Immediately after delivering Lily my blood pressure became elevated. 3 1/2 weeks later and after many, way to many, doctor visits I am still fighting it along with other symptoms. It didn't take long before we realized this was more than high blood pressure, official diagnosis post partum preeclampsia. Never heard of it, probably for a good reason as it's pretty uncommon. One statistic I read stated only about 600 cases a year are reported in the US. I was watched for preeclampsia the entire pregnancy because I had it with Noah this time I had no symptoms until right after delivery. The risks are all the same, the biggest being seizures and/or stroke. I am on medications that have kept my diastolic aka the bottom number under 120, in a normal person this should be 90 or below. I am on limited activity, basically I have to sit on the couch I can do a few things but not much or my numbers go up which is very bad. I hate being dependent on others and I have been forced too. Mark has been a rock star during all of this, doing pretty much everything. Our parents, siblings and grandparents have been such a huge support also. I can't drive due to seizure risk being high, I never realized how much I drive until it wasn't an option anymore. The symptoms will go away with time, for now I have to be something I was not raised to be a couch potato and focus on staying calm.
How can there be silver linings in this?
1- I never had plans to breastfeed so having to take these medications and not being able to care for Lily all the time hasn't changed how we live to much (except Mark is exhausted).
2- it's influenza season and it has officially been declared epidemic in our state so as one of best friends pointed out my complications are making me stay home. She knows I struggle to stay at home, I go stir crazy really fast, now I am forced to stay home (or at families houses) for the most part to avoid blood pressure spikes. Also since anxiety raises your blood pressure and I have anxiety in big crowds I have avoided crowds without feeling sad which is good as they usually contain lots of germs.
3- Mark got to stay home an extra week because my doctor said he couldn't leave. The symptoms and risks make is so I can't be alone for to long and the no driving thing makes life hard alone.
Tomorrow Mark goes back to work and Noah, Lily and I are going to be living with parents while he is gone. We are so thankful that both our parents live close by and don't mind extra bodies at their houses for a while or mind driving us around. Hopefully this resolves soon but for now I am trying to focus on the silver linings and be thankful for the most amazing family.
I will update the blog with Lily/Noah as soon as my body lets me but for now I'll just share a few picture.
Noah got wrapped up like theChristmas tree does for storage, he thought it was pretty funny.
Lily loves her cousins.
We got brave and got fresh air yesterday, it was amazing!
Noah insists they wear ther matching jammies, if one of them has them on the other must also. The above picture happened because he wanted a picture with his baby Lilian. He loves her a little!
