As many of you already know, Simon's birth was a tad dramatic. On November 10, 2021, Isaac drove me to the hospital after I began to experience some numbing in my mouth. The triage nurse told us to come in as a precaution, and we both expected I'd be checked out, given the all clear, and sent home to continue being a hypochondriac. 

However, after my blood pressure came back at 163/101 and my urine sample returned with protein, I was diagnosed with severe preeclampsia and admitted. While Isaac ran home to gather some essentials (I was 37 weeks and we didn't exactly have a "go bag" packed yet), nurses began administering magnesium sulfate to prevent seizure, and placing pads on my bed rails in the case of seizure. 

I was induced, but by noon the next day, I was whisked into surgery for a c-section due to fetal intolerance of labor and repeated late decels. 

At 12:03pm on November 11, 2021, Simon was born. He was 5lbs, 6 oz, healthy, and absolutely perfect. 

At about 7:45pm, I suffered a severe hemorrhage. I was taken into surgery under general anesthesia for EUA, intrauterine exploration, and bakri balloon placement. I was given blood and platelet transfusions, and thankfully, began recovering. I don't remember anything between Simon's birth and waking up in the PACU. My total estimated blood loss was 2755 mL. 

Over the next few days, I returned to postpartum recovery, where I received iron transfusions, blood pressure medication and continued on magnesium sulfate. I was treated for hyperkalemia, hypocalcemia, thrombocytopenia, acute blood loss anemia, and prerenal acute kidney injury. I vividly remember one of the doctors, a day or so into recovery, coming in to tell me that I was "out of the woods." I hadn't really considered that I was *in* the woods until that point. 

We were finally released on November 15, 2021. I continued to monitor my blood pressure from home via telehealth and continued on blood pressure medication for the next couple of months. 

We are so, so fortunate and lucky that we went to the hospital when we did. Preeclampsia kills. It's hard to imagine what might have happened if I had simply gone to bed that evening, as my blood pressure continued to climb. I may have had a seizure, Simon might have died. 

We walk in the hope that someday, no woman has to experience what I went through. In the hope that preeclampsia stops killing and complicating. And in the hope that more women are aware of its risks and lethality before it's too late.