3 time survivor

Posted On Tuesday, April 19, 2011  by Nicole

Hello,

My name is Nicole.  I am 34 years old and have 3 children.  I am a 3 time survivor of preeclampsia.  My first pregnancy was going smooth until my 28th week.  It all started going downhill when I had a severe headache for a couple of days.  When I called my doctor, they said to immediately go to the E.R.  When I arrived my blood pressure was 180/130.  Within the hour, I was helicoptered to a different hospital and my son was delivered with in 12 hours by emergency c-section.  They were not sure if I was going to make it, but luckily I did.  Unfortunately because of the prematurity, he did have brain damage.  We lost him when he was 2 years old to a virus.

My second pregnancy started with a new doctor.  She was determined to see if we could find the root cause of the preeclampsia.  She was very sympathic with my situation.  I was considered high-risk.  I had to undergo the 24 hour protein tests, and genetic blood work.  Everything came back fine.  Until I was at 32 weeks.  Here we go again.  The blood pressure spiked.  She admitted me to the hospital where I stayed until after I had my daughter.  I was able to hold her in, until I was 34 weeks.  That was an accomplishment!  She is now 4 years old and doing great.  After I had her, my doctor and I decided it would be best to get sterilized because my body does not handle pregnancy very well.

Well here comes baby number 3.  Yes, I had my tubes tied 4 years ago, because of my bad history with being pregnant.  I found out in May that I was pregnant.  At first we thought it was a tubal.  Sure enough I was actually pregnant again.  So the cycle started all over.  I had the 24 hour tests, constantly checking blood pressure and so on.  We thought I would be able to go longer, but did not.  At 31 weeks I was admitted to the hospital with high blood pressure.  I had my second daughter at 33 weeks.  It took my body a little longer to re-coop after it.  She is 5 months old and doing good. 

The doctors can not figure out why I get the disease so severely with each pregnancy.  But we do know with every pregnancy it is the same severity, it does not lessen.  This is very scary.  I am glad that I have survived that I can share my story and help others.