hellp syndrome and a premature delivery
"I don't feel well..."
On January 24th, at 6 months pregnant, Maren had a pretty run of the mill OB/GYN exam, that is for a high risk pregnancy and being on bedrest for a month! A few hours after being home she began feeling pain in her stomach, but assumed it was the new medicine she was taking. It continued to get worse, and eventually she called her nurse midwife. No need to panic yet, they decided together. She took a bath, and began to feel better in the warm water. So she talked to the baby a lot, and hoped that things were OK...then she stepped out of the tub and was wrenched by excrutiating pain. Shaking, she called the midwife again, and told her she wanted to go the hospital.
"We've got to go..."
15 minutes later Maren and Dave walked into the hospital room, and she was given a gown and told to get in bed. The lights were turned off in the room, she was hooked up to a blood pressure cuff and a cloth was put over her eyes. Blood was taken. "OK", she thought, "safety precautions, routine medical procedures, that's all". She tried to breathe slowly, and held Dave's hand a lot. Then there were many more people coming in the room, and they put an IV in her arm, a fetal monitor over her belly, and an oxygen mask over her mouth. There was little to do but accept that this was serious business, and to just let it happen. I don't think Maren has ever surrendured so completely and so quietly to something she hated so much, ever before!
"We have to take the baby..."
It was only an hour or two, and after the blood work and an ultrasound, when it was clear that Maren had HELLP Syndrome, a rare form of toxemia that raises the blood pressure dangerously high, destroys the liver, and will kill the mother unless the pregnancy is terminated. This baby was small however, he wasn't growing enough, and though he had 12 more weeks to go, survival for the child was questionable whether in or out. Nonetheless, without an emergency c-section, and fast, neither child nor mother would survive.
"If he doesn't make it, I want to hold him..."
Maren and Dave had everyone leave the room to talk about it quickly, but because little choice was left them, they just held each other's hand and assured each other that they could handle whatever happened, whatever the outcome. Faith was all they had.
"Don't call my parents until I'm out of surgery..."
Maren was wheeled away, Dave went and called family, and paced by the operating room. Our nurse-midwife held his hand, and gave him a rundown of everything that was happening. And just 5 hours after Maren began to feel ill, Gabriel was delivered into the world at 12:43 am on January 25th, 3 months prematurely.
go to the next page for the continued hospital story ~~~>
diggerz3@earthlink.net Story of HELLP syndrome Gabe's NICU story Gabe's surgery in Phoenix friends family travels cool links social/political issues Maren's writings Dave's art photos and such