Heres my story, for those who dont know - Most of the events have been pieced together to make sense of it, from those who were around me. And of course shortened cause no one wants to hear every detail.
After work on Saturday Aug 25th, we went over a friend’s house for a birthday. We stayed out into the early hours of the morning, so when I was exhausted on Sunday, I thought that was why and being 35 weeks 5 days pregnant. After breakfast and a Walmart shopping trip I felt extra exhausted so I took a nap, and when I woke up I felt even worse. When we went to bed I got a terrible headache and then my entire stomach started to hurt. I went downstairs to lay on the couch and ended up throwing up everywhere. After Greg came down and cleaned up I called the doctor at 1:35am, told them my symptoms and they told me it sounded like a GI bug but to call back if it got worse.
Greg came downstairs a little after 5 and found me hunched over on the couch and I called him “dad”. I got myself together to explain what the doctor had told me, and for him to go to work since he had started a new job. After he left, he called a friend and asked her to check on me when she got off at 7am. She rushed out around 715 from Chestertown. When she walked in our side door she could hear me snoring loudly, calling my name she walked into the living room where I laid on the floor in a pool of blood. I had experienced a seizure and fallen off the couch onto my left side. During the seizure I bit through 2/3 of my tongue.
When the ambulance arrived, my blood pressure was 265 over something. It was presumed that the baby had lost oxygen and had already passed at this time. I failed resuscitation twice on the way to the hospital. They were going to trache my throat but the hospital was able to get the lines in along my shoulder.
Once at the ER, my tongue was priority. I was rushed into surgery for that, and I believe at the same time they did the c-section. I also had a blood transfusion while there. Then they put me under medical sedation with thoughts of brain injury when I came to.
Three days later when I woke up, Wednesday, I remember looking up and seeing those digital red numbers on the clock and realizing I was constrained to the bed. I also looked down and instantly knew I was no longer pregnant and in the hospital but had no recollection of anything.
I had become eclamptic which caused the seizure, and HELLP also set in. The next few days were spent in the ICU. My husband waited until Thursday after they took the breathing tube out to tell me what had happened and because of the swelling in my tongue I was still unable to communicate.
We took it day by day as to when I would get to go home, without my little one. I had laid still for so long, it was very tough and painful to walk. But in order to be moved, I had to get up. So I did. Then they moved me to women’s surgical floor on Saturday. On Monday I was heading home! It was a long road to recovery with learning how to speak again and planning our baby girls funeral. We had a tremendous amount of support from family and friends.