Terri's story

My fiance and I had found out I was pregnant when already 9 weeks along. It was totally unexpected, but we were happy. My name is Terri and I am only 19 years old. My experience was horrible, but fortunately, my doctor knew exactly what I had - although he didn't know it was that serious.

I was about 6 months pregnant when I started swelling really bad. I could push in on my ankles and my skin would stay pushed in. I told my doctor about it and he said "watch your salts, drink lots of water, and lay or sit with your feet up. If it gets worse, call me." Well, it didn't get any worse, but when I was 29 weeks along, I went in for my regular monthly checkup. This was on a Thursday. Everything appeared to be fine, my blood pressure was just fine and I had no protein in my urine. The only problem I had was that I had a sinus infection, so my head was hurting me some.

That weekend, even when I took the antibiotics that he prescribed and some Tylenol, my headaches didn't seem to go away. ( I will add that my younger and much annoying cousin was staying with me and my fiance that weekend -- she gets on my nerves!!) That whole weekend I pretty much stayed in bed and slept, it hurt to walk on my feet, and I was really upset because I couldn't wear any of my shoes (even ones with adjustable straps).

My cousin left Sunday night, and my aunt commented on how swollen my face looked. I was like GREAT!!! Something I really wanted to hear. I couldn't wear my rings, my nose looked huge and I felt awful. So on Tuesday, September 14, 1999, when my fiance and I were out running a couple of errands - cashing his check, paying some bills, before he had to go to work, we decided to stop and eat at the CrackerBarrel. My head had been hurting all morning really bad. I thought it was just my sinuses. ( I have really bad sinuses, so I didn't think anything of it.) While we were eating, my eye sight starting going weird. I started seeing lights, and I had tunnel vision. I also started feeling a bit nauseous, so we went home.

When we got home, I had remembered reading about severe persistant headaches in my What to Expect When You're Expecting book, so I looked it up. When I read that you should call your doctor if one or more of these symptoms occur -- I did. Of course by that time, my vision was worse, so my fiance had to dial the phone number for me. They told me to come in immediately. Luckily, my doctor's office was down the street about 10 minutes. When I got there, they weighed me, and I had gained 6 pounds over the weekend, my reflexes were extremely delayed, and my eyes weren't reacting to the light they were shining in them. My blood pressure and that time was 160 over 110. My doctor told me to go to the hospital immediately and that they were going to give me a shot to mature the baby's lungs.

I don't really remember feeling scared about our baby being born at 30 weeks, all I could think about was how bad my head hurt. When we got there about 30 minutes later after stopping by my dad's house ( which was on the way, just so I could tell him what was going on) they were expecting me. I had to sign papers to admit myself and I couldn't even see the line to sign my name on.!! I felt like a complete idiot. I felt like no one believed me when I said I couldn't see ANYTHING!! So they took me upstairs to the maternity ward, and had me put a gown on and hooked a fetal monitor up to me.

I will also add, that I had read in books that women who have PIH, aren't supposed to have any stimulation in their rooms. No lights, no loud sounds, anything that would agitate them. But the nurses at the hospital, I guess just seemed to forget that my headache was excruciating, so the fetal monitor was turned all the way up. I felt like none of them were taking my condition seriously. I couldn't even get them to give some Tylenol or something for the pain until like 2 hours after I got there. I was very upset, not to mention I was being very grouchy to my fiance. Who at the time found it hard to believe that I couldn't see. Which I don't blame him, that would be hard for me to believe. So during that time, after I got my gown on, that asked me to go to the bathroom so that they could get a sample of my urine. Well, since I couldn't see, I peed all over myself -- which made me even more upset.

Once I got back into bed, and they had already hooked an IV up to me to give me fluids, no magnesium sulfate -- yet. I had the urge to vomit. I yelled to Adam ( my fiance) get my IV thing, I'm gonna throw up!!! We barely made across the room to the bathroom, and I let it go all over. I felt so humiliated. It was awful. The nurse who came in to see what was happening almost threw up as well when she looked into the bathroom. So I got back into bed, Adam had started making phone calls to my mom, my dad, and his parents. So after about an hour my mom got there and I vomited again, they finally gave me something for my headache. By this time, I was very incoherent, and really didn't have a clue as to what was going on.

My doctor was delivering another baby two doors down, so I was mad that he hadn't come in to check on me. I feel bad now, because I wasn't worried about our baby, even though I was informed that I was going to have to have it that day. I guess deep down, I knew everything would be okay. But not at that moment, I thought I was going to die. I vaguely remember my mom asking me, "Terri why are you shaking?" And I told her I can't help it. I was having a seizure. My blood pressure had risen to 240 over 160, I almost had a stroke, my heard skipped a couple of beats and they called a code blue. They made everyone leave the room, and I didn't talk to anyone for another hour. When I came to, I remember a doctor asking me if I knew where I was, and I wanted to go off. So I said very sarcastically, Yeah I know where I am. They them proceeded to tell me that I was going to have a c-section.

During my whole pregnancy, that was the one thing I was scared to death of. I asked if I could have anyone in the room, and they said no. So when they were wheeling me to do the surgery, I was crying, and I asked my mommy to come with me. She later told me that was what I said to her. I was terrified, she was scared for me, and Adam was about to fall apart. I was asleep for the whole thing. When I woke up, Adam told me we had a baby girl -- Hannah Christine, she weighed only 2 pounds 10 ounces. They wheeled me by the transport incubator, because she had to be transferred to a level 4 NICU.

I apparently told them that all I could see were dots. I was then wheeled downstairs to the CCU, where I stayed until September 16. When I woke up that night of the surgery, I was very thirsty and very bored. Adam had gone to the hospital to see our baby, and my parents were at home. I still could not see.

I woke up the next day to the nurse in my room, asking me to cough, and I said, Are you nuts? What I didn't realized is that you could get pneumonia, so I coughed, and I cried. I had a morphine pump, a central line to my heart, tubes down my nose, a catheter, an arterial line and a regular IV. I was so uncomfortable. Adam's stepmom came to see me with a picture of Hannah, and I couldn't see it. Everything was very blurry. When they finally moved me back upstairs, they made me get out of bed and sit in a wheelchair to move me. I felt crippled. It hurt sooo bad to move. They made me walk to the bathroom and I fainted on the toilet. They had been giving me blood pressure pills, so it had bottomed out.

By that time they had taken out everything but my IV and my arterial line. The next couple of days were okay, my stomach hurt, but other than that, I was on Percoset, a wonderful drug ( what would I have done without them) that let me sleep. I finally got to go home on the 19th. We went to the hospital, which was only 20 minutes away.

When I saw her, I cried. She had a ventilator on and was under the Bilirubin lights. She had no fat whatsoever, she didn't even look like a baby. She was so tiny. Hannah was very lucky. She had no complications. When she was born, her apgars were 8 and 9. She was crying when she was born. She was only on the vent for 2 days and they didn't even put it on her until she was 3 days old. Hannah left the NICU weighing in at 3' 10.

After five and a half weeks of driving back and forth, and worrying all the time that something would go wrong we got to go home. She now weighs 10' 2 and is well on her way to catching up to normal 4 1/2 month olds.

The whole experience has scared us enough that we don't want to have anymore children. The whole time before she was delivered was awful, I felt very helpless, and I felt like no one cared what was going on. My experience was rare, only because it happened so quickly. I am very lucky and so is my beautiful daughter, and so is Adam to have us both here.

Finally, my blood pressure has gone down, back to normal, we have moved in with my dad to save money, because also at the time I was stressed out about our finances. I still am very curious as to why this condition happens, and what can be done to prevent it.

Terri