Hello,
A lot of you know, that I had my daughter Rhyan two months early. I was just 29 weeks pregnant when I delivered her. On May 20th it was just a normal day for me. I went to work and then later my husband and I attended a baseball game with my family that night. While at the game my family noticed I was more swollen than normal. I just thought "I guess I'm just going to be swollen for my last trimester!" We left the game early as I started to be uncomfortable from just walking. We got home and I noticed that my face started to swell.
So my husband and I left for the hospital closest to our house. We waited for two hours to be turned away from labor and delivery as my blood pressure was not elevated and I showed no other signs of preeclampsia. So we went home. I stayed on the couch all weekend with my feet elevated. Monday came and I went to work. I left my office and had to lean against the wall as I was in so much pain. I work in a school so I had the school nurse take my blood pressure. It was 150/100 so we weren't too concerned. The next day, May 24th, I again asked the nurse to take my blood pressure. It was then 190/100. My coworkers rushed me home, where I met my husband. Thankfully I had an OB appointment that day. We went to my appointment where my blood pressure had then dropped to 140/100 and then went up to 160/100. I also had 4% protein in my urine. My doctor said "I am going to sent you to Children's Hospital just for some tests." So off to the hospital we went again.
After arriving at the hospital I was told they were going to keep me for 5 weeks as I was at high risks for seizures. So my husband went home and packed a bag for me to stay at the hospital for 5 weeks. I was hooked up to a Magnesium drip and got two shots to help my baby’s lungs. The next morning I woke up to a doctor asking where my husband was and to get him on the phone. We were told I was going into heart failure and that there was liquid in my lungs and I was going into have an emergency C-section.
On May 26th, 2022 at 9:01pm my daughter Rhayn Jane was born. She weighed 2lbs 1oz. She was then taken to the NICU where she spent 62 days fighting for her life. While in the NICU she was not only growing but working on her breathing, mostly as she was suffering from bradycardia spells. July 27th, two months and a day later, we finally got the phone call we waited so long for, that we could come pick up our baby girl and bring her home.
Rhyan is now 8 months and thriving! Besides her size and some developmental delays she is surpassing all obstacles being thrown her way. I wish there was more information provided to pregnant women on signs and symptoms to look out for. Besides knowing one other person suffering from this a year before, I had no idea what preeclampsia even was.