep and before my alarm went off, I had my first eclamptic seizure.

My husband woke to me convulsing and called 911 and an ambulance transported me to the hospital. I don't remember the ambulance ride. I had additional seizures while in transit. I was intubated and sedated for over 24 hours. I woke up on Mother's Day, my first one, completely horrified and shocked. I will regret the decision to leave the hospital that night for the rest of my life. There are no words to describe how grateful I am to be here and to be a mother to my daughter. I can honestly say that I had no clue that could happen. I didn't know how serious it was. I hope that my story reaches someone that needs to hear it. 16 months later, I still take blood pressure medication. I still have weird visual issues, like seeing sparkles and spots in my vision. I've had dozens of tests, and it's not otherwise explainable. And, I still have a lot of anxiety about what happened.