Drowning in the Storm

  Throughout my weekend of bed rest in the hospital, I got progressively worse. My blood pressure continued to climb. They now wouldn't even let me move from my left side at all. I still was doing the urine test to check my protein levels, but was forced to use a bedpan now. 

My doctor made a very wise decision at this moment that I feel was one of the factors in saving Ezra's life. He gave me a shot of steroids to help develop baby's lungs "just in case". I got one on Friday, and 24 hours later a second one. He wasn't on call this weekend, and I would miss him. He has delivered three of my other four kiddos, and knows me and my case well. 

The weekend was a very long one for myself. I missed Emma and Addie's soccer games. There was a game night we planned at our house that we had to cancel. I was still not seeing the seriousness of it all, and was irritated that my schedule had to keep changing. 

Sunday morning Josh sent me a text as they were getting ready to go to church of cute little Isaac all dressed up. I made some joke to him about keeping his phone on in case I needed him. I didn't actually think I would. 

Not long after I was talking with Josh the doctor came in. 

"We have the results of your urine test. You have 600 grams of protein in your urine, and your blood pressure is not responding to medications. We need to transfer you to a hospital that is equipped to deliver this baby."

Wait, what??? I am only 31 weeks and 3 days along? That is TOO early! I need to stay pregnant! I need my husband!

I called Josh but the phone just rang and rang. I left a voicemail. I texted him to call me ASAP. I called again and again. The nurses are now asking me what hospital I wanted to be transferred to, and I couldn't even get a hold of Josh. I learned later that it was praise and worship music at church that was too loud he couldn't hear his phone ring. 

I texted four people at church and asked them to find Josh and tell him to call me. When the song was over, Josh looked down from his phone and saw he had six missed calls from me!

He finally called back. 

"Honey, get here now! They want to transfer me!"

I am a little unclear on the details, but I know that Josh was able to get the kids and come to the hospital. He made arrangements with our dear friend Esther to watch the kids so he could come to Ann Arbor with me. 

I know that my church family stopped the service to pray for me and my unborn son. We surely needed it!

My blood pressure was 226/146! The doctors in Ann Arbor needed it to get lower before I traveled. They put me of magnesium sulfate and apresoline because my blood pressure had to be down to 160 before I could travel. They got it down to 153/80, and they started to load me onto the ambulance. This is when I started having pulmonary edema. I was literally drowning in my own fluid! I don't know if it was from the very high blood pressure or from the magnesium sulfate but my pulse ox went down to 84%! My lungs were filling with fluid! They now declared me too unstable to travel and wheeled me back in the hospital to have an emergency C-section. 

The nurse had to call Josh who was already on his way to Ann Arbor, and he turned around as fast as he could. 

They gave me Lasix and a breathing treatment. I put out 2400cc of fluid before the c-section and another 800 as well on the operating table.

They quickly prepped me for surgery. The doctor said a spinal would be fine, which meant that Josh could be there for the birth of our son. As the anesthesiologist put the needle in my back, I tried to remain calm. Something didn't seem right. This was my fifth c-section and I always had to have someone help me scoot back on the table but this time I could do it on my own. I I lay down and was strapped down and the doctor started. 

"I can feel you!" I said. 

They reassured me that I would feel lots of pressure. 

"It's not pressure, I feel you cutting into me!" I said, with a little more panic in my voice. 

"We have to get this baby out now!" the doctor said. 

The last thing I remember was screaming "It hurts!!!" through the mask and hearing Josh say "Oh no, Tamara. Oh no, honey!" Then I was asleep. 

The Storm's A Comin!

On a Wednesday night back in early October I had a headache. Dinner was just on the table, and the girls were extra chatty as they are every Wednesday evening, excited to go to AWANA that night. I took some Tylenol and was out the door, chauffeuring them and having a coffee date with my friend Mindy. Once everyone was home and tucked in bed, I noticed my head was still throbbing. I was hoping a good night sleep would help. 

I woke up Thursday morning with my headache still there, but significantly better, so I took some more Tylenol and was off to the office. I was feeling a little behind in my work with all the time I missed with Josie out of school because of her burn, so I dove right in. After staring at a computer screen for a few hours, my headache was much worse. I decided I would call the doctor to be on the safe side. The office was closed for lunch and so I decided I would eat some lunch too. The dining hall was probably not the best option (with all the noise) so I had a quick lunch and went home to put Isaac down for a nap. 

I told Josh at lunch that I was going to call the doctor again after I put Ike down, and to be on alert that I may need to go in for an appointment, so he should try and keep his schedule a little loose. He was heading into a meeting at that time, and told me to just let him know. 

When I got ahold of the doctor, they told me to go into labor and delivery to get checked out. I felt so foolish. It was just a headache. It wasn't horrible. It didn't effect my vision, and I wasn't having contractions or anything. I called Josh to let him know he would have to cut the meeting short. He came home to be with Isaac and I walked out the door. "I'm sure it's nothing honey. I just want to be careful. I will be back before dinner."

I walked into the triage room on the fourth floor. They asked me why I was there as they took my vitals. I told them of my headache that wouldn't go away. That no, I wasn't seeing spots, and no, I didn't have any abnormal swelling. The cuff stops squeezing my arm. "Um, you aren't going anywhere until we get this BP down." My blood pressure when I checked in was 227/127. Yikes!

They hooked me up to a monitor for the baby's heartrate, one to measure contractions (I wasn't having any), and a blood pressure cuff that was going off every 30 minutes. One nurse had me lie on my side, another said it was more accurate to have me sitting up. Nothing was actually bringing it down though. 

"We are going to have to admit you. We will run some blood tests and a urine test and see how you are doing."

I snapped a picture of my belly all hooked up to monitors and sent it to Josh. "I may be here a while. Can you get dinner going and get Emma a ride home from soccer?"

During this whole time, I really am pretty clueless as to how bad things were. I knew they said my blood pressure was high, but I didn't realize that it was dangerously high. I heard of preeclampsia before, but didn't really know much about it. Anyways, I felt fine everywhere except this headache. 

They place me in a room with a nice bed directly across from the nurses station. Even though this is baby number 5, I had them all by csection. I had never been in a labor room. My bed had these big blue pads being strapped to the rails. Was this standard? I didn't know they were putting the pads on my bed to protect me if I had a seizure. 

I really don't know why I was so unaware of how serious this was. Maybe the nurses were trying to protect me by not letting me stress and worry. Maybe my brain wasn't working at full capacity because of how sick I was. I just know that as I was lying there in bed, I was worried they may put me on bedrest. I don't know how we would handle bedrest! We still have burn clinic appointments every other day for Josie, plus two girls in soccer, and a toddler! Little did I know that bedrest is something I would look back at and long for. I had no idea what lied ahead. 

This is the picture I texted Josh, and incidentally the last picture I have of me pregnant.