May is National Preeclampsia Awareness Month. For those of you who do not know what Preeclampsia is, it is a condition woman can develop during pregnancy that needs to be monitored in order to ensure good health for mother and baby. This isn't always the case, and at times the condition can become life threatening.
I personally have never had Preeclampsia, but I did have HELLP syndrome which is linked to Preeclampsia. However, my HELLP was not, and developed on its own. In celebration of Preeclampsia awareness month, I am going to recount my birth story. It is important for me to do so because I feel this is the best way to spread awareness about something that threatened my life that I originally was not very educated about.
.........ok, here we go....
My pregnancy for the most part was great. I found myself pushing harder and harder to keep up with my workouts. I look back now and think of how crazy I must have seemed to my Zumba students. I taught 5 days a week and ran 2 days a week. Maybe it was vanity, or maybe it was the fact that it took me so long to recover from my delivery with my daughter, but I refused to just sit back and "relax."
The night of October 27th was a rough night for me. I had a 5K walk for Cervical Cancer Awareness the next day on the 28th and needed to get some sleep. I woke up in the middle of the night with horrible pain. It felt like it was under my ribcage and then went from there around to my back on the right side. I thought it was how he was laying inside, but it almost seemed like I was having an attack. I thought it might be gallbladder or something along those lines. I was up for hours. Since I was not able to take much for pain, I took Tylenol. Things calmed down, but I became sore in the area under my ribs. I did the 5K the next day, but never felt any better.
Anyone who knows me knows that I am very hard headed and stubborn. I am also a pretty tough cookie. I battled through this pain for the next week. Eventually it wasn't just at night, but during the day too. I still taught my Zumba class, but at this point thought that perhaps the baby was getting too big for me to be doing so much activity. I decided that since he was due in December that I would stop teaching around Thanksgiving and have subs come in to teach my class.
Because of Hurricane Sandy, trick-or-treat was postponed until November 1st. I remember coming home after work and telling my Husband that I just wanted to get the evening over with. I felt bad because my daughter was looking forward to her evening dressed as Bat Girl, so I put on a happy face, but I was in pain and tired from no sleep. My husband told me that night before we went to bed that I needed to quit playing "tough guy" and call the doctor. That night I was up for 5 hours with pain. Terrible terrible pain. I even thought about going to the ER, but I just kept telling myself it was how he was laying. I popped more Tylenol and finally got back to sleep at 5am.
The next morning I told my husband I was calling the doctor, and so I did. I called them around 9 or 10 and told them about my pain. I told them I thought it was my gallbladder, and they scheduled me an ultrasound for Monday, but wanted me to come in the office to be seen that day just to make sure everything was ok.
I got there around noon, my mom and I both had Fridays off and she took me to my appointment. Dr. Assaley was in and listened to the baby's heartbeat and took my blood pressure. His heart rate was normal, and my blood pressure was also in the normal range, but was slightly elevated for me personally. My doctor said that he wanted me to get some blood work before I headed home, so that is what I did right after my appointment.
My mom and I went to Wal-mart after I had my blood taken, then went to eat at Chick-fil-a. At around 3 o'clock I got a phone call while my daughter was playing in the play place. It was my nurse from Dr. Assaley's office, I was instructed to get to Labor and Delivery immediately and was told to make sure I didn't eat anything.....oops..... :(
I was scared to death when I got to the hospital. As I mentioned before, he was due in December, December 14th. This was November 2nd. I was exactly 34 weeks to the day. It was too early, he was too little. I get to the hospital where I was greeted by two nurses, 2 residents, and an Anesthesiologist. I was told my doctor was on his way and I was hooked up to monitors and a blood pressure cuff that took my blood pressure every, I don't know, 15 minutes it seemed. I was so confused. I never asked my doctor what test he was ordering and to be honest I didn't really care. I trusted him and figured he was just trying to be over cautious. He was being over cautious, but because he suspected that I was much sicker than I let on.
I called my husband at work crying my eyes out, I had no idea what was going on but I knew before anyone told me that I would be delivering soon. They took my blood again, Dr. Assaley came in the room and explained to me what was going on. I had HELLP syndrome. Excuse me? What? What the heck is that? I'm fine, I'm healthy, no swelling, no protein in my urine, no high blood pressure. What are you talking about?
http://www.preeclampsia.org/health-information/hellp-syndrome?gclid=CK7myK6vp7cCFcN9Ogodj20AyQ
All I could think about was my baby, what would happen to my baby?
The final test results came back, I would be having an emergency c-section after I had a platelet transfusion. If you click the link above you will see information about HELLP syndrome. My platelet levels were dangerously low. Typical levels should be between 150,000-450,000, mine were in the 30,000. After my transfusion, I was taken to surgery, my baby was delivered at 6:23pm. He weighted 3lbs 8oz and was 16 inches long. So tiny. I remember waking up from my c-section and asking in my haze over and over again his weight, if he was breathing, where he was.
He was taken to the NICU and put on c-pap. I was put on Magnesium and given 2 bags of blood. Let me just add that Magnesium is probably one of the nastiest drugs ever. It makes you feel terrible, you can't think, and you feel like you can't breath. It was needed though to help keep me from having a seizure or a stroke, both complications of HELLP. I couldn't eat, the idea made me sick. Everyone seemed so concerned about me, which bothered me. I didn't care, I was worried about my baby. I was too stubborn to let surgery or this weird illness get me down. People were calling me, I had blood taken every 4 hours, the blood pressure cuff never left my arm, I was hooked up to monitors and IV's. My arms looked like I had been shooting up drugs for 10 years.
Luke was doing well, off his C-PAP after a day, he was breathing room air, the only thing he was waiting on was his mommy. I got to see him the next day after they took me off Mag. I got to hold him. His nurses said he was agitated, didn't want anyone touching him, cried it they tried to. But as soon as I came to see him, held him in my arms he stopped crying and opened his eyes to look at me.
The next two days I worked my way out of my bed and walked as much as I had energy for. C-sections are already rough on a body, it is not how we are meant to deliver a baby, not to mention I was sore from laying in bed and the bruising from my non-clotting :(
I got dressed out of my gown, took a shower, put make-up on. I needed to feel better and I find the best way to start that is to look better. I was discharged that Monday, my doctor knew I would be in the NICU all the time anyways and my levels were looking great.
Luke spent the next 2 weeks in the NICU trying to gain weight. He did so well and was released before his expected due date!
Fast forward to today, we are both doing well. Very well. At the time I paid little attention to myself. As a mom, it is my job to worry about my kids, but when I got home the research started. I looked up HELLP, the symptoms, how rare it is. How did this happen? I was healthy, in shape, I only gained 18lbs. My doctor reassured me there was nothing I could have done differently. He did however tell me that all the exercise wasn't a waste. It may have saved our lives because another complication of HELLP, is congestive heart failure. My heart was strong, I had kept my blood pressure at bay, all from keeping up with my workouts and trying to stay as fit as possible.
I am sorry this was so long and if you have read this far you are almost finished :)
May is now a great month for me to celebrate life, my life, the life of my family! For the attentiveness of my doctor, who I will be forever grateful! Dr. Assaley has been more than a doctor to me and my family and I am so blessed he was with us through this process!
Luke's NICU doctors and nurses (esp Kathy) were encouraging and helpful. They helped ease my fears, and of course took wonderful care of my baby.
If you have time please read this article with the two accounts of these woman who didn't have the best recovery. Sadly, not all women or babies suffering from HELLP get that chance. It is life threatening and to this day I wish I had paid more attention to my body.http://www.preeclampsia.org/component/lyftenbloggie/2011/06/06/87-hellp-syndrome-seminar-offers-patient-a-provider-perspective
Until next time :)
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