Understanding blood pressure – that is something I did not know during my first pregnancy. I have been relatively healthy most of my life and never needed to know this – until now. 

June 2020, I was having contractions and went to the hospital. The only reason I was admitted was because I had high blood pressure and proteins in my urine. The staff did not make a huge deal about this and to this day, I can not remember what my blood pressure reading was the day I delivered my daughter. Post delivery, my blood pressure leveled out and everything was fine. The doctors told me I had preeclampsia and that’s all I really knew during this time. 

Fast forward to my second pregnancy. I was put on a low dose aspirin starting at week 12 to prevent high blood pressure during my pregnancy, which it did. My son was born on his due date in August 2023. Everything was perfect, until it wasn’t. As I was discharged, my blood pressure started to rise, the nurse scheduled a blood pressure check-up one week later. 

As we were settling in at home as a family of 4, the swelling in my feet were not going away. I was icing, elevating and doing anything to reduce the swelling. I started getting really fatigued and tired. I thought it was just the newborn phase again hitting harder this time around. A few days later, I had a really bad headache that was not going away, even with Tylenol. Then I started seeing spots or stars. I went to take my blood pressure and it was 155/100. I started freaking out because I heard the first week is the highest risk for Postpartum Preeclampsia to set in – I was on day 6. I called the nurse line and they told me to go to the ER. Luckily, my mother-in-law was in town to watch the kiddos, and my hubby and I went to the hospital. After 4 hours of waiting in the lobby, I was finally looked at and they told me that I needed to be admitted for a 24 hour magnesium drip as my blood pressure was as high as 185/120. I was at risk for a seizure and/or stroke. While I was in the hospital, I had blood pressure checks every 15 minutes and compression sleeves on my legs to help reduce the fluids. My blood pressure dropped a little while I was there but needed to be on medication after getting discharged. After months of my blood pressure fluctuating and another hospital visit, I am finally starting the weaning process of my medications. I am almost 6 months post partum and I am still dealing with this. I still get dizzy spells, I still have trauma of going to the doctor and still on a high amount of medication. Luckily, my blood pressure is control now, but this will be a new journey with trying to eliminate medication and hopefully be medication free. 

I am extremely thankful for this event and the Facebook group behind it! I found this group in the fall, when I was feeling my worst, and I learned so much from others who have experienced something similar. I felt so alone because I couldn’t describe how I was feeling and how the medications made me feel, that this helped me get through a lot and find some virtual friendships/support. I learned so much about this disease and how slow of a process this truly is. Learning to be patient and give my body grace for everything it went through and still going through.