The ER

The ride to the ER was very long.  My stomach felt like the acid had eaten through and it was accompanied by a general pain throughout my entire abdomen, that even touched the tender part of my spine.  The waiting room was empty and I pulled out my card for the lady behind the bulletproof glass while Dutch parked the car.  She told me to sit and I waited about 30 seconds before a kind man with a wheel chair came through the big doors.

The Triage Room

He said he was taking me to labor and delivery.  He dropped me off in the Triage Room.  A nice male nurse told me to take off my clothes and change into a hospital gown.  I was still clutching my pee container.  He gave me a bag for my things.  I soon found myself in bed, in a hospital gown for the first time in my life.  The seriousness of my situation was slowly dawning on me.  This was not simply a bad case of acid reflux.  I started to wonder if we would be a trio returning from the hospital instead of a pair.  My nurse carefully put in a saline lock and took my vitals.  My blood pressure was 170/100!??  (Normal bp is around 120/80).

The first of many attractive female doctors came to speak to me.  She said my numbers were looking bad and we needed to make some decisions.  She was going to discuss anti-seizure medication with her collegues. (?!)  I was against seizures so I said ok.  They hooked me up to an IV drip of magnesium sulfide, they warned me it would make me feel crummy, but I was already miserable, so I didn't care any more.

I barely remember catching a glimpse of Dutch through the swinging doors.

By hook or by crook

The rest of the night was a blur.  Someone explained I was preeclampsic and that the only cure was to deliver the baby.  She still had 6 weeks (due April 12).  I wondered who was going to write sub plans. They didn't want to give me a c-section just yet.  They were going to try to induce me first, before my liver completely self destructed.  A pelvic exam revealed I had already dilated 1 cm.  Apparently my body knew what was going on.