New to this forum!

[bellesmom1]

Hello! I am new to this forum. I am usually at the preemie forum but found this one today. I had my daughter @ 33 weeks on 4/1/02 due to severe pre-e and HELLP syndrome. She weighed 2 lbs 12 oz and was 15 3/4 inches long. She is now 6 months and weighs over 13 lbs and is 24 inches. She is doing great! would love to talk with anyone who has had the same experience as me!
Becky
(Isabelle)

[DawnM71]

Hi Becky. My name is Dawn and I too had severe pre-eclampsia. I had my son at 35 weeks but I know that had they listened to me I would have been induced a lot sooner. It was both a blessing since he wasn't a super preemie but they could have lost me or both of us. I started showing symptoms at 21 weeks....severe swelling. I didn't have text book high blood pressure but it was high for me. I have always run 60/100 and my whole pregnancy I was 80's/140's. When I went to nursing school they said that you didn't need textbook high b/p (anything over 90/160) to have high b/p. They said anything 20 over your normal.

I brought this up with my doc who was actually a perinatologist since I had had 3 previous m/c's but she always dismissed my concerns. Finally when I was 34 weeks I talked her into letting me do a 24 hour urine since I had been spilling protein since 21 weeks also. I had been feeling fine my whole pregnancy just was swollen. But on a Monday, I felt aweful...just blah with some chest pains. I had an appt the next day so I didn't want to have to drive all the way to Boston if it was nothing. I called my friend who is also a nurse and who was also pg 3 weeks ahead of me and asked her what I should do. She agreed with me that I could wait til my appt the next day. So I just rested and stayed on my left side.

That night at 7:45 p.m. my doc called and asked how I was feeling. She had never done this before. I told her how I was feeling and she got so mad at me b/c I didn't go to the hospital. She told me that my 24 hour urine results came back and they were not good. She said that they hospitalize people who have 300 of protein in their urine and I had 4,000 protein....not a typo....three 0's. So needless to say I had to go in and thank God I didn't wait. I got there and my b/p was finally textbook high. :rolleyes: It was 160/110. I was told to get a gown on that I was going to be admitted and would stay til I was atleast 37 weeks. I got up and when I took off my shirt, I thought that I was going to pass out. Everything got dark and all I saw was flashes. I screamed and began to cry. The nurse ran in and helped me get undressed.

They brought me upstairs and started the IV and the darn awful mag. They also put in an indwelling catheter. Through the night they could not get my b/p down, it kept going up. Also, they said that my kidneys were shutting down since all night I had only had 100 cc of urine. So that next morning they started my induction and Dylan was born the day after that weighing 4 pound 14 ounces and was 17 1/2 inches long. He spent a week in the NICU and is now a happy and healthy 18 month old.

Sorry for the novel.