Pregnant again after HELLP.. plus My Story

[lbaker]

Hi everyone! This is my first post and boy am I ever glad I found this website and forum! I finally feel like I have found a common place to share my experience where people will actually understand what I went through!

Where to begin.. well I should start by saying that I am 4 weeks pregnant (I know still very early) and I am all of a sudden terrified and very anxious about this pregnancy after having had HELLP Syndrome with my first. I haven't put any thought into it since being home and healthy a few weeks pp. My first born son is now a happy and healthy 22 month old!
I am looking to here for some helpful advice on 2nd pregnancies after HELLP because the stats are so scary!! All my doc's /OB have told me not to worry and not to let it stop my from having another but now that that day is here.. I'm freaking out because the risk is still very much there!

ok now for my story.. Before I got pregnant with my son i had 2 miscarriages both before 10 weeks with no explanation. Still hopeful, we tried again and this time things seemed to be perfect! Had a very easy pregnancy, no complications at all. The week I was due went to see the OB everything was fine, BP was good.. set an induction date b/c there was no signs of labour. Saw doc day before induction date, BP was high(sign #1) on 2 BP machines, they chalked it up to the machine must be acting up bc my BP had been perfectly fine the whole time (these tests were done by one of the student helpers). He said ok, everything looks fine your 2 centimetres dilated, if I don't see you later tonight I will see you tomorrow.. go home and rest.. so tried while having contractions 10 mins apart.

Midnight rolls around and I wake up with severe pain on my right side under my right breast and felt like I had to vomit. I ended up vomitting several times and could not sleep any more and went into the spare bedroom so my husband could get his rest. Finally, at 5:30am I could no longer handle the pain and woke my husband up. (Btw I was on call from 6am that morning to be induced) He said thats it we are going to the hospital, I don't care, there could be something wrong with the baby!
Got to the hospital by 6am feeling a lil stupid and got treated as such because of being on call. They were not going to help me bc there were 2 ppl waiting for a c section and another that was more critical than me. I started crying bc I was in soo much pain and my husband lost it on the nurses insisting that they do something bc we were not leaving. Finally a doc comes to see me and decided to run some blood work, waiting for those results took what seemed like forever. When they came back the doctor said you both need to sit down.. she tried to explain things very calmly and said that I had been bumped up to #1 priority and that we need to get this baby out asap!

We really, at the time, did not understand what was happening bc it was all happening so fast. Going from fine to most critical was so confusing and all I could think about was yay we are having the baby finally! They started the magnesium sulfate drip right away. Along with meds to help my dilation. I was eventually induced and rounds of bloodwork every 3 hours. My platelets were dropping at an unbelievable rate! I almost did not have enough time to get an epidural (bc they feared I would bleed to much getting it in) and they were planning a c section. As soon as I hit 10 cm (which was around 11 at night) they started screaming push.. within 15 mins I delivered my beautiful, healthy baby boy (that we were told was a girl, yes shock of a lifetime on top of being sick!!) They latched him on to my breasts right away and thank goodness he was a natural latcher (one easy thing!). Right after breast feeding for the first time I went unconscious. I remember waking up to a team of ppl around me calling my name and being like ya, I'm here, Im fine! lol

Immediately after delivery the lights were out and no visitors aloud. This room was my home for the next 3 days with blood work round the clock every 3 hours. my platelets were still dropping and my liver and kidneys were starting to fail, as expected a bit of a decline after birth before rebounding. MY platelets got down to under 10,000 and at 50 they were already talking blood transfusion but were trying to hold off. Last round of blood work before transfusion and it started to climb!! Yes finally! So I ended up not having one, miraculously things started to change and I slowly started to get better! The road to recovery was not easy! I ended up staying in the hospital for 5 days and was only able to feed my son while laying down in bed and could not even hold him!

I owe my life to my wonderful husband and all the amazing doctors and nurses that took such good care of me and my baby while we were there! I did not understand just how close I was to dying until after I was home and researched it. All medical staff kept telling me I was "very sick". Sorry but I don't associate very sick with dying! I was just thinking ok.. so Im sick.. thats fine, Ill get better not that i was dying and might not make it out alive. Two very different things!!

Sorry for the long post, thank you for taking the time to read my rant! Hopefully you can see why Im so terrified, I do not want to experience anything like that again!! Hoping and praying for a better outcome this time! xx

[tree]

Welcome to the forums! Congrats on your second pregnancy. I hope it goes much more smoothly than the first! I am glad to hear that you and your son are doing well now. HELLP stinks, and it scares the heck out of all of us. I also got sick really quickly and got significantly worse after delivery. It is really hard to process the idea that I was that close to dying. This place is really good for that. We wish we didn't "get it", but we do.

I think it is perfectly normal and sane to be scared that HELLP could happen again. I haven't been brave enough to try again for that reason. We have had posters go on to perfectly healthy second pregnancies, less complicated second pregnancies, and rough second pregnancies. I am sure that some of them will chime in soon with encouraging stories. PE usually occurs later and in a more mild form n subsequent pregnancies, which should work in your favor.

While there is nothing that can prevent or treat PE/HELLP, most of us would be more comfortable with more frequent and more thorough monitoring. Many women here see a Maternal Fetal Medicine (MFM, high-risk pregnancy) specialist after having PE. I really like the idea of transferring as much worry as possible to the doctors, but that is difficult to do. Are you comfortable with your doctors and their plan for your pregnancy? Have they discussed what (if anything) they will do differently this time?

[ssaunders]

I was told I had HELLP. I had symptoms of pre e from 27 weeks to 41, swelling, and seeing spots, bp was always right under 140/90. So heres my story, I was scheduled for a csection around 41 weeks. Everything went smoothly. They kept me in the hospital for a week because thats as long as my insurance would pay for it and they wanted my fever to break. They had no clue why I had a fever. My swelling wasn't going down either but they weren't really concerned about it. Some of the nurses seemed to care, but my doctor didn't. they released me. The first night home, I didn't feel well. I was dizzy. But didn't know any better. I went to the doctor the next day. The nurse laughed at me because I hadn't lost any weight, she said "what is wrong with you?" and giggled. I wanted to cry. He gave me lasix for the swelling and more antibiotics because my fever was back.
That night while my husband and son were asleep, I just couldn't go to sleep. I went to the bathroom and noticed a rash on my chest. The first thing I thought was: allergic reaction. Lasix has sulfa in it, I am allergic to sulfa and my doctor knew that. I looked it up, figured it out, took some benedryl and laid back down. I got up a few minutes later and it was spreading. I called my doctor, he said to go back to sleep and sounded MAD. I called my mom and she took me to the ER.
I thought I would go to the ER and just get a shot and come home. They tried to control the rash but it just kept spreading. They kept moving me further into the ER, switching rooms. The nurse came in to check on me after getting moved to a different hall. My bp was 177/90 and climbing. My body was completely red, head to toe. I could sense her urgency. She stood there and hit an alarm, asked about chest pain, which I had, and it went up to 190/110. I told her I saw spots. she asked if my doctor knew about this, and I said yes. I was diagnosed with pre eclampsia due to my bp, swelling, and spots. I did not and never did have protien in my urine.
They stabilized me and put me on mag in ICU. A few days later I was back in L&D with my son and husband. The nurse came in and was a little panicked. she asked about my blood work history. She told me my labs were in and my platelets were in the millions and should be under 400. She said this happened because I had suffered from HELLP and my body was trying to fix itself in a hurry. Thats why I turned red.
I am now 25 weeks pregnant and doing good. No swelling. But I am starting to see spots.. I go to the doctor tomorrow. My dr is monitoring me very close. I am very thankful for that.
good luck with everything and keep us updated.

[tree]

I am glad that your doctor is monitoring you more closely this time. It sounds like you went through a really rough time last time. Seeing spots is concerning. Please make sure to get that checked out tomorrow and call in ASAP if you feel worse, get a headache, swelling, etc. tonight. I hope your pregnancy is long and healthy.

[Vickyjayne]

I saw spots, you must tell the doctor this as I had them the week the pre eclampsia escalated into hellp. This happened within 12 hours

[ssaunders]

I am 34 weeks now. I still see spots. But my doctor is watching me very closely. She brings me in for weekly NSTs. She just took a whole lot of labs, blood work. I get an ultrasound Monday. My bp was 112/82. She doesn't like the bottom number. I should get the results from the blood work tomorrow. I hope it is good! If everything goes smoothly I will deliver at 38 weeks by csection, may 27th thank you both.

How is your second pregnancy going, lbaker?