It was at the hospital that things went from moderately bad to very, very bad in just a matter of hours. The induction didn't work and after trying to induce for more than 9 hours, I had only progressed to 1cm. Blood work was done early that morning and once the results came back, my doctor told me the news. I had developed HELLP. My liver enzymes were climbing steadily, while my blood counts were not looking good. I was at 130 when she made the call to do an emergency C-Section. She quickly explained to me how this disease works, and how quickly it can escalate. She told me if I waited, it could be a much more serious situation. So we did it. Several hours after the C-section, my blood counts had dropped to 40, and I was bruising horribly. I was on a magnesium sulfate drip and started on a regimen of Labetalol for my very high blood pressure (160/110-ish). While I was very sick and ended up in the hospital for a week, my little son suffered no complications. I was able to have him with me my entire stay in the hospital, which made the stay a little easier. It took an entire week for me to be stable enough to leave, and for weeks after, I had trouble controlling my blood pressure and had horrible headaches.

It's now 15 months later, and I am still taking blood pressure medication to control my blood pressure. The effects of preeclampsia left me with chronic hypertension. On a positive note, however, my OB gave us the green light to try again and she is very optimistic that we will have a successful fullterm pregnancy. I am pregnant and am being very careful this time around.

The one thing I have learned from this is the absolute importance of seeing your OB regularly throughout the pregnancy. Having no complications up to a certain point does NOT mean that you won't develop them. If I hadn't been seeing her regularly, I could have been much much worse off. Also, I had a really awesome doctor who was able to notice the symptoms even before I noticed them! When searching for an OB, ask them if they are familiar with these disorders, and what experience they have had with them. If could truly save your life.