I did end up at the hospital. But...

I did end up at the hospital yesterday, but they discharged me after spending five hours in L&D. Sammy is still an inside baby and I'm resting at home. Whew.

I had been fighting a horrific headache since Friday around 5pm. I had a BP reading around that time of 152/88 which wasn't quite at the threshold my MFM had set, but was flirting with it. So I just laid down and kept an eye on it every 30 minutes or so. It stayed in the 130s/80s. But throughout the night the left side of my head and face started to hurt really bad - my eyebrow, my scalp, my cheekbone. And it didn't just hurt internally, it hurt to the touch! The weirdest part was the roof of my mouth on the left side hurt really bad and was swollen.

I "woke up" Saturday morning (which isn't really true seeing how I barely slept because of the pain) and spent a while laying on the couch. I sucked on some ice chips to try to help the swelling go down in my mouth because I had hoped it was just related to hot food I ate on Friday afternoon.

But finally around 2pm, my BP was at 138/90 laying down which was the threshold my OB gave me for calling them. And the clincher was when I thought I saw sparkly confetti falling down in front of me. When it happened, it didn't even register that this confetti wasn't real, and I even waved my arms around to try to get it away from me. It freaked me out. But then I realized that it might be visual light disturbances from pre-e and decided it was time to call my on-call nurse. I hated the thought that I'd be in hospital bed rest but knew it was what had to happen.

Sure enough, the nurse sent me to into L&D. They were so, so busy yesterday. Their triage rooms were full so I was put in the pre-op room which ended up being full as well.

They monitored Sammy who looked great the whole time. And of course, while I was there, my BP was nice and normal, although my pulse was crazy high! Having normal BP at the hospital irritated me so bad because I felt like I was looked at for crying wolf and felt embarrassed. They didn't make me feel that way, it was just my own crazy, sleepless insecurity. But my headache, facial and mouth pain persisted. Because of that, they wouldn't let me eat or drink in the event that I would need to actually deliver Sammy on the spot. They started an IV in preparation and ran some blood work to make the determination.

Well, sure enough, a few hours later the blood work all came back normal. That was the biggest relief of the day. They were still concerned about the monster headache and facial pain so they asked if I would be willing to take a Norco as a test. If the headache responded, then they believed it wasn't related to pre-e. But if it didn't, they were planning to admit me for observation and hospital rest.

I took the Norco, and thankfully it did help the headache, even though the facial pain persisted. What a relief! The L&D OB felt like the headache was maybe a virus or something which was also causing my mouth swelling and facial pain. I guess most pre-e headaches are in the temples and are on both sides. My pain was all on my left side only.

I went home, had a good night sleep for the first time in a long, long time, and woke up this morning with even more mouth swelling and that same persistent headache, but I feel reassured knowing my blood work looked good. I'm happy to be home in my own bed and knowing Sammy will still be coming this week regardless. I'm really anxious to see what my OB wants to do when tomorrow rolls around. I'm still guessing they will make the decision that Tuesday will be the big day! I'll keep everyone posted!

Oh and last thing to mention...

While waiting the many hours in triage I overheard many conversations from other patients. I happened to overhear an angry man asking the nurse if his pregnant wife/girlfriend could go outside and have a smoke. He was arguing with the nurse about it! And I heard the nurse say "We think that her smoking is what caused her first loss."

I just shake my head.