Im new here, and terrified!

[Sargemommy10]

@Tree, thank you for welcoming me! I appreciate all of the information you gave me. I am so glad that I found this forum and it puts my mind at ease a little more to know that i can always ask you ladies questions..and can turn here for some support!

Thanks again!

[Sargemommy10]

@Rachelc, my doctor is doing nothing more at this point to monitor me, besides the normal things. He even went as far to tell me at my last appointment, that "even if I do get pre-e/HELLP that it probably won't happen until late in the 3rd trimester so I really shouldnt worry or discuss it right now". All that coming from the same doctor I seen last pregnancy and when I went in for my appointment at 36 weeks, protein was extremely high in my urine, I was having spotty, blurred vision and blood pressure was elevated. He checked my blood pressure numerous times, went to check my urine, came back in the room and said "you have a high amount of protein in your urine so I want you to do a 24 hour urine sample this weekend(this was on friday) then take it to the hospital on Sunday, if it doesnt look good then I will just see you back in about 2 weeks and talk about inducing you then." I thought that was just crazy in itself! I never even got to start the 24 hour urine b/c that night I started having contractions around 11pm, tried to just get some sleep b/c they werent timeable but I finally got out of bed around 5am and told my husband it was time to go to the hospital. I was having such horrible pain on my right side and back, it felt like my insides were being ripped out of me and I started vomiting uncontrollably. I got to the hospital and my blood pressure was 220/174, when I blacked out. I remember hearing the nurse tell me to talk to her, but I couldnt see anything or talk. they were saying that they couldnt find my sons heartbeat anymore and tried to turn my bed down so I would be face down but the bed was jammed, so within minutes they rushed me to the OR. I remember my dad telling me that he had just arrived at my room and they wouldnt let him in, he didnt know what was happening and then he seen them roll me out of the room. He said I was on all fours with a sheet thrown over me b/c I had no clothes on...he followed the nurses and got on the elevator beside them and he said all the way up he could hear me screaming in the elevator beside him "someone help me". The nurses told me after I woke from my surgery that they were surprised to see my son alive at delivery because they all thought he was already gone, they were just trying to save me.

sorry, I got off on a tangent there, but my point of telling all of that was that, when all of that was happening the nurses tried to call my doctor (he was the one on call) and told him it was an emergency and they didnt know if I would survive much longer, asked how soon he could be there to deliver and everything. His response was, "its going to be a little while because Im going to finish having breakfast with my wife first." So they called the female doctor and she stayed on the phone with the nurse until she got to the hospital, rushed in wearing her regular clothes, got back to the OR and did my c-section. She didnt take the time to put on scrubs or wash up, or even clean my stomach and sterilize it because she knew if she did that i wouldnt survive. Now, when I went in to the office for this pregnancy...he walked in the first time I seen him and said "its nice to meet you." He didnt and still doesnt remember me and didnt remember anything about what happened to me before. Even after I told him everything over again, he acted clueless. So I had to see him the other day at my appointment and I looked at him and said "I want you to refer me to a high risk doctor, so maybe I will actually be monitored more closely this time. My goal is to prevent it with this pregnancy, not just wait until it happens and Im almost dead again before anything is done about it." he was so shocked, and just said "umm yeah,sure"

So now, hopefully, my high risk doctor will help me out, and I can put my trust and faith in them, because I sure can't do that with my OB!

[rachelc]

What is your doctor doing now to monitor you? Are you having labs drawn on a routine basis? I'm not sure what your current pain could be from but, I would definitely want to have that investigated further.

[Sargemommy10]

@Emilybear, I am so sorry to hear about the loss of your sweet baby and your hard times with HELLP. It is such a scary thing to have happen to you, and until someone has gone through it..I feel like they dont truly understand how traumatic and devistating it can be to a woman and her family. Thank you for your advice, I do have a medical university in my city and I actually called around this morning and got an appoinmtment with an MFM so hopefully they will steer me in the right direction this time. All I can do is hope and pray for the best right now!

[tree]

Hi Sargemommy. I am sorry that you had to find us here. Welcome to the forum. I am glad to hear that your son is doing well.
It sounds like you had an incredibly scary delivery. I also felt bad and had some PE symptoms throughout my pregnancy before I finally got sick too. It is pretty common. It is also common to feel completely fine and then get sick quickly, or to feel pretty darn terrible and not actually get PE. That makes it pretty difficult to predict if any of us will develop PE in a subsequent pregnancy. Many PE symptoms are similar to "normal" miserable pregnancy symptoms.

We have posters who have had terrible first pregnancies and perfectly healthy second pregnancies. We also have posters who have developed PE in subsequent pregnancies. Most doctors believe that preeclampsia will be milder and later if it occurs at all. Your doctor will give you a much better guess on how likely you are to develop PE again since they have information on your medical history and any underlying issues. I agree with Emilybear's suggestion to find a high risk doctor (Maternal Fetal Medicine (MFM)). An MFM can help you develop a plan to manage this pregnancy if you are not comfortable relying solely on your OB. Pregnancies after PE are terrifying, and many women find comfort in a highly competent doctor who communicates effectively with them. It really helps to have a doctor who takes your concerns seriously and one who understands how sick you were last time. They need to be medically competent, but they also need to be emotionally supportive. Your OB may have a recommendation for an MFM or you could look for an MFM here.
https://www.smfm.org/default.cfm

If I were in your shoes, I would want to know what the management plan looks like if everything goes well. I would also want to know what symptoms would start to concern the doctor, when I should call, when I should go in, if I should monitor blood pressures at home, etc. There are few threads that have detailed lists of questions for doctors. Many of them are for women who aren't pregnant yet, but your list might include some of the same questions.

Many women also find comfort and support here. We hope that we can provide that for you. Keep posting and let us know how you are doing. This is scary, but many women here have found a way to get through it.

[EmilyBear]

I too suffered from preeclampsia; however, I was not so lucky and lost my little one when I had a severe placenta abruption. Do you live nearby a city with a med school? If so, I'd suggest that you find a high risk doctor so that they can monitor you carefully.

Laura

[Sargemommy10]

Hi everyone! My name is Heather, I am 22 years old and have a little boy who just turned one on the 1st this month! He was delivered at 36 weeks by emergency c-setion due to me having pre-e and HELLP syndrome. My entire pregnancy I felt like something was off, and I always told my doctors all of the symptoms I was having but they would always shrug it off and say 'oh those are just pregnancy symptoms" I of course, trusted them and I havd never experienced pregnancy before so I decided that it must all just be normal. Around 20 weeks in my pregnancy I started getting the dreaded pain in my right side, and my right shoulder. doctors told me it was just my son laying on a nerve or pressing on my back too hard, so I just bared with it until that night, at 36 weeks pregnant. i thought i was in labor, and I remember telling my husband "if this is what labor feels like, im never having kids again and i want a c-section when we get to the hospital. We pulled up at the hospital and my husband let me out to go park the car so I could go ahead and grab a wheelchair to sit in for the ride up to l&d. I managed to make it up to my room, all for the nurse to hook me up to the monitors and tell me I wasnt contracting and wasnt in labor. she was basically trying to understand how I could be in so much pain if I wasnt in labor. She went to call the doctor and I passed out and went into shock. My mil ran and got a nurse, my placenta was rupturing and my sons heart rate dropped off. They rushed me into a c-section and told my husband as they left not to expect me or our son to survive. we got to the hospital at 7 am that morning and my son was born at 7:42, he wasnt breathing at first but once they got him breathing he was perfectly healthy. I, on the other hand, lost way too much blood and almost did not survive the surgery. I had severe complications afterwards and was hospitilized for a while!

after dealing with that traumatic experience, we had decided we didnt want anymore children. well one little slip up on my birth control pill, and im pregnant again! im terrified and i have no one to talk to who really understands how serious it all was and is. I am 15 weeks pregnant now and my doctors are not providing me with the care that I feel I need so I am in the process and finding a new obgyn and a high risk doctor. My question for you ladies is this...I am already started to feel some of the symptoms that I did with my son. I have a constant headache that seems to never end, with some blurred vision here and there. I have also been having a lot of pain in my right kidney and lower back, making it tender to even touch my ribs sometimes. I know these symptoms can also just be caused from normal pregnancy so I dont want to seem crazy and go to the er every time it happen. I have done a lot of research and found that most of the time pre-e and HELLP occur in the late 2nd and 3rd trimester, but has anyone experienced it sooner than that? I am scared to death of dying or of my baby having to be born to early and I want to try and do everything in my power to prevent this, including getting my doctors to actually start listening to me for a change! Thank you all for listening to my story and I appreciate any advice you have to give!