Hi Mouschin. I'm so sorry about your loss of Ava. I am new here as well, but have found the site to be a great resource. I wish you and your husband peace in this awful journey. It is a terrible place to be, I know from experience but you are definitely in the right place for support.

I had atypical HELLP syndrome as well. My peri actually said it wasn't "full-blown HELLP" when I asked him about it at my postpartum appointment. I was also diagnosed as having severe preeclampsia due to the proteinuria, IUGR, and high bp (which I wonder about because I was chronic hypertensive before pregnancy and I thought it was controlled).

I had my first bout of what I thought was the HELLP abdominal pain at 22w3d, although that particular time may have just been gallbladder pain- an ultrasound showed the presence of a large stone, but I believe my liver labs came back normal because I was released without any discussion of HELLP developing. The docs neither confirmed that it was gallbladder issues or not. The doc on duty actually told me that sometimes pregnant women get pain that can't be identified. Anyway, it lasted only a few hours and subsided after an IV drip with pain meds. On 23w6d my peri ordered labs to check my liver and they were normal. During my entire 24th week I had the pain almost daily, although it was less severe, so I figured it was just heartburn or more gallbladder pain. I spent that weekend pain free but got the pain again on Monday night. I let my husband take me to L&D (thought I'd just spend a night in triage again) but the next morning they told me they had to take my daughter because of the condition of my liver. It scares me to think that in ONE day my condition deteriorated to the point that my daughter had to be delivered. :(

I am sorry for your loss too.
I never showed any signs either. Blood pressure and urine were always fine, until I went into labor. The only sign I had was the horrible pain in the upper quadrant.

Kristin, I too was told that the baby must be pushing on my ribs or the pain was from my uterus expanding.

I am so sorry for your loss. HELLP is so sneaky especially the upper right quadrant pain. I have seen it dismissed as heartburn, round ligament pain, braxton-hicks, baby moving or growing...etc. The best thing you can do is stay vigilant.
Please be easy on yourself.

Thanks for all the support ladies. I have found this board to be extremely supportive. I have learned more about HELLP and the courage within all of us, through you. We lost our little girl just weeks ago, we take things moment by moment.

Kristen, I completely agree, it is all about finding the right doctor for you going forward. I am working towards doing so as we speak.

Hi all,

I guess I had a-typical HELLP syndrome. I was 35, healthy, exercised, ate well, etc. No blood pressure or proteinurea issues. I did start feeling pain in my upper right quadrant in my second trimester but was told that it was likely due to the baby pushing my ribs around (oddly, no other pregnant person I know told me they've been told that before. My mom thought I was crazy but if that is what the OBGYN said...). I eventually did start to swell in the legs/feet/hands sometimes but then it would go away. One night it didn't; I awoke with awful cramps, pain, vomiting, and was told by my OBGYN that I likely had the "flu". Unfortunately, it wasn't the flu and when I went to the hospital the next day I learned that I had a placental abruption with HELLP and kidney failure. We lost our little one that prior night most likely. Still haven't heard word one from my (now old) OBGYN who thought I had the flu.

Let's just say, I'm glad to have found a perinatologist at a fantastic hospital/teaching school in the SF Bay Area. If you live in that area, I suggest going to that wonderful and very caring/progressive institution!

Kristin

Other than a ton of swelling, I had no signs. I never had high BP or protein, so there was no PE until after my son was born. (went home with BP meds) My HELLP was diagnosed because I had severe upper right quadrant pain that they thought was just my son pushing on my ribs. They caught it because I had blood work the day before and it showed I was in the beginning stages of HELLP. I went straight to the hospital and they redid blood work and sent me in for the c-section right then. I wish you the best - having this thrown at you is awful and it is hard when you can't fully understand what happened to you. I often feel strange because my situation was not the typical HELLP.

I'm so very sorry for your loss.

I also had atypical HELLP, there aren't many of us out there that I've ran into, but I never had high blood pressure and did not spill protein. (Yet they still call my first pregnancy "severe pre-eclampsia & HELLP" which I don't really understand...) I had the pain for 4 weeks or so and saw my OB twice in those two weeks. When it got so bad I went to the hospital, my initial labs came back with my liver enzymes only slightly elevated, luckily we had other signs that something was off (daughter had already been diagnosed IUGR by that point and my AFP levels from the quad screen had come back elevated- that's the reason they figured out her IUGR actually- so if I hadn't done that quad screen, they probably wouldn't have taken me as seriously). Anyway, they did the bloodwork again 6 hours later and in that time my liver enzymes had more than doubled and my platelets had dropped by 100,000...it turns out we were pretty lucky that they caught it given the timeline although our daughter did not survive due to extreme prematurity.

I highly recommend infant loss support groups, there is also a great online baby loss mom's community, I found that learning everything that I can find about HELLP and pre-e helpful so I had more understanding of what happened (and meeting others with similar circumstances), and just taking it one day at a time...are all things that have helped me move forward. And also coming to the realization that to some extent there will be no moving forward, that we are forever changed and are not the same people we were 2 years ago before we'd watched our daughter die.

You and your family are in my thoughts and prayers as you go through this horrible time.

I am so so very sorry for your loss. I wish you the best in getting better!!! HUGS

Thank you for your kind responses. Its a day by day process.

I am so sorry for your loss, but hope for a quick recovery. Many positive thoughts for you and your husband!