A Dad's Perspective

The day Tre was born seemed like every other day. I got up, got out of bed, dragged a comb across my head ....

The first call came in while I was in a training class at work. Adrienne had to go in to the doctor's office because some blood work we had done the day before had an "abnormality". WHAT IN THE WORLD IS AN ABNORMALITY!??!!??!? Adrienne told me to stay calm, so I did my best. Sometimes calm is more of an appearance than a state of mind. Or at least is in my case. So I kept on going with my training class, since I really didn't want to take it again later.

I finished up with the work I needed to do for the day, and like the rest of the masses, I headed home early. I was back at the house around 1:30 pm, no worries, all is well. Little did I know things were about to change, and I do mean change, and fast. Then there was the call. The caller ID says: "*IDAHO FALLS, ID, 3:26P NOV 25"

Unlike the call earlier about the blood work results, this was not some nurse calling to say come in for a test. It was actually her Doctor calling, and she said get to the hospital immediately, because we are having a baby. The Doctor was going to meet us there and we were having an emergency Caesarian. We were ready for a C-Section, so we weren't quite into the totally panic state at this point. We were a bit nervous, it was happening all so fast.

We hit the front desk of the hospital to check in (I knew we should have pre-registered) and were heading upstairs to labor and delivery in a matter of minutes. They quickly whisked her into the prep room, threw some scrubs in my hands, and sent me and my bags off to what was going to be our room to change clothes. I hurried as fast as I could, because I knew Adrienne needed me by her side as much as I could be. I really wasn't prepared for what was coming next.

They had her in a hospital gown already, and were hooking her up to an IV. They were asking questions about medical history and getting her into the system. The nurse asked so many questions, I could probably only repeat a few of them. Then in comes Dana, the big burly anesthesiologist, and asks how long we have been treated with HELLP Syndrome. Then it seemed real what was happening. The diagnosis from her blood work and other symptoms, was HELLP Syndrome. It is potentially fatal to both the mother and baby if it goes untreated. And apparently hers had gone unrecognized due to a lack of classical systems that are usually present in an accompanying condition of preclampsia. The key indicator of high blood pressure (hypertension) was not there. HELLP occurs in about 10% of the cases of preclampsia, and only about 1 in 500 overall. We were one of the rare cases, that even with the best Doctor with be difficult to diagnose.

It was then another nurse comes in and says "The Doctor wants to know what is taking so long!!!" The pace has quickened. The nurse said all our info and questions we were doing normally takes 2 hours. We got it all done in about 20 minutes.

When they moved here into the surgery room, she started to cry. It was going so fast and there was no stopping it now. After all, the only real treatment for HELLP is delivery. There is still the possibility of renal failure and stroke, due to how bad it had gotten. Although I was scared, I was glad they were taking it serious, and were acting as quick and efficiently as possible.

As they were about to put her under, I was taken into the adjacent room, which was the nursery. They told me after the baby was born, they were going to bring Tre in through a little sliding window. It was in the nursery they were going to do all his post delivery testing and get him all cleaned up.

At 4:37pm (1 hr 12 minutes after the call at home from the Doctor), James Vance Seamans III (Tre) made his entry into the world. He weighed in at 7 pounds, 13.6 ounces (they round to 14) and was 20 inches long. There was white stuff all over his skin, and they were quickly getting his airways all cleaned out and wiping him down so you could see his tender little pink skin beneath. His initial Apgar score at 1 minute was a 7, which means he is in the normal range. So he was doing good.

It looked like there were 4 nurses, helping the 2 doctors working on Adrienne along with Dana. I was watching Tre get all cleaned up, when another person came in the Nursery and in a very aggitated voice, told another nurse to drop what she was doing and get into surgery. I really started to worry about Adrienne. But as I pressed my face to the window to see what was going on, I couldn't see anything. They were working furiously, and Dana gave me the "thumbs up" and my worries subsided considerably. If I knew then what I know now about HELLP, I would have felt much different.

His 5 minute Apgar was an eight, which is even better than his 1 minute test. Tre was doing super, and was a little champ for the nurses working on him. He cried a little, but not too terribly loud. It was like this little squeak, to let people know he wasn't happy. He got really upset when they took this little tool that looked like a miniature toilet plunger attached to the end of a long stick, and smacked him all over his chest. This was to loosen up anything left in his lungs, so they can suck it out and he can breath easier. He just really was not happy as they smacked him all over around the front and back of his chest.

We got his little foot prints taken, but Mr. Man was not very cooperative in taking hand prints. But they are so appropriate now, that we see how much he opens and closes his little hands. You can see where it looks like his tiny fingers tried to grab the paper. I don't remember when someone asked me what I though of him. But I said he was perfect. They said that is the first thing parents usually do, is to check if he has 5 fingers and 5 toes. I replied that I didn't count, and that 4 fingers and 4 toes was good enough for me if he was health and his mom was ok. I don't know when I looked to see if he had 5 on each hand and foot, but that really was not much a concern at the time.

Adrienne was in recovery at this point. I went in to see her and they had her awake. She was still very out of it, but they kept asking what her pain was on a scale of 1-10. One of the later nurses used to describe 10 as having an arm cut off. Adrienne kept telling them her pain was at a nine. I knew she was not feeling very good at all. The only nice thing, is she really does not remember much about the recovery room. It wasn't long before they took her down to our lucky room 14. I know 14 is not usually a lucky number, but today it was. It was the room where all of us got to be together. She was hurting, but all in one piece. And Tre was with us for the first time.

I will write more later as I get time....

Jim