Re: Response to Cynthia and Sheena
Jill Chester-Haney (jillch@primenet.com)
Tue, 26 Mar 1996 22:54:50 -0800
Sally,
I also had HELLP. I was at week 35, and the child had already endured
three weeks of no growth due to "unfriendly" placental condition. (Lay
term.)
The trouble is that I spilled not a drop of protein in my urine from start
to finish. I did not swell in the face, legs, or hands. I was not sick on
the outside, except for the pain under my ribs which I attributed to nerves
over the IUGR (Intrauterine Growth Retardation). I was informed about what
this pain might mean (they were surprised later, that my liver did not
fail. I was more ill on paper than in the flesh.)
I never feel like defending doctors (sorry Doug, side effect of way too
much intervention) but it sounds like quite a difficult diagnosis to make.
And if you consider the implications of delivering prematurely when there
is no just cause.......I'm all for waiting it out, myself.
Did you have magnesium sulfate, Shelly? Did that wreck your vision?
Anyone else out there? I'd swear that awful stuff trashed my eyes. Either
that or the HELLP.
Regards,
Jill
>It wasn't til after the event that I realised the real reason I was
>taking that urine specimen in every month, and why my blood pressure
>was being monitored (fat lot of good it did anyway!).
>Every other symptom experienced in pre-eclampsia can occur in an
>otherwise normal pregnancy : swollen feet and ankles, what appears
>to be indigestion (in fact dangerous epigastric pain fromm the
>swollen liver - I was downing Gaviscon thinking it was indigestion),
>headaches,nausea, and the list goes on. It's the high blood pressure and
>protein in the urine that's a good indicator, but you don't FEEL high
>blood pressure.
>Likewise, sitting at home you don't know about the protein. It's the
>combination of all this that counts.
jillch@primenet.com
Mom to Kevin, age 4, (35 weeks, 4lb 4 oz, grade III bleed, multiple
handicaps) and Andrew, age 3 (37 weeks, 9lb 7 oz, very resistant to potty
learning)