by angieb » Thu Aug 30, 2012 09:21 am
Upper right quadrant pain can be HELLP syndrome which is extremely serious, even fatal if not diagnosed/delivered in time. I developed it with normal blood pressure and no protein in my urine, so the fact that your blood pressure wasn't in the pre-eclampsia range yet doesn't rule it out.
Did they do bloodwork? When I went in with severe upper right quadrant pain, they did bloodwork shortly after admitting me-this was after I'd been in pain all night, and off and on for weeks prior, my blood work initially came back "almost normal" with my liver enzymes just "slightly" elevated. They decided to keep watching me and sent me for an ultrasound on my organs anyway, then re-did the bloodwork 6 hours later. In those 6 hours my pain didn't get worse, but my liver enzymes more than doubled and my platelet levels dropped by 100,000. We ended up delivering that evening as things continued going downhill from there. Later on, my OB told me that I probably would have came back in seizing or worse within a day or two if they had sent me home after the initial bloodwork was almost normal. (And like I said, my pain actually came and went for a couple of weeks prior to the time it got so bad I went to the hospital. During the time I was in the hospital, even though my bloodwork got worse, I didn't feel worse or better.)
If they haven't done bloodwork and you still have pain, I would insist on getting some bloodwork done. (Specifically for your liver function and platelet levels especially.) If that means going back to L&D, go back to L&D, even a different hospital if you think they may take you more seriously.
Upper right quadrant pain can also be caused by gallbladder issues/gallstones, and HELLP can often be mistaken for it. But URQ pain combined with your protein in your urine and your borderline blood pressure, I'd be pretty concerned.
For what it's worth, I've since had a normal pregnancy and am almost 29 weeks into my third pregnancy, both have so far been normal, I have NEVER, even for a minute, felt anything like the pain that was off and on for weeks when I had HELLP in my first pregnancy. And DS was a pretty big baby. Definitely it was uncomfortable at times, but severe pain? No.
You can check out the HELLP section of this forum for a description of the upper right quadrant pain by others who have been diagnosed with HELLP, it differs a bit for everyone.
Upper right quadrant pain can be HELLP syndrome which is extremely serious, even fatal if not diagnosed/delivered in time. I developed it with normal blood pressure and no protein in my urine, so the fact that your blood pressure wasn't in the pre-eclampsia range yet doesn't rule it out.
Did they do bloodwork? When I went in with severe upper right quadrant pain, they did bloodwork shortly after admitting me-this was after I'd been in pain all night, and off and on for weeks prior, my blood work initially came back "almost normal" with my liver enzymes just "slightly" elevated. They decided to keep watching me and sent me for an ultrasound on my organs anyway, then re-did the bloodwork 6 hours later. In those 6 hours my pain didn't get worse, but my liver enzymes more than doubled and my platelet levels dropped by 100,000. We ended up delivering that evening as things continued going downhill from there. Later on, my OB told me that I probably would have came back in seizing or worse within a day or two if they had sent me home after the initial bloodwork was almost normal. (And like I said, my pain actually came and went for a couple of weeks prior to the time it got so bad I went to the hospital. During the time I was in the hospital, even though my bloodwork got worse, I didn't feel worse or better.)
If they haven't done bloodwork and you still have pain, I would insist on getting some bloodwork done. (Specifically for your liver function and platelet levels especially.) If that means going back to L&D, go back to L&D, even a different hospital if you think they may take you more seriously.
Upper right quadrant pain can also be caused by gallbladder issues/gallstones, and HELLP can often be mistaken for it. But URQ pain combined with your protein in your urine and your borderline blood pressure, I'd be pretty concerned.
For what it's worth, I've since had a normal pregnancy and am almost 29 weeks into my third pregnancy, both have so far been normal, I have NEVER, even for a minute, felt anything like the pain that was off and on for weeks when I had HELLP in my first pregnancy. And DS was a pretty big baby. Definitely it was uncomfortable at times, but severe pain? No.
You can check out the HELLP section of this forum for a description of the upper right quadrant pain by others who have been diagnosed with HELLP, it differs a bit for everyone.