Hello all,
Here's my experiance of PE.
Like many others my first pregnancy was textbook until I developed PE suddenly. I'd had a midwife appointment at 24+1 and everything was perfectly normal, low BP and clear wee. At 24+3 I developed what I now know to be the epigastic pain but didn't realise what it was. At 24+5 I was out for my works chirstmas do and my feet and face balloned so the next morning (Saturday) I called the on call midwife and said I thought I had PE, she said she doubted it at my gestation but would pop round to check my BP anyway. An hour later I started with the headache. She arrived at 12 noon, tested my urine which had 3+ of protine and my BP was 150/110 so I was sent to hospital by ambulance. At the hospital it was discovered I had HELLP syndrome so at 1703 my daughter Katie was delivered by c-section under a GA. She was took down to the NICU where we were told the next day that she was very poorly and was unlikely to survive the next couple of days. Katie surprised us all and fought very hard but when she was 20 days old we had to make the awful decision to remove her life support. She died in our arms that evening.
5 months later I was pregnant again and on the low dose asprin. I was lucky enough to be under an APEC consultant and the hospital gave me excellent care. I had detailed scans at 18 and 24 weeks and a doppler check at 22 weeks. We found the baby had an irregular heartbeat at around 24/25 weeks so I was given weekly scans to keep an eye on it. In all honesty I think the weekly scans were for my benefit than for any medical reason but I think it just proves the excellent care I had and shows what good care they took of me. At 32 weeks I woke up and just felt things weren't right so I went up to day care when my blood pressure was high and I was showing 2+ of protine. I was admitted and given the steriods to mature the baby's lungs. After a few hours they were struggling to control my BP so I was sent up to high dependancy and later that night it was decided to deliver the baby the next day. Unfortuantley there were no neonatal beds available at the hospital we were in so Iwas transfered to a different hospital where Hannah was born that afternoon at 1616 by c-section. She had a good cry when she was lifted from me and we got a cuddle before she was took up to special care. Hannah was a little superstar and was completely unaffected by the PE, we got to bring her home aged 5 weeks and 2 days.
Hannah was born the day before the first anniversary of losing Katie and it feels like her big sister is looking out for her, both our girls are so precious to us.
I hope my story can offer someone a bit of hope that dispite having PE twice and so much heartache we have a happy ending, Hannah is our world and is so special to us.
Linda xxx
Mummy to Katie Elizabeth 2 Dec 2006 - 22 Dec 2006 and Hannah Sally born 21 Dec 2007.