Valentine's Day 2015 is still a blurr for us eight years later. 

After a fairly unremarkable pregnancy, we found ourselves in a whirl wind of doctors & tests & bed rest at Beth Isreal.  The "unremarkable" pregnancy turned into my nightmare when, at a preplanned 24 week check up, my blood pressure was clocked at 219/140.  With almost no "standard" symptoms, we found ourselves being rushed from one hospital to the next & while their voices stayed calm, it was abundantly clear by the looks we were getting that this was something extremly serious.  

After 4 days of bed rest, constant monitoring, & way more magnesium than I care to admit, Valentines Day 2015 has earned the spot as the most stressful, scariest day of my life. An extremly unexpected & sizable placental abruption at 7:00 AM had me being rushed to L&D where within a little over an hour I would become Mom. In a room packed with people we welcomed my superhero, Charlie, to cheers - born at 25 weeks on the nose, weighing in at 880g (1lb 15oz) & 13.5 inches long.  

We learned the hard way that delivery does not equal all clear when it comes to preeclampsia.  It would be over 24 hours before I was "less" in the woods as the doctor told me and another 8 days before I could go home. It was over a month before my blood pressure returned to normal & I could begin coming off the medications. Charlie was half way into his second day of life before i got to truly meet him, and it was 5 days before I could hold him.

My preeclampsia did not present with any of the common signs they tell you to watch for. All of my symptoms could be easily explained by the massive number of big snow storms we were having that winter...  I had no headaches, no change in nausea (i had been the ENTIRE pregnancy), no belly pain or blurry vision. All I had were some stiff joints & one time where I felt only a little dizzy.  That's it.  No swelling, no shortness of breath. No big flags to call my doctor about.

And yet I had severe preeclampsia & am extremly lucky that we both survived.

We know now that it was likely a result of serious adenomyoma that was undiagnosed.  So we walk for all the woman who also have underlying, undiagnosed risk factors. We walk for the women that had no glaring symptoms & were not as fortunate as me.  We walk to help raise more awareness for a horrible disease that has no true known cause, only some known risk factors. 

We walk because Charlie & I were incredibly fortunate to have exemplary care at Beth Isreal & I was able to walk out of BI holding my baby almost 100 days later.