life with "severe" preeclampsia

preeclampsia is this awesome disease that you get during pregnancy. the only cure is delivery. i have been diagnosed with this and am now in the hospital trying to keep this baby in as long as possible for him to develop more. if you need more info google it, webmd is much better at explaining. anyway, this is the story and update to where we are today.

had preeclampsia with henry and delivered him at 37 weeks. not as tragic.

i started feeling sick 2 weeks ago and noticed blood pressure elevated. doc had me in the hospital for testing, all came back looking fine. so i continued to monitor my BP at home and go about my business. Wed night BP was pretty high and i panicked a little - yes I panicked. anyway, not feeling very well the next day and finally after the much THANKFUL prodding of my mother i called the hospital and they told me to come in. i went to timp hospital in orem, because jordan valley was too far away (where i would normally deliver). i was admitted and diagnosed with "severe" preeclampsia (lana and i had a good laugh about that last night). the doc said that timp was not equipped to deliver a 26 week old baby and said - hey, we are life flighting you to U of U!!! YAY you get to ride in a helicopter. no, really, BOO. BOO people. this was not fun. on any level. and i am sure millions of dollars. so i made it to the U via million dollar, ridiculously uncomfortable, and apparently enviable transportation.

the plan that night for me and baby was this: get a steroid shot to develop babies lungs. wait 24 hours. put me on magnesium sulfate (almost turned into wolverine last night) to prevent seizures and lower my BP. then after 24 hours another steroid. wait 24 more hours. still on magnesium. after that 24 hours which will be tonight (following...), they will take me off the mag (hopefully i will still retain my metal claws for future use) and see how the BP goes. if i can stabilize without it, i can stay here in the hospital and keep baby. if i can't then we deliver. so that is where we are at this point.

So far things are looking good. baby looks good, mom has had a few melt downs. i know, that sounds far fetched, but its true. i am going to try and keep daily updates for you, cuz i know that you secretly love me and mca and hey, everyone loves a little drama. a little soap opera never hurt anyone.