It was April fools day in 2021. I woke up to snow which was a little odd for the time of the year. I had a prenatal appointment that afternoon. I woke up feeling shaky, I assumed from just waking up with low blood sugar. I quickly ate and felt a little better.

Later that day my husband and I went to my prenatal appointment. I was 37 weeks 6 days pregnant. My blood pressure was 162/90. My midwife told my husband and I to quickly go home, grab our things, and go to the hospital so I could undergo some tests.

At that hospital my blood pressure remained high. I had protein in my urine and swelling that had been ignored. I was then diagnosed with severe preeclampsia, and was asked if I had religious preferences and a last will and testament. I then started with magnesium sulfate and was transferred to another hospital by ambulance that could better assist with delivery if there were complications with my son after he was born.

At the new hospital downtown, I continued to be pumped with magnesium sulfate. But they failed to realize the preeclampsia started to cause kidney failure and I was having little to no urine output, causing me to go into toxic levels of mag. If it wasn’t for my husband pointing out that I wasn’t urinating, I don’t know when they would have noticed.

I labored for 36 hours before they finally called a c-section. During my c-section I was very loopy from all the meds and being in dangerously high levels of mag.

My beautiful son, Carson, was born on 4/3/2021 weighing 6lbs 11oz and was healthy but really tired from the mag, too.

Preeclampsia changed my life. I am grateful the outcome was positive, but it was an extremely close call. My midwife said if I had missed that appointment, my son and I might not have made it. I went on to have another son in May 2023 and only had hypertension.