What does the abdominal pain feel like?

[atvlady]

My HELLP pain felt like the bottoms of my ribs had a intense, dull ache on both sides, left and right. Mine was never front and back, only front or back. I have read on various sites that this is "banding" pain. For me it was VERY uncomfortable and when I would go to bed, it got worse. I would sleep a couple hours and get up in a LOT of pain. I woudl take tylenol, set on the glider for a couple hours and then try to go back to bed.

[seriouslymommy]

To me, the onset of Pre-E and HELLP was like a pulled muscle. I remember telling the nurse that I had gone swimming (At thirty six weeks and five days, "swimming" was more like walking around the pool!) and had maybe over done it.

I was in a lot of pain for four days, thinking "Okay, if it doesn't let up tomorrow I will go in."

It dawned on me, while I was on my hands and knees in the shower with the hottest water my body could stand that maybe this wasn't normal pregnancy aches and pains.

As soon as I got to Labor and Deliver, they checked everything they needed to and confirmed I definitely had pre-e and later on during my labor I would develop HELLP syndrome. (Something I had never heard of.)

I'm really blessed to have made it as far as I did in my pregnancy, and my little girl was born naturally and is now a happy and healthy 21 month old.

My advice to any one asking, if you have any pain on your upper right side go see your provider. He or she should take your concerns very seriously.

[jend01]

I had gall stones a year before my pregnancy and had my gall bladder removed. I had the worst pain I have ever had. I was doubled over crying and throwing up a lot with no relief a few times and went to the ER a few times before having it removed. When I was pregnant a year later I had the same type of thing happen. I thought it might have had something to do with the gall bladder surgery and never even mentioned it to my doctors. Needless to say it wasn't because of my previous surgery; I never knew that was a symptom of something much worse. Luckily my son and I both made it out ok.

[angieb]

My pains actually started about three weeks before I was finally diagnosed. For me, it felt like being stabbed. The pain would move around, sometimes it was my back, sometimes under my ribs, sometimes I thought it was my lungs. It was hard to pinpoint. It was the worst at night when I tried to sleep, and not bad usually during the day, especially when I was on my feet working. For some reason, it was worse on the weekends when I laid around and tried to take it easy, and not so bad during the week.

One morning after being up all night in pain (thinking that this was normal pregnancy aches-this was my first pregnancy), I was getting ready for work and it hurt so bad I could barely stand. The pain was so bad it made me throw up, but shortly after that I felt better.I called the doctor anyway and they saw me right away, I told them I thought it was a kidney infection (because being 22 weeks pregnant at the time, I wet myself WHILE I was throwing up, and I didn't even realize I needed to pee at the time so I thought maybe it was a kidney infection.)By the time I saw the doctor, the pain was gone, and my urine was fine, and they ruled out a kidney infection.

A week later it was so bad that it hurt to breathe. It started at 8 pm Sunday night and even by 2am did not get better at all even after I tried tylenol, a heating pad, a back rub, etc. It felt like what I imagine it would feel to be stabbed, and it was constant.

I just wanted to share because for a lot of people it sounds like it was a one time thing. For me, it wasn't, but my case was also atypical-my blood pressure was never high, I never had the headache or anything like that, my urine was always fine. If I had went to the hospital sooner with the pain, it probably wouldn't have been diagnosed because even the day I finally went in to the hospital, my liver levels were only slightly elevated for the first round of bloodwork, it was 6 hours later that they were out of control, so I'm guessing a day or two before that my liver levels might have even still been normal at first.

[tls562]

I had a really high abdominal pain that I felt all the way around me...like a band under my breasts. Hard to explain but it came on suddenly and was very intense. I had it with contractions and thought it was the contractions causing it. I didn't have preclampsia so I never imagined I'd have HELLP. I had never even heard of it and hadn't had any problems my entire preg. I went to Labor and Delivery that night because of the contractions and thank God I did. I had an emergency C section and they said if I wouldn't have come in when I did it may have been fatal...so scary. Best wishes to you!

[fuzzball420]

For me, as another poster said, I thought it was just the normal discomfort of pregnancy. It was my first pregnancy and thought I was just being a wimp. I didn't want to be one of those whiny types (stupid me!!).

It started out where I woke up in the middle of the night and just couldn't get back to sleep. I've always been a fabulous sleeper so although it was odd, I was 25 weeks pregnant and had absolutely positively NO unpleasant synmptoms so I thought finally, this seems like a normal pregnancy thing.

The next night I woke up a little sooner, couldn't sleep. Noticed a dull ache on my right side of my chest. I assumed it must be heartburn, took some tums but it didn't work.

Third night, never did fall asleep, pain in my side was steady but not unbearable, no vomiting just felt really uncomfortable. Also I noticed a little trouble breathing, but having asthma and getting fatter, I didn't think it was really anything, although I did notice it didn't FEEL like an asthma attack, but I explained it away in my head.

Fourth night. Miserable. Still really couldn't put my finger on why I felt so terrible, mild heartburn, some mild shortness of breath but I just could not get comfortable. Went to drug store bought huge bottle of Maalox. Convinced myself that it helped because I managed to fall asleep for about 3 minutes.

The next morning was Friday. I got up and drove to work (about 80 miles this particular day) Got to work, felt really really crummy. I decided I would see my 3 patients at work and see the OB that afternoon. I could barely walk into the building because I was SOOOO short of breath. Said to myself, alright, that's IT, something is definitely not right. Went upstairs, the nurses there took one look at me and said, do you feel ok? Uh, no. They took my BP it was 200/120. I was diagnosed with preeclampsia, HELLP syndrome and pulmonary edema (which explained my shortness of breath!!!!) Deliverd within 12 hours by C section

[mandie1982]

Hi there. I have had mild preeclampsia for a couple months now and I am 37.5 weeks pregnant. Over the last 5 days, I began to have pain in my upper abdomen, under my right breast. The pain is REALLY bad to the point where I am in tears and it is worst at night. It has helped slightly to lie on my left side and I have tried Tums and other things for heartburn. At the moment, after spending half the night in excruciating pain - it seems to be better. Not gone, but better. Unfortunately I am still very nauseous, somewhat dizzy and my vision is sort of funky. I have had no vomiting but I have had some diarrhea, which does not seem to alleviate the pain at all. I hesitate to eat anything at this point because eating seems to exacerbate it, especially later in the day. My gallbladder was removed almost a year ago and although this seems to be a similar pain in a similar area - I do NOT believe this is just pain from my enlarging uterus rubbing up against my inner scars. I called my midwife who wants me to come in today or tomorrow to be seen, when my regular appt is only one more day on Wednesday. I also have noticed pain sort of in my right shoulder blade area for a couple weeks now. It feels like I have been wearing a heavy backpack all day. Or at least it did - now that shoulder blade pain is worse too. I don't know much about preeclampsia but I was wondering if this might be related? My blood pressure has spiked to 169/100 a couple times and recently it has only been about 138/84 ish although it has been consistently higher than that number in the past. This last month it has been better than the prior month. I am not working or going to school because of the preeclampsia and have been resting a lot as my OB instructed. I am now back to seeing my midwives who are awesome! They are the ones who warned me to call about pain in my upper abdomen after seeing my BP measurement last week. I took the appt in 3.5 hours but the pain is getting bad again and I am contemplating going to the ER but I have no one to watch my 4 year old son. :( I have spilled protein in my urine but not lately. Things got under control again after all the resting to my OB released me back the midwives and now my BP is getting high again, plus all this other stuff. The midwife wants to do the blood work and 24 hour urine again to measure enzymes and protein. I am starting to feel so dizzy though on top of being sick from everything else. I am not sure if I can wait until 3:15! Does anybody here have experience with these symptoms? Could it be dangerous to wait to go in? I am afraid if I wait until the appt time I won't feel well enough to drive.

[angieb]

Mandie- I really think you should go in ASAP.

[kellyebush]

I agree with Adelman90. I didn't have severe pain in my abdomen at all. I woke up with a migraine at 1am and took some Tylenol. The Tylenol made me have heartburn, so I took some Tums, which I almost immediately threw up. I was on the phone with my OB's answering service when the "heartburn" started and when I took the Tums. By the time the nurse called back I was in the bathroom vomiting up the Tums. The nurse sent me to the hospital for a BP check and it was 206/117. When the on-call doctor came in to tell me I had PE (which I had already figured out) and HELLP syndrome (I had never heard of), she pressed on my abdomen and asked if it hurt. At that point I realized it did, but it wasn't worse for me than my migraine or the heartburn.

BTW...I was 27 years old, on my third pregnancy and had had NO problems with PE or HELLP in the other pregnancies and they were all my children with my husband. The doctors were baffled as to how I wound up getting HELLP. They told my husband that my body was rejecting the pregnancy and asked him if he was the father of all of my children...as I lay in the bed in critical condition. I know it is rare to have it happen like I did...but it DOES happen. I have actually met other women on other board who had HELLP in 4th or 5th pregnancies after having no problems with PE or HELLP in earlier ones.

[riehlism]

Mine started like I needed to burp. After I forced myself to burp it went away. Then the following day at after lunch...same thing but it didn't go away. I was already in the hospital for a week and 2 days. After the burpy feeling I started feeling sharp stabbing pains around the base of my sternum. The pain got so intense within minutes. I was given morphine for the pain and who knows what else. I delivered our son very soon after.