nearly died of HELLP Syndrome

Posted On Saturday, September 24, 2011  by Lisa

I lost three naturally conceived pregnancies and did many failed fertility attempts before deciding to move on to DE IVF (at the advice of several REs).  However, at the advice of a therapist whose help I sought to deal with the grief I also had immunological and clotting tests run and I came up positive for APA with elevated NK count.  My RE said I should move on to DE and if I got pregnant I should take low dose prednizone during the first trimester and inject lovenox, a blood thinner, for the duration of the pregnancy.  I did both with my pregnancy, achieved with the help of an egg donor (first two possible donor cycles cancelled due to problems with the donors' health histories and response to stims.)  We transferred one hatching blastocyst.  I got a positive pregnancy test and took low dose prednizone during the first trimester and injected a blood thinner for most of my pregnancy.  Two days after ceasing blood thinner injections (1 week before scheduled c-section necessary due to a fibroid blocking my cervix) I came down with the worst class of HELLP that ruptured my liver, caused a stroke and put me in a 3 week long coma from which the doctors were not certain I'd emerge.  I was on a respirator, ventilator, feeding tube, and had to learn to speak, swallow, walk, talk, and think again.  I did all this during almost a year of various therapies at four different hospitals. Blessedly most of this was covered by dual health insurance through our trade unions AND I got world-class health care.  However, I wish that more OBs and REs were educated about APA and Pre-E as I think some of this could have been avoided if the very expensive experts whom I consulted had more knowledge.

Would like to find support in the LA area as I know of no one else who has endured this illness and none of my friends, not even the women in the DE support group I started, can understand what this has been like.