I was almost 32 weeks pregnant with my daughter, Isabella, when I was hospitalized because they thought I had pre-eclampsia. I didn't, but that didn't stop them from doing 4 consecutive 24 hour tests. 3 were negative, and that is when everything went crazy. I have chronic hypertension and had extremely high blood pressure and they wouldn't let me even sit upright in bed. This was a bad combination for me! I was threatened that they would call social services if I tried to leave and I was very scared (at the time, I didn't know that it was just a threat and that social services wouldn't do anything, so it kept me there).
I started to feel very anxious and I was gasping for air. I couldn't do anything to calm myself down and had terrible chest pain. They took hours to figure out what was wrong, but eventually figured out that I had to two PEs, or blood clots in my longs, and pulmonary edema in both lungs, or fluid filling both my lungs. I needed an emergency c-section and they prepped me for life flight to St. Louis. Suprise! St. Louis wouldn't accept me because I wasn't stable enough.
They started the c-section after about 15 minutes. I wasn't numbed correctly and I could feel it. They were shocked! "How come you didn't tell us you could feel the pinches?" "You didn't ask! I thought you were prepping the area!"...idiots! So I had to be knocked out completely. I woke up confused and my beautiful little girl had been born. They had to fly her to St. Louis right away. I was transferred to ICU and after they got her prepared, they let me see her and took her away. I didn't see her for another week...
Luckily, my husband and mother-in-law were there, and they were shocked but handled things very well, in a time where I couldn't. Eventually, I moved back up to the OB ward. Goodness, I wish I wouldn't have. I have factor five leiden, which is a blood clotting genetic disorder. My doctor gave me a blood thinner called Lovenox, which is given by injection. The patient usually gives it to themself and it is injected into fattier areas. Preferably, the abdomen. Well, I had just had surgery there and that wasn't working. I bled and clotted so much that I had to have 3 units of blood and two blood transfusions.
The next morning, the doctor, who had ignored nurses tearful calls the night before, finally came in. He had showed up the night before, said "Yep, she's hemmorhaging." and went back to finish his game of golf. He undid the staples and, with no pain medication, put on a glove and dug out the clots by hand. Now, I don't know about you, but this shit hurts. There were 4 nurses holding me down.
More happened, but it was a horror story, and I'm glad I survived it. After a week and 6 nurses coming to my room telling me that I should leave before the doctor kills me, another doctor releasing me, and getting my home-health nurse fired, I finally got to go home and see my baby.
She is awesome. She could breathe on her own the first night. She was released after 2 weeks, even though she was less than 5 lbs. and was very premature. She is 2 now and I couldn't ask for a better little girl. We didn't name her for three days and all I had was a picture of her in the hospital. I would call daily and talk to the NICU nurses and ask how she was. How lucky are we to have a child that is 2 months premature and completely healthy? It makes the hospital stay that I had not even seem relevant.
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