It was supposed to be a normal check up. I went into the clinic, feeling absolutely normal, to take my glucose test when the nurse told me my BP was 172/101. I looked at her like she was joking but when the doctor came in a few minutes later and retook it I was at 180/103. They immediately sent me to labor and delivery where it took my body several hours to finally calm down. I was told I might have preeclampsia and needed to be transported to another hospital that was more prepared to deliver babies under 32 weeks. My husband and I were terrified because we had no idea what any of this meant and I still felt perfectly normal. I never had any symptoms, my blood pressure stayed normal but I sat in antepartum until I reached 34 weeks and was induced. I had my baby girl the next morning and she was perfect. What came next was pure hell. They told me I would be cured once the placenta was out. 24 hours after birth my bp spiked again. They had forgotten to put my meds back on my record so I wasn’t given my blood pressure medication on schedule anymore. I spent an extra four days in the hospital where every night my bp was spiking, I was shaking constantly, blurred vision and sobbing because my baby wasn’t next to me. I spent 48 days in the antepartum and my daughter spent 22 days in the NICU. She is now six months old and we are both healthy and happy at home but the fear is still there. Every doctors appointment I go to the blood pressure machine makes my anxiety skyrocket. I start shaking and feel like I’m right back there in that hospital, feeling the heat from the magnesium and the sting from being poked a hundred times by needles. I’m glad I stayed on top of my prenatal appointments, but I had no idea what preeclampsia was until I got it.