by peich » Tue Dec 11, 2012 01:30 am
April 2011 I lost our little girl to severe HELLP at 23 weeks. I almost lost my life as well and it was one of the most scariest, heartbreaking situations my husband and I have ever encountered. I posted on here last year regarding my story and it helped so much to see others were going through the same thing. But, what I really wanted was to see a story with someone having a healthy baby AFTER a pregnancy loss with HELLP so early on. I wanted something to hold on to to bring me hope that I could still be a Mom some day. I have started this post numerous times and deleted it... but I feel like I am not alone out there with these thoughts and my current story might bring that hope to someone else....
Nov 2011, 8 months after we lost our first angel, I found out I was pregnant again. My due date was 2 days off from the previous year. My husband and I were beyond terrified! I went in to my OB immediately and we made a plan. I was to be seen every 2 weeks with blood work taken each time. I did a urine analysis to get a base of where my numbers were at the start of my pregnancy. I was to have ultrasounds every month. And I was to take daily a baby aspirin, prescription prenatals, and folic acid. I was to also see a high risk OB at MFM once a month. My OBs were so supportive and even gave me cell phone numbers to call in case I needed anything! Our goal was for me to make it to 28 weeks...at 26 weeks that goal started to look unreachable.... I was hospitalized overnight due to my blood pressure being very high at an office visit and a small amount of protein spilling into my urine. Luckily liver functions were still normal. I was released the next day and was to be on moderate bed rest. I would now have to go twice a week to my regular OB and twice a month to the high risk OB. My blood pressures were all over the place, but everything else still looked decent. At 30 weeks I was re-admitted to the hospital for an extreme blood pressure and again, discharged the next day...but this time on complete bed rest. Now my weekly schedule was 2 OB appointments, 1 that included a fetal stress test and then a high risk OB apt. with a fetal stress test. By 33 weeks, exhibiting even higher blood pressures and more protein in my urine, the drs made the decision to hospitalize me for the remainder of my pregnancy. Over that weekend my liver levels began to rise and the fluid levels around the baby were going down. At 34 weeks I was induced and our 3lb, 11oz little girl was born the next day. I was put on the magnesium after labor and closely monitored until I was discharged 3 days later. Our daughter only spent 6 days in the NICU (as I had the steroid shots for the lungs prior to being induced) and came home at a whopping 3lbs, 9oz! A week later my blood pressure had come down, but it took almost a month for it to be normal again.
So needless to say, there is hope! I made it 11 weeks longer with this pregnancy AND the baby survived ....with no signs of prematurity at her current 5 1/2 months except for her tiny size (a whopping 12 lbs)! It wasn't an easy road this time around and I did end up with severe preeclampisa...but NO HELLP. Now...if we had waited any longer to induce... maybe... but my doctors were amazing and I owe my life and my daughter's life to them!
April 2011 I lost our little girl to severe HELLP at 23 weeks. I almost lost my life as well and it was one of the most scariest, heartbreaking situations my husband and I have ever encountered. I posted on here last year regarding my story and it helped so much to see others were going through the same thing. But, what I really wanted was to see a story with someone having a healthy baby AFTER a pregnancy loss with HELLP so early on. I wanted something to hold on to to bring me hope that I could still be a Mom some day. I have started this post numerous times and deleted it... but I feel like I am not alone out there with these thoughts and my current story might bring that hope to someone else....
Nov 2011, 8 months after we lost our first angel, I found out I was pregnant again. My due date was 2 days off from the previous year. My husband and I were beyond terrified! I went in to my OB immediately and we made a plan. I was to be seen every 2 weeks with blood work taken each time. I did a urine analysis to get a base of where my numbers were at the start of my pregnancy. I was to have ultrasounds every month. And I was to take daily a baby aspirin, prescription prenatals, and folic acid. I was to also see a high risk OB at MFM once a month. My OBs were so supportive and even gave me cell phone numbers to call in case I needed anything! Our goal was for me to make it to 28 weeks...at 26 weeks that goal started to look unreachable.... I was hospitalized overnight due to my blood pressure being very high at an office visit and a small amount of protein spilling into my urine. Luckily liver functions were still normal. I was released the next day and was to be on moderate bed rest. I would now have to go twice a week to my regular OB and twice a month to the high risk OB. My blood pressures were all over the place, but everything else still looked decent. At 30 weeks I was re-admitted to the hospital for an extreme blood pressure and again, discharged the next day...but this time on complete bed rest. Now my weekly schedule was 2 OB appointments, 1 that included a fetal stress test and then a high risk OB apt. with a fetal stress test. By 33 weeks, exhibiting even higher blood pressures and more protein in my urine, the drs made the decision to hospitalize me for the remainder of my pregnancy. Over that weekend my liver levels began to rise and the fluid levels around the baby were going down. At 34 weeks I was induced and our 3lb, 11oz little girl was born the next day. I was put on the magnesium after labor and closely monitored until I was discharged 3 days later. Our daughter only spent 6 days in the NICU (as I had the steroid shots for the lungs prior to being induced) and came home at a whopping 3lbs, 9oz! A week later my blood pressure had come down, but it took almost a month for it to be normal again.
So needless to say, there is hope! I made it 11 weeks longer with this pregnancy AND the baby survived ....with no signs of prematurity at her current 5 1/2 months except for her tiny size (a whopping 12 lbs)! It wasn't an easy road this time around and I did end up with severe preeclampisa...but NO HELLP. Now...if we had waited any longer to induce... maybe... but my doctors were amazing and I owe my life and my daughter's life to them!
