HELLP Syndrome and C-Section at 26 weeks (long)

I was 26 weeks pregnant and two of my coworkers had been out with the stomach flu earlier that week. So when I woke up with nausea, terrible heartburn and diarrhea on Thursday morning, I thought I’d caught the bug and called in sick. Threw up several times that day. Overnight I couldn’t keep even water or Gatorade down. I had a terrible headache in the middle of the night.

Friday morning my husband and I decided to go to the ER for IV fluids; I felt very dehydrated and that seemed bad for my pregnancy. My husband didn’t bother to bring his phone charger. He thought we’d be home in two hours.

The ER sent us up to OB triage because I was past twenty weeks. I remember it was such a pain to hook her up to the fetal monitors cause she was so little and kept moving around.

They started and IV and gave me a shot of an anti-nausea medication, and I started to feel so much better!

Then the nurse told me she was concerned about my blood pressure, and started to take it every 15 minutes. It didn’t seem too serious at first. The nurse called the doctor, waited a bit, then gave me some blood pressure medication. They ordered some labs.

Then the doctor came in and told me that the labs looked bad, I didn’t just have Pre-eclampsia, I had HELLP syndrome and my platelets were low and I basically had liver failure. They were going to transfer me to the big hospital downtown and I would probably have my baby within a few days, if not that afternoon. They gave me a stueroid shot for the baby’s lungs and started a magnesium drip.

I was in complete shock. I don’t think it sunk in that I was really, really sick until I saw the nurse hand the EMT a vial and say, “You probably won’t need this.” I knew just enough about pre-eclampsia to know that was the drug they’d give to save my life if I had a seizure in the ambulance.

We got to the downtown hospital and I was glad my husband had ridden in the ambulance with me, because within 10 minutes there were 4 doctors and a medical student in my room. They explained that they’d do another set of labs and decide if I’d have a c-section that day or wait until Monday so I could get a second dose of steroids and have 48 hours for them to speed up her ling development.

I was also going to need general anesthesia because my platelets were low and a vertical incision on my uterus. There were so many consent forms.

Labs came back and I was stable! We were going to wait, hopefully until Monday. But I also had an ultrasound and my baby was growth-restricted. She was only the size of a 24 week baby. So that was a bit alarming. Apparently I had been sick longer than I knew.

My mom drove in from out of state. My in-laws took my husband to get clothes and his car from the local hospital. Saturday I got another steroid shot and continued to be stable; my friends and family came by to keep me company and distract me. By Saturday night the magnesium was starting to get to me; I started having weird sensory hallucinations.

I deliberately ate a lot of Jello and a granola bar at midnight since I couldn’t have food after 4am. I wanted to keep up my strength for surgery!

Monday morning the neonatologist came by and talked about the odds of various complications and disability; her chances were good, but we were a little scared. A NICU nurse came in and walked us through the steps they would take to resuscitate her and start an IV.

Then a doctor came in and told me my platelets were above 100 in my latest set of labs and I could get a spinal block and be awake! I was excited but a little nervous. My husband has a phobia of needles so my mom would be with me in the OR and my husband would follow our baby up to the NICU.

The nurses prepped me for surgery and everyone got gowned up and then they were taking me into the ER. I was actually pretty scared. It was a weird, alien place. I had a moment before I got the spinal when I thought I should run out of there, but I was pretty sure I was too weak from the magnesium and I’d just fall on my face!

The spinal was super quick, I felt a little sting of lidocaine and then my legs were going numb. They laid me down and dropped my head so the whole time it felt like my legs were pointing at the ceiling. It was weird waiting for the antiseptic to dry and then everyone was moving so fast. The NICU team walked in just as they started to cut into me.

I felt a lot of tugging and pressure and someone said something about placental abruption which scared me. Then the surgeon asked the neonatologist if they were ready for her and I remember thinking, “What are you going to do if they say no? Put her back in for a few minutes?” Maybe they were waiting to cut the cord?

My eyes were glued to the NICU team, and I really didn’t know if my baby was alive or dead. Then one of them said “She’s pink!” and I knew it was going to be okay. A few minutes later, they brought her over for me to see. She was breathing with just CPAP; they didn’t have to intubate her! Then they took her upstairs.

I apparently lost a lot of blood; they gave me an injection of hemabate and misoprostol to dissolve in my checks. That made my mouth so dry. The anesthesiologist gave me a little water. Then I threw up into a bag my mom held for me. I never knew I could vomit without being able to feel my stomach muscles!

Finally they were done sewing me up and I was taken back to recovery. The hemabate gave me diarrhea, which was weird since I was still numb. But the nurses got me cleaned up and one of them helped me get started on hand expressing colostrum right away. My husband came down and told me the baby was doing good, but they had kicked him out to put in a PICC line. She was just 1 lb. 3.8 oz, and 12.4 inches long!

After two hours in recovery, I could feel my legs a bit and they wheeled me up to the NICU on the gurney to see her. They put my gurney right up next to her incubator. She was so tiny and had so many sensors and wires hooked up. Honestly, it took a few days to really bond with her. But I got there. I had to be on Magnesium for 24 hours after her birth and stay four more days in the hospital to make sure my liver and platelets improved.

She is such a fighter! Genevieve Eleanor is two weeks old, off IV nutrition and getting all her calories from fortified breast milk and gaining weight steadily. Her lungs are immature; she had to be on a ventilator for a few days, but is back off it now. She loves skin-to-skin time with mommy and daddy. Being a NICU mama is not what I expected, but I’m starting to get the hang of it and learning so much.