(TLDR: I had HELLP Syndrome and had no symptoms except back pain)

I wanted to share my birth story because it is something I never expected and I am hoping it can help someone. I will try and keep it short!

I was 38 weeks pregnant and had been having back pain on my right side for about a week that was getting progressively worse. I always had back issues so I assumed it was the baby pushing on a nerve or something like that. I had gone to the doctor on a Wednesday and told her about my back pain and that I was also having bad heartburn, she told me I could take Zantac and Tylenol. 

Friday rolls around and I hadn’t been able to get up from the couch most of the day because of how bad my back pain was. Saturday morning it was so bad that I ended up calling the hospital and they told me to come in for what they thought might be a kidney stone. Now when I say bad back pain, I mean I could barely speak, sit down, and function. I have a very high pain tolerance and this pain almost was so bad it was making me black out. The type of pain was constant, not sharp, just a horrible aching pain.

I was at the hospital for about an hour or so and they had run some blood tests that came back abnormal and they told me I needed to be induced because they thought I was developing preeclampsia. I was in shock and couldn't really understand how this was happening so quickly. Prior to this I literally had the best pregnancy, didn’t even get morning sickness. 

I was induced with something in an IV, a pill, and the balloon (I also later got pitocin too). As the day went on my blood tests were getting worse and worse and the doctor started talking about a c-section which I really did not want. She told me my blood platelets were dropping and my liver enzymes were skyrocketing, of course I didn’t really understand any of this. 

I ended up being able to try a vaginal delivery, but I only had one hour to push before going in for a c-section. After being in labor for 12 hours, I pushed my baby out in 10 mins thankfully avoiding the c-section. After the delivery I was able to spend a few hours with my baby before my blood tests got so bad that I needed to be sent to the ICU. 

My husband and I still did not really understand what was going on until I got to the ICU and they diagnosed me with HELLP Syndrome, a rare disease (1 in 1,000). My awful back pain was actually my liver failing.

I spent 3 days in the ICU where I felt totally fine and normal but my blood tests were showing I was very sick. The doctors could not understand how I had literally no symptoms of this disease and how I was in such good spirits and functioning like a normal person while tests were showing the opposite. They did not explain everything in detail to me until everything was looking up, but apparently the mortality rate can be high with this disease if it is not caught quick enough, thankfully mine was. 

There are many, many more gritty details to my stay in the hospital, but I wanted to tell this story incase it happens to anyone else. 

In short- I had a great pregnancy, no symptoms that I should of had for HELLP Syndrome except back pain. Listen to your body, and never hesitate to call the hospital and go in. The baby was always great, never in distress thankfully, but I got to the point of almost needing blood transfusions and doctors being concerned about the long term damage. 

I am now fine, baby is amazing, and everything is great! Still being watched for 6 weeks to make sure it does not re-occur, but they say I should be fine. With my next pregnancy I guess it can happen again, but I have not ventured asking about it quite yet.