24 weeks: Severe preeclampsia and HELLP syndrome

Posted On Friday, April 29, 2011  by Jeanette

When my husband and I decided to get pregnant it happened in no time at all; I am 34 years old and no one in my family had ever suffered preeclampsia. During my pregnancy I experienced no nausea at all and other than feeling sleepy, the first trimester I actually felt very well. I had attended my doctor checkups every month and everything looked normal. Andy was developing normally and we were thrilled about having a baby boy. Mid-February 2011 I went to my medical checkup and everything was just right; my blood pressure was 100/60 as I always had it and I was 22 weeks pregnant.

The following two weeks I started feeling tired again and I had experienced a bit of headaches. I thought it was pretty normal because I had bit more stress at work and I thought that my headaches and feeling tired were due to that. My clothes felt tighter than usual and I thought it was time to go buy maternity clothes. I went with a friend to try on different outfits and as I looked at myself in the mirror I saw myself so fat. I know that most women feel so fat and unattractive when pregnant and for me it wasn't any different. My face looked puffy and I disliked what I saw in the mirror, I just thought I should take a closer look at what I was eating and watch my weight more closely.

Sunday, February 27, I went to bed feeling extremely tired and with a bigger headache, I took some Iboprofen and went to sleep. Then, next morning, I went to work feeling so tired... but as I mentioned before, I was under pressure at work, so I didn't think anything was wrong. Tuesday morning when I woke up I had a nose bleed. My husband asked me to lie down until the nosebleed stopped. I couldn't miss work that day either so as soon as my nosebleed stopped I got ready to go to work. Mid-morning my husband called me (as he usually did) to see how I was feeling, but this time he asked me to go to the infirmary and have my blood pressure checked. My husband is a doctor and I guess he got a bad feeling something was happening to me, I guess he suspected preeclampsia. When I took my blood pressure it was 160/100, and by the time he arrived to pick me up at work to rush me to the hospital it was already 180/110. When we arrived at the hospital, my blood pressure had risen to 200/120!! My vision was blurry and I had a major headache, but oddly I didn't feel that my life or my baby's life was at risk. I thought they would give me medicine to control my blood pressure an everything would be taken care of.

Sadly, the following day I didn't feel Andy move any more, my blood pressure was under control, so I thought, but things weren't going well. The radiologist took me to an ecosonogram. We could hear Andy's heartbeat, but the doctor was very silent, that was when I knew things could go terribly wrong. Andy had not developed as he should in the last two weeks. Although he was 24 weeks he was the size of a 22 week old baby and the doctor explained that the levels of omniotic fluid had decreased.

I spent the following week at the hospital and on Wednesday I was induced to labor. Andy was born on Thursday but he did not make it. I had been diagnosed with severe preeclampsia and HELLP syndrome, and as it appears and I had begun with symptoms right after my checkup. It really never occurred to me that anything was wrong when everything had appeared to be so right.

Today two months after all this happened I am still taking medication to control my blood pressure, but the doctor had been lowering my doses. They expect me to be off medication in about a month. When I think of my baby, there is still a big hole in my heart and in my soul. It breaks my heart when I see other pregnant women at work that were fewer weeks pregnant than I was, how their belly grows and as I get closer to what should have been my due date.

Walking into Andy's room and seeing the mural that I painted for him, putting his things away, seeing my friends with their babies. I feel so sad and unfortunate that my baby could not make it. I only hope that this pain goes away and that some day I can be blessed with a baby.

My heart goes out to all of you who have also lost a baby.