Easy Pregnancy, Easy Labor, Easy Birth.... Not so easy postpartum complications (long)

holly52

I had a very easy pregnancy, in fact I felt the healthiest and happiest I've ever felt.  I was due 12/27 which came and went.  Finally on January 1st and 6:30 am my water broke.  I didn't have any contractions before this either.  I was admitted, got an epidural as soon as I could because I had awful back labor and waited and waited.  Around 9:300 pm DD heart rate sky rocketed and they thought I was getting an infection and so was she.  I was dilated to 10 on one saide and 9.5 on the other so they stretched the one side the rest of the way and I was ready to go.  I only had to push for 30 minutes because she was already so low.  It was pretty easy.  We left the hospital 2 days later and everything was great...until.... January 6th.. I woke up with neck pain and passed it off as just sleeping weird or something and then all of a sudden the pain shot across the back of my neck and up the back of my head.  Having migraines at least once a week since I was 4 I knew that something was wrong.  I went back to labor and delivery to be evaluated.  Hours went by, the pain got worse, my vision was impaired.  I was seeing spots and not able to see out of the corner of my right eye.  They gave me 3 medications in 2 hours.  Feoricet, percocet and demoral with no relief to the pain AND I was still awake and able to walk around.  My blood pressure was so high it was setting off the alarm everytime they would take it.  They kept saying I had a really bad migraine and I kept saying it wasn't a migraine.  They thought I had preclampsia and they also decided to call for a neuro consult.  I'll make the rest of the story somewhat short.... After 2 CT Scans and an MRI they discovered I had a minor stroke.  I was finally given medication that worked for the pain and admitted to ICU for 3 days.  I was diagnosed with having a postpartum stroke which is extremly rare and to this day there aren't any answers.  They don't really know why, they don't know if it can happen again, they basically don't know anything besides I had a stroke.  I missed the first week of my daughters life - which is devastating to me.  It's been 2 months and I'm still recovering, but finally see some improvement.  For having such a textbook pregnancy and delivery it sure ended up awful.  I'm just glad that it was me and nothing was wrong with my DD.  It has made me feel so much better to just tell my story on here since it's really hard for me to talk about with other people.

jamu

Oh my goodness I am so sorry you had to go through that. I am glad you and your baby are okay. Stay strong.

OrangeGrove

How frightening! So glad to hear you are on the mend. 

EagleWife

OH MY Goodness!!! How scary Kudos to you for insisting that it wasn't a migraine and getting the right folks to check you out. I'm so glad that you are okay. Good luck with the rest of your recovery and congratulations on your new baby!