HELLP Mamas

SBMBride406

Do you ever feel sick or a strange pain and get terrified your body is failing you again? I know it's irrational but last night I had a terrible pain in my stomach that radiated all the way to my back (accompanied by a slight fever and following 36 hours of nausea and appetitite loss) and I completely panicked. I told my DH I was going to go to the ER...I was so scared something horrible was going wrong again and I was going to die if I didn't do something. I didn't go, and I am still alive, of course (although I still feel crappy). Anyone else get panicked at unidentified pain/illness after your HELLP experience?

ShanaNChris

That's so weird - I thought I was the only one. I've had 2 incidents where I felt similar pain and all the memories came flooding back. One time I had the same pain in my arm as I did when they found the blood clot and I actually went in and the did another venous doppler on my arm to make sure it didn't move. And another time I felt the same epigastric pain, but I was able to get rid of it with some advil and a nap (that never would have worked last time), but before I went to sleep I really felt like it might be the end again and I told DH to make sure that Lily always would know who I am and know things about me if I passed.

I feel like I waited so long last time and blew so many things off, thinking they would go away, now I feel like more of a hypochondriac about everything, not knowing if it could be something severe.

SBMBride406

ShanaNChris:

That's so weird - I thought I was the only one. I've had 2 incidents where I felt similar pain and all the memories came flooding back. One time I had the same pain in my arm as I did when they found the blood clot and I actually went in and the did another venous doppler on my arm to make sure it didn't move. And another time I felt the same epigastric pain, but I was able to get rid of it with some advil and a nap (that never would have worked last time), but before I went to sleep I really felt like it might be the end again and I told DH to make sure that Lily always would know who I am and know things about me if I passed.

I feel like I waited so long last time and blew so many things off, thinking they would go away, now I feel like more of a hypochondriac about everything, not knowing if it could be something severe.

The whole reason I blog is so Marino will know "my voice" and how much I love him if something were to happen.

I just feel like I can't trust my body the way I used to. I no longer feel like I can assume "it's probably nothing"....

TriciaJoy

Could it be your gallbladder? I've been having trouble with my gallbladder since I was pregnant (then when I got HELLP, I thought it was my liver.. turned out it WAS my liver, but I'd ALSO been having GB issues. Go figure.) but the pain is very similar.

I'd see a doc. Honestly.

 

tierelieber

I have similar liver pain all the time. It's just mildly irritating, but the same feeling that I had the morning before the HELLP progressed. It scares me quite a bit, but it's really just an annoying pain that comes and goes. I had elevated liver enzymes in my blood for 6 months after I delivered. I have had testing to rule out everything from my GI doc, so I know it's nothing serious. I am worried that one day it will become unbearable again... but for now, I am forced to take it one day at a time. Of course now that my health insurance suddenly dropped us, I am paranoid that the pain is more frequent. I really don't think it is, but as soon as I am back on an insurance plan, I am probably going to get check out again.

lstaylor73

Sarah, is the pain just to your right of the center between where your ribcage separates, more under the ribs with the pain radiating around to the back?  If you start vomiting and can't lay down, sit up, stop moving because the pain is so bad, if you have trouble breathing deeply then this sounds exactly like my gallbladder attacks.  Think about the foods you ate within four hours of the pain starting and if there are any high fatty foods in that list you might see a trend in "trigger" foods that cause gallstones.  It is surprisingly common, though never mentioned in pregnancy books, that women's gallbladders start to fail them after childbirth.  Mine was taken out on Oct. 15th last year.  There's no cure for the gallstones other than to have it removed, only pain management by eating a low fat diet.

 I hope that having your gallbladder out is the worst case scenario, that's completely liveable - you will just miss eating the fun foods.  I'm crossing my fingers it's not complication from HELLP.

jkipp82

I guess i'm kind of lucky that I never felt the syptoms of HELLP...it was discovered via blood tests due to high BP (and i had emergency c-section within hours) .  However, I've creeped myself out a few times thinking how if I had forgotten to check my bp that night, or had taken my meds and brushed it off and went to sleep...I may have never woken up the next morning.  I do know that next time I'm pg I will check my bp religiously from the start!