Pregnancy with pre-eclampsia & HELLP Syndrome
I became pregnant with my one & only child when I was 27 years old. Things were "normal" until I developed extreme swelling around 22 weeks. By week 26 I was so swollen I could barely walk. I began having changes in vision & what I thought was heartburn or indigestion. I was misdiagnosed by a team of midwives who did not take my symptoms seriously despite protein in my urine & elevated blood pressure. My husband demanded testing be done as we knew something wasn't right. I was diagnosed with preeclampsia around 30 weeks & transferred to high risk OB care. At a routine prenatal appointment I was admitted & induced at 34 weeks with bp of 140/90 & protein +++500. My platelets had been dropping while liver enzymes were rising. I labored 22 hours & experienced a natural birth. The following day my platelets dropped by half & were 68,000. The 5 days postpartum in the hospital were a blur from the magnesium & I was barely able to see my baby in NICU. I was blind in my right eye & with Labetalol my bp was a consistent 160/120. My bp was not controlled by the medication but I was finally released to go home when my platelets began rising. I visited the OB office weekly for bp checks & was taken off the meds after vasodilating walking to the NICU to see my baby. I didn't realize until afterwards this was partially due to post-traumatic stress. My bp & labs eventually returned to normal ranges & my baby was able to come home after 3 weeks.
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