2-21-09: Welcome to the Sullivan Family Blog

Welcome to our new blog. I got the idea to start this blog because so many family and friends are concerned about how Ginny is doing. I thought I would put a post up each night on how she is doing. Here is the first (which would have gone up last night, but for the controversy (see today's post)):


Two weeks ago, Ginny was hospitalized because her doctors diagnosed her with mild preeclampsia, which is a condition characterized by high blood pressure. It could remain "mild" or become "severe", either gradually or suddenly and quickly. The doctors can not predict if or when it will accelerate. If it does accelerate, her blood pressure could go dangerously high and lead to stroke or seizure. The only "cure" is to deliver the baby, Collin.


Because her blood pressure rises upon any activity and because the condition is unpredictable, the doctors have been reluctant to send her home. Right after she was admitted, she was given steroid injections to develop the baby's lungs in case he had to be delivered early. There are no negative side effects to baby or mom.


Since then, her preeclampsia symptoms have been stable, suggesting that she might remain mildly preeclamptic. Thus, yesterday, her doctors were going to release her. However, she developed a severe head ache in the morning, which got progressively worse to the point that by 4:00 pm, it was bordering on the most severe headache she had ever had. As headache and visual disturbances are also a symptoms of preeclampsia, the doctors changed their minds about releasing her. Then, at about 8:00 her blood pressure spiked to 185/107, and a nurse suddenly came in and told us we were going up to labor and delivery. Ostensibly, it was so she could get IV medication to reduce her blood pressure, but it also appeared that if they couldn't bring it down, they were going to deliver the baby.


Once up in L&D, her blood pressure came down, without medication, and after a couple of hours of monitoring, we were returned to her room. They did, however, decide to do an MRI of her head to rule out potential other causes for her headache. She had that today. The results are not "officially" in, but our "source" tells us they are negative. Her headache was back to baseline today (2 on scale of 1 to 10) and her BP was down to what it has been, generally 150-160s over 80-90s.


So for now, it looks like Ginny will remain confined to her hospital bed until Collin makes his appearance. She is bored, but can not read or use the computer much because of the headache and visual impairment. Strangely, however, this does not seem to have impaired her ability to shop online.


Until tomorrow.