Page 43 of Silver Linings
“Lily’s sick. I called an ambulance to take her to the hospital, so I need you to stay here with Sage until we know what’s going on.”
“Oh god.” Gia ran her hand over Lily’s forehead, brushing back some of the hair that had fallen in her face. “Is she, I mean, what do you think is wrong?”
“I’m almost certain it’s postpartum preeclampsia. The doctor gave us a fact sheet about it before she left the hospital. Said to put it on the fridge to remind us of the symptoms, but I still fucking missed it somehow.”
“I didn’t even know you could get that once you had the baby.”
“The way she was talking about her head hurting earlier, I should have known something was wrong. And when I brought her food at dinner, she barely touched it. Told me she was tired, but I’m sure now she was sick and just trying to hide it from me.”
The flashing lights grew brighter until they swallowed up the entire living room as the ambulance pulled into their driveway.
“G, go open the front door and show the paramedics in here, okay?”
Gunner held Lily and did something he hadn’t done since he was overseas. He prayed.
He prayed that this wasn’t the last time he’d get to hold his wife in his arms. He prayed it wasn’t the last time Lily would be in that house. He prayed he wouldn’t have to raise Sage without her mother being there.
“Sir, we need you to bring her over to the gurney. She’s in good hands, I promise.” A female paramedic was crouched down in front of him, already trying to track Lily’s vitals.
“Right.” His strained voice grated in his ears and he struggled to clear the emotion from his throat.
“I’m leaving the truck keys here,” Gunner told Gia after stepping back to let the paramedics check Lily. “She’ll want Sage with us if she has to stay at the hospital, but no sense in waking the baby before we know what’s going on.”
“Her next feeding?” Gia asked.
“It’s been around three. I think Lily pumped some milk and put it in the fridge. If not, formula and bottles are by the sink.”
“Okay, I’ve got it covered. You just let me know what’s going on with Lily and I’ll make sure everything with Sage is okay. I promise.”
“Sir, we need to get to the hospital.” The paramedics had Lily bundled and nearly out the door.
“Go.” Gia squeezed his hand as he turned to follow, praying his wife would walk back through the door with him the next time he went home.
“We’ve given her some anti-hypertensive medication to see if we can get her blood pressure to come down to a normal range. She’s also been started on a magnesium sulfate drip to help prevent seizures. She’ll be on that drip for the next twenty-four hours. In a lot of these cases, the patients are a bit out of sorts, so you’re more than welcome to sit with your wife, but know she may be a bit dizzy, or disoriented while she’s on the magnesium.” The same doctor who delivered Sage now stood at the foot of Lily’s bed trying to explain to Gunner what had happened.
God, he felt so fucking helpless. After the ambulance made it to the hospital, he’d stayed in the waiting room filling out paperwork for Lily’s readmission. By the time he’d made his way through it all, they had her moved back up to the same floor they were on when Sage was born.
“What can I be doing?”
“Hold her hand. Let her know we’ve got things under control and she can rest. Reassure her as best you can. Some patients on magnesium are sensitive to light, so we’ve kept her room lights off and encourage you to do the same. Others can feel dizzy like I mentioned, or really hot from the medication.”
“Sure.” Gunner swallowed roughly. “What caused this?”
“Often, it’s just something completely random that happens. There’s a chance that in future pregnancies, it could happen again, or she could be completely fine. But nothing she did caused it.”
“I missed it, though. I missed the signs.”
“It can happen really fast. I’m sure you did the best you could, and you got her help. Let’s see how things go in the next few hours, but we’re already seeing a positive trend in her vitals.”
“Is our daughter allowed to be here? She’s with my sister right now, but I’d like to have her here with us if it’s possible.”
“Of course. I’ll let the nurse know to bring in a bassinet for her. She’s welcome to be here under your care while we treat your wife. Do you have any other questions for me?”
Gunner shook his head.
“Okay. I’ll be back in a few hours to check in again. For now, like I said, reassurance will go a long way to help.”
He immediately reached for his phone and typed out a quick message to Gia, asking her to bring Sage as soon as visiting hours started.