Life is short
“Time flies by fast.” That’s what everyone says when you’re young and it doesn’t feel that fast until you start having kids.
Nate and I were married 8 years before we started having little ones. Unfortunately the journey into parenthood wasn’t an easy one. I had major complications with delivery of our firstborn (severe preeclampsia and HELLP syndrome).
It was a normal Friday with a prayer meeting that morning, work, lunch with a friend, and back to work. During a meeting with my boss, my stomach started bothering me. I was 12 days from my due date and the pain didn’t seem like contractions. I called my doctors office and they said maybe heartburn, take Zyrtec and a hot bath. Nothing really helped and the pain only got WORSE.
Luckily my husband was home and called the doctor again after I started throwing up, writhing in pain. They said it was time to come, but it wasn’t a short trip. We had to drive from Lynchburg to Salem (a hour & a half away) due to insurance. That was the ride from hell! I tried laying in the backseat and screamed, cried, and did everything possible to get comfortable while Nate drove 90 MPH. But the pain only got worse and worse. It got so bad that I couldn’t breath. I was trying to get air into my lungs, but felt like I may be dying and honestly hurt so bad, I wanted to die. I just prayed, “God please save Scarlett! Nate can’t handle losing us both.”
When we finally made it to the hospital, Nate swung open the car door and pulled me out as fast as possible and into a wheelchair. We got to the labor and delivery unit where a team was waiting for us with extra doctors/nurses as they had a shift changeover. They took one look at me and knew something was very wrong. They quickly took my blood pressure, which had skyrocketed to like 280 over 165. My daughter’s heart rate was dropping and all I could think was, “GIVE ME DRUGS & KNOCK ME OUT BECAUSE I CAN’T HANDLE THE PAIN ANYMORE!!!!” But first I had to sign a few papers and that was the last thing I remember on Friday until I woke up Sunday.
The medical team did an emergency c-section on Friday, May 20th and a feisty, beautiful, healthy baby girl was born into the world. I don’t remember seeing her until Sunday but apparently Nate brought her in at one point. Severe preeclampsia and HELLP (hemolysis elevated liver enzymes low platelets count) syndrome are NOT FUN. It’s a rare disease that affects around 20,000 pregnant women per year. My liver almost ruptured (hence not being able to breathe)…
The cure is getting the baby out. The problem in my case is they couldn’t get my blood pressure under control with the different medications they tried and my organs were shutting down. That first night they realized there was internal bleeding and I had 2 liters of blood on my abdomen (more horrible pain that I vaguely remember waking up to). So we went back into surgery where they opened me up to get the blood out and fix the problem. I spent a few days in the ICU with an IV in my neck, one in my arm, a ventilator, and tons of other cords attached to my body completely out of it.
Thankfully the staff at Lewis Gale Medical Center was excellent and knew how to treat me. On Sunday I remember meeting Scarlett for the first time. They let her visit the ICU with Nate & I got to hold her!
Why do I share all that? Well, life is short and this experience was one of the catalyst that helped Nate and I realize we wanted MORE time with the people we love.
But HOW? How can we financially survive with working less and having more time?
Stay tuned…more to come.