petechiae

[rgrwife]

One week ago, I delivered my son by emergency c-section due to severe preeclampsia and HELLP. I have these tiny purplish dots all over my stomach. My doctor said it's called petechiae and it's from my blood plateletes being so low. I guess it has something to do with the c-section, since it's only on my stomach. He said he wasn't sure if they would go away. They seem to have faded just a little. Did any of you have this? Will it eventually go away?

[jenprzygoda]

I have never heard of it, but I would wait and see if Caryn stops by and has any info - she is my science geek idol! I wonder if it has anything to do with how low the platelets go. Mine went to 15,000. I hope you and baby are doing well. FYI - even though my platelets went so low, I now have a high enough platelet count that I was able to do a double donation today. I hope the petechiae gets better just like the platelets go back up. Take care.

[caryn]

Laura, they're like little bruises, areas where your blood vessels were leaking into the skin, and they mean you were *really* sick, almost to the point of DIC (disseminated intravascular coagulation, which usually means blood transfusions because your platelets are getting so smashed up by the disease that oxygen isn't reliably getting to your brain any more.)

I assume they will go away -- bruises go away. I didn't have them, but I'm sure someone else with Class I HELLP has had them, so you could try searching on "petechiae" in the search engine, or just waiting for someone with a more similar history to chime in.

(Jen, you just made. my. week. Thank you!)

[tree]

My platelets didn't get all that low, but I had little spots of petchiae. They were mostly near my blood draw sites and a few other places. It did go away in a week or so.

[l412angel]

I had this as well on my chest...went away within about a week

[rgrwife]

Thanks Ladies! Caryn - wow, that is interesting! They told me I was on the severe end but I didn't know all of that could happen. I was also jaundice. Some of the nurses came in to look at me since they had never seen anything like that before! Crazy what HELLP does...

[jenmatt1]

I had them all over my body - even in place they didn't touch during the c-section. I had 2 blood platelet transfusions since my platelet levels were so low and that seemed to help me feel better, but the bruises took a few weeks to go away. They were all over my belly, arms, legs, backs, - everywhere except my face.

[jules2]

I had them on my face, but they did go away quite quickly - hope they do for you too.

Best wishes x

[cmiller1965]

I had it after my first pregnancy, was not aware of having any Pregnancy Induced Hypertension disorders, and did not have a c-section, but was anemic. It eventually went away, can't remember how long it took.