At 30 weeks I woke up in terrible pain. A stabbing pain that went from my right upper abdomen to my shoulder. As a nurse, I just assumed it was my gallbladder so my husband and I went to the ER where it was confirmed that I did have gallstones. The next day I had my gallbladder removed and due to some high BP readings, they went ahead and checked a 24hr urine protein. I was diagnosed with mild preeclampsia the next day and sent home to monitor.

Six days later, on Memorial Day I just felt off all day. I checked my BP right before bed and it was 184/124. We rushed to the ER and I was immediately started on BP meds and steroids and magnesium in L&D. I was transferred to the high risk floor the next day. Five days later they called in my room and said my liver enzymes were too high and I had to be induced due to developing HELLP syndrome. I had a very normal, natural delivery at 32 weeks and 2 days. My son Leo was doing great and just needed some C-pap.

36 hours after delivery I was in tremendous pain and I started gettting a nose bleed and bleeding from my IV sites. The doctors finally agreed to check my platelets and they were 25. I was transferred to a larger hospital with an ICU and my BP was 50/20 and platelets had dropped to 15. I had a CT scan done and I had a 50% rupture of my liver.

The next day after lots of platelets and blood I had an IR procedure to essentially glue my liver to stop the bleeding. Two days after that I had a complication from the closure device and ended up with a femoral artery aneurysm that blocked 50% of my femoral artery. I had surgery on that and a few hours later the NICU called us to let us know that Leo had a malrotation and would need an urgent ex-lap in the morning to fix it.

Four days later I was finally transferred back to the women’s hospital where another CT was done and they found a 50% pleural effusion of my lung and I was sent back to ICU and had a chest tube placed.

Three days later I was sent to the Ronald McDonald house where we stayed for 22 days until Leo could come home from the NICU. Aside from his surgery, he did great and really had no complications. I on the other hand ended up with 6 units of blood, 4 units of fresh frozen plasma (FFP) and 4 units of platelets, two surgeries and a chest tube and an 11 day ICU stay.

We are now 8 months removed from it all and I have been back at work for just three months. I was finally cleared at about 5.5 months postpartum to lift and carry more than 25 pounds and my liver CT was better. My mom had preeclampsia and HELLP while pregnant with me, but we had no idea how bad it could get or how quickly. I am so thankful for my high risk nurse and my mom who advocated greatly for a platelet check and got the ball rolling.