Monday, July 27, 2009

What happened?

a little explanation for those of you who might have missed the beginning of this journey...

On Thursday afternoon, Daniel and I came to the hospital for some routine blood work and urinary tests. My doctors knew I was spilling protein into my urine, but everything else was checking out as normal, even my blood pressure. So they admitted me to the hospital so they could monitor me a little closer. After a blood test that evening - everything became a whirlwind. Doctors were called into the hospital - nurses were trying to explain and comfort us. Turns out I had HELLP Syndrome (a serious condition usually considered a severe form of pre-eclampsia, fatal for both mother and child if left untreated). I encourage you to read the wikipedia page on it - it has a lot of good information. Anyhow - to give you an idea of the severity of my case - a normal person's platelet count should be around 150,000. On thursday evening I had 45,000 - it was extremely low. The only way to reverse HELLP Syndrome is to deliver the baby. Funny how one's body can be pregnant for 28 weeks and then all of a sudden decide it doesn't like the pregnancy (it's like my body started attacking itself) - I'm still trying to wrap my head around it.

Thus, for both my child's sake and mine, I had an emergency c-section on Thursday evening. Thus, Lily was born on Thursday evening at 1 lb. 9 oz.

We have a long road ahead of us - especially Lily. They are taking great care of her in the NICU here at Swedish Hospital. She'll probably be here for at least 8-10 weeks.

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