magnesium sulfate can suck my ass...even though it saved my life
Post partum preeclampsia is not common, but it happens. And it happened to me.
I noticed I was feeling stiff in the neck, had some heaviness in my chest when breathing, and had a bout of dizziness on Wednesday evening. These symptoms, along with a feeling of 'something isn't right' made me call my doc. I went in Thursday at 2:30pm to their office for a blood pressure check. It was not good. 140/90. Ick. The doctor told me to go to the hospital to Labor and Delivery for an EKG and some monitoring. I took Thomas home, fed him, pumped, then took the pump and myself to the hospital.
Chris and I sat in Labor and Delivery triage while they monitored my pressure as it got increasingly worse. It was as high as 180/100 and as low as 130/80. It varied, depending on when they took the pressure. After a couple hours and some lab work (blood, urine collected via cathedar) they decided to admit me for a 24 hour magnesium sulfate infusion and monitoring. I cried. And I cried some more. I laid in the recovery area of labor and delivery listening to other women in labor and started the magnesium sulfate.
It made me feel HORRIBLE. My entire body was overheated, like I was running a fever of 104. When I drank water, the water burned in my mouth. I was disoriented, and extremely emotional. After an hour or so of the infusion, they transferred me to the antepartum unit. This unit had women who were in the midst of high risk pregnancies, along with c-section recoveries, etc....but no babies on the floor.
Thomas was not allowed in the unit, due to the hospital regulations regarding H1N1 virus.
I had to pump every two hours and have the milk picked up and delivered to him so he could eat.
The magnesium sulfate made it almost impossible to sleep. I waivered between exhaustion and emotional breakdown. My body was still really sore from delivery, and now it was feeling feverish and achy.
The doctors and nurses explained that this nasty stuff was probably the only thing preventing me from having a seizure or a stroke. So I took it. And I continued to pump.
I had to collect every bit of urine I excreted, and write down every ounce I drank. I was woken up every hour with the blood pressure cuff, and every other hour by the need to pump my breasts.
On Friday, the nurse arranged so that Chris could bring Thomas to me in a secluded area of the lobby so I could spend some time with him. I was so out of it because of the infusion, I couldn't breastfeed. But I could sit there and hold him for awhile. That helped A LOT, and the nurse assistant took my pressure while I was holding him and it was significantly lower than it had been the past few hours.
At 10pm on Friday evening they stopped the infusion. I started to come out of the fog about an hour afterwards. I took a shower and walked around the unit for a bit. One of our friends has a c-section that evening and was just a few doors down from me, so I stopped in for a quick visit before returning to my room to get some much needed sleep.
I would sleep about an hour, then pump for forty minutes, then return to sleep. They continued to check my pressure throughout the night, and the blood pressure medication they gave me was doing it's job. I was getting readings of 130/80 - 120/70 by the morning hours. The attending came in around 9am and said he was comfortable discharging me. I was home and clutching onto my child by 11am.
Now I'm taking Labetalol every six hours and taking care that I'm not doing too much. My job is to feed Thomas and myself. And take pictures :)
I had a lactation consultant visit today to help me with his nipple confusion. She showed me some holds and tricks to get him to latch on, and we've had three successful feedings since she left around 5:30pm. He's napping in his bassinette right now, and I expect to feed him again in about an hour. She will return later this week to show me a few more tricks and reinforce that I've got this breastfeeding thing down.
So...yeah...seizure? Stroke? NOT GOOD. Magnesium sulfate? HORRIBLE. My life? Worth going through this bullshit so that I can be a good mommy. Totally.
I leave you with his first post-bathtime photo :)
I noticed I was feeling stiff in the neck, had some heaviness in my chest when breathing, and had a bout of dizziness on Wednesday evening. These symptoms, along with a feeling of 'something isn't right' made me call my doc. I went in Thursday at 2:30pm to their office for a blood pressure check. It was not good. 140/90. Ick. The doctor told me to go to the hospital to Labor and Delivery for an EKG and some monitoring. I took Thomas home, fed him, pumped, then took the pump and myself to the hospital.
Chris and I sat in Labor and Delivery triage while they monitored my pressure as it got increasingly worse. It was as high as 180/100 and as low as 130/80. It varied, depending on when they took the pressure. After a couple hours and some lab work (blood, urine collected via cathedar) they decided to admit me for a 24 hour magnesium sulfate infusion and monitoring. I cried. And I cried some more. I laid in the recovery area of labor and delivery listening to other women in labor and started the magnesium sulfate.
It made me feel HORRIBLE. My entire body was overheated, like I was running a fever of 104. When I drank water, the water burned in my mouth. I was disoriented, and extremely emotional. After an hour or so of the infusion, they transferred me to the antepartum unit. This unit had women who were in the midst of high risk pregnancies, along with c-section recoveries, etc....but no babies on the floor.
Thomas was not allowed in the unit, due to the hospital regulations regarding H1N1 virus.
I had to pump every two hours and have the milk picked up and delivered to him so he could eat.
The magnesium sulfate made it almost impossible to sleep. I waivered between exhaustion and emotional breakdown. My body was still really sore from delivery, and now it was feeling feverish and achy.
The doctors and nurses explained that this nasty stuff was probably the only thing preventing me from having a seizure or a stroke. So I took it. And I continued to pump.
I had to collect every bit of urine I excreted, and write down every ounce I drank. I was woken up every hour with the blood pressure cuff, and every other hour by the need to pump my breasts.
On Friday, the nurse arranged so that Chris could bring Thomas to me in a secluded area of the lobby so I could spend some time with him. I was so out of it because of the infusion, I couldn't breastfeed. But I could sit there and hold him for awhile. That helped A LOT, and the nurse assistant took my pressure while I was holding him and it was significantly lower than it had been the past few hours.
At 10pm on Friday evening they stopped the infusion. I started to come out of the fog about an hour afterwards. I took a shower and walked around the unit for a bit. One of our friends has a c-section that evening and was just a few doors down from me, so I stopped in for a quick visit before returning to my room to get some much needed sleep.
I would sleep about an hour, then pump for forty minutes, then return to sleep. They continued to check my pressure throughout the night, and the blood pressure medication they gave me was doing it's job. I was getting readings of 130/80 - 120/70 by the morning hours. The attending came in around 9am and said he was comfortable discharging me. I was home and clutching onto my child by 11am.
Now I'm taking Labetalol every six hours and taking care that I'm not doing too much. My job is to feed Thomas and myself. And take pictures :)
I had a lactation consultant visit today to help me with his nipple confusion. She showed me some holds and tricks to get him to latch on, and we've had three successful feedings since she left around 5:30pm. He's napping in his bassinette right now, and I expect to feed him again in about an hour. She will return later this week to show me a few more tricks and reinforce that I've got this breastfeeding thing down.
So...yeah...seizure? Stroke? NOT GOOD. Magnesium sulfate? HORRIBLE. My life? Worth going through this bullshit so that I can be a good mommy. Totally.
I leave you with his first post-bathtime photo :)