Tracy's story

I was 21, and I found out I was pregnant in August 2000, it was unexpected but my husband and I were excited. Of course we went to the Dr. and my due date was set for April 26, 2001. My appointments always went fine with my blood pressure showing normal every appointment. I had never had trouble with high blood pressure, so they weren't worried that it could shoot up without any kind of notice.

It was probably the 25th of January 2001 when I started to worry. I was only six months along. I was swelling by the day, and I could poke my skin almost anywhere on my body and it would stay indented for quite a few seconds. At work my friends told me about a condition called Toxemia. We joked about it because I was so swollen, but no one ever thought I would have it. The condition has never happened in my family's history to my knowledge. My last appointment was about the second week in January and all was fine at the appointment; therefore, when I called to tell them I was worried because I was so swollen, they told me that it couldn't be Toxemia and what I was feeling was normal. They told me to put my feet up to stop them from swelling. On Friday the 2nd of February, I was completely miserable. I couldn't even fit into my widest pair of shoes and I normally have very narrow feet. I was in pain when I walked. Again, I called the OB office, and was told by a nurse not to worry, just to rest. That night I had severe lower back pain which I was told later could have been the start of contractions. And on Saturday February 3, I could barely see out of one of my eyes. This was a sure sign of the disease as I had discussed with my friends at work. I knew nothing about the condition, but I called the OB after hours answering service anyway. They paged the OB on call. She called me back and asked me a series of questions, she told me all of this was normal...I kept thinking, you aren't supposed to go blind when you are pregnant. She again told me to put my feet up and the swelling probably wasn't as bad as I thought it was. She also said my blood pressure would be extremely high if I had Toxemia. I told her about my lower back pain, and she assured me this was normal as well.

I don't trust Dr.'s from previous experiences, so I ignored the Dr. and told her I was going to the Emergency room I knew something was wrong. I called my mom and she came to get me and take me to the ER. First we went by the Pharmacy and had the Pharmacist take my blood pressure, he said he advised to go to the emergency room, at this point it was 145/104. My husband was at work so I called him to let him know. I was now dizzy and feeling light headed. Finally after almost passing out several times in the car, I got to the ER at Hillcrest Hospital in Tulsa, OK. I sat in between mothers holding their crying children and watching them get called in one after another until I noticed that some of those people weren't there when I arrived. I could barely see at this point, but I walked over to the person calling the names and asked if she had called mine...she told me she FORGOT about me. I was probably in worse condition than anyone there, but yet they forgot to call my name. So a precious 30 or 40 minutes was lost.

The nurse took my blood pressure,and immediately called the maternal ward and asked if she should get me to delivery. I was thinking "Delivery?" why ? I thought they would just give me some medicine and give me bed rest for a period of time. So as you can imagine, I was extremely worried at this point. They took a wheelchair from an old lady in the waiting room (apparently they aren't stocked well on wheelchairs) and put me in it and took me to an elevator in the back of the building, Finally I was in a room. So the OB I had talked to earlier that morning, came into my room. She took my blood pressure and took some of my blood and looked extremely worried. She told me I did have Pre-Eclampsia and I must know myself better than she does. Well DUH. This was a Dr. I hadn't seen before in any of my visits to the Dr. office. Fortunately she was experienced in delivering pre-mature babies. They were going to try to put me on steroids so that the baby's lungs would develop faster, they said we had 24 hours at most. My husband was paged at the place he was working and was told to get to the hospital ASAP. The OB came in again and said sadly that they would have to take the baby now, my blood count was so low I was in great danger, and the blood count kept getting lower. I pleaded that they wait until my husband got there he had an hour and a half drive. The Dr. said they would do everything they could to hold off. I think I was fading in and out of consciousness at this point because I only remember bits and pieces of the rest of the day. I remember my dad crying for the first time I have ever seen him cry. I remember my little brother w/ tears in his eyes. I remember my mother-in-law asking me if I was ok. I remember my mom and grandpa holding my hands. I remember my best friend coming in and crying as well. The funny thing is, I wasn't at all worried about the situation, I knew everything would turn out OK. Then my husband got there, and got my hands and started trying to talk but he couldn't, he ran into the bathroom and I could hear him sobbing. He had gotten there just in time. The OB was ready to explain the process of what would happen in just another hour.

She said she would take the baby out through a C-Section, and she would try to cut the uterus only horizontally so I would have hope of delivering normally in the future. She said that the baby would automatically be sent to the NICU and I wouldn't be able to see her until she was stable. So my husband put on his scrubs and met us in the OR. It was an amazing experience really, because they took her out of my womb, and she actually cried. The Dr. said this was unusual because usually they have to revive them when they are that small. I was crying too, and my husband was excited. They sewed me back up and wheeled me into a recovery room. I didn't get to see her for 3 days, my whole family and all my friends got to see her, but I couldn't even get into a wheelchair for all the pain from the surgery and from the swelling. My feet were about the size of watermelons.

After 7 Horrendous weeks in the NICU, Errica Jayne finally came home, weighing only 2.7 at birth, she now weighed 4.5 lbs. and was eating on her own and keeping her body temp. She had no surgeries, and had absolutely no trouble whatsoever, she just needed to get bigger, and do things on her own. It was the worst experience in my life of course, but there were babies in there in worse shape than mine, so I bit my lip and endured, I knew she would make it and be fine.

Now Errica is almost 17lbs and is 9 MOs old. She is beautiful and has absolutely no problems that we know of yet. She sits up and talks baby talk, and smiles all the time. We love her so much.

The reason I wrote this for everyone to see, is that I hope it might help someone out there deal with it, if they are going through it right now. Also it feels good to get it out in the open, because even though she has no problems, I still feel like I missed out on something. I missed the bonding time that a mother normally has with her child. So I also wrote it as a kind of therapy to my soul. God does perform miracles. Have faith. And don't always believe what your Dr. says...even if you haven't had a baby before, you know if something is dead wrong, and you should do something about it. I made it just in time, but there are others that haven't.

Tracy