TTC/Pregnancy on Prednisolone or similar part 4

[digitalgirl]

A positive thread for all those diagnosed with High or Very High NK Cells and looking to start TTC or already pregnant on Prednisolone and/or Intralipid treatment.

Newcomers very much welcome!

Part 3 here

Part 2 here

Part 1 here

free - I flew at 19 and 20 weeks with DS and we are both here to tell the tale. I think second trimester is best. Friend whose dad is an OB said that he prefers his patients to fly in second trimester - bit of a grim way of looking at it but if something goes wrong post 20 weeks you want to be near a good hospital so they can save you and/or baby. Pre 20 weeks if something goes wrong there's not really much anyone can do. And once you're past 12 weeks risk of mc drops. So that's a bit of a pragmatist's analysis!

Sorry Free that you were freaked out by my decision not to fly. I am quite aware I am probably being over cautious. Most of my friends flew during pregnancy, mostly in the second trimester but a couple in the first trimester, and they all had fine pregnancies and babies. Dr S also said it was fine to fly, especially in my second trimester although my doc over here is a little more cautious. However i bet she wouldn't object if I really really wanted to take a short / medium flight in 2nd trimester (if i get that far). If you haven't had any problems or bleeding and going somewhere fairly safe from a diseasey and medical care point of view, then why not?

Hello, haven't caught up sorry.
Had scan today, baby continues to defy my expectations by being perfectly normal. A big relief, for now!

Saw you're discussing flying - I flew to canary islands in 2nd trimester with ds, never worried about it at all. Dr S always seemed surprised I hadn't flown to London to see him, so it can't be all bad.

That's great news iggi

YEY Iggi fab news xx

Yay iggi v pleased to hear all's well!

Stogan and Digi, since you two are around - can I ask, did you stop taking aspirin at 20 weeks? Must say I'm a bit worried about giving up the last of my "wonder drugs"! And I see some people take aspirin later in their pregnancy.

iggi Yes I stopped aspirin at 20 - in fact got a bit forgetful around week 19 and kind of took it on alternate days.
I meant to keep taking the vitamin supplements too (even though I'm sure mr s said I could stop those at 12 weeks) - but have totally fallen out of habit and don't take anything at all now. Very liberating not to have to remember to pop various pills.

Great news re scan Iggi! It's looking so good for you! Digi it indeed must be liberating not taking any tablets. I feel full of them some days. Am on train almost at Epsom already. Dh doesn't understand that I am worried that anything could have happened since last scan. Will check in later and let you know. Agggg !

Good Luck free I'm sure all will be fine. x

and Hooray for iggi

x

Good luck free

A quick pre intralipids update from me. Baby still alive and well. I think Mr S is something of a miracle worker! it was moving around quite a bit which he thought was a good sign. Next scan for me is on Thursday at the FMC. Hope e everyOne else is ok. Dh is here with me so will be hanging around watching me have intralipids!

Hello all. I'm back in London now. Got home yesterday afternoon after spending a couple of days at my grandma's. Poor thing is so confused. She understands what's happened with mum but she's pretty vague and is getting everything muddled up. She's the worst she's been so far with the dementia. Thanks for all your kind messages and well wishes. The funeral was very nice (even though I set everyone off crying by howling in the front row) and we had everyone back to our place where I drank far to much wine and had to fly home the next day with a banging headache.

After about 3 weeks of abstinence it seems I've arrived home just in time to get a double line on my OPK so SWI commenced last night. No "run up" this time, just getting in there by the skin of our teeth on the last crucial days. I don't feel particularly like I'm ovulating but we'll see what occurs. Would be great to get a BFP this month as I could well do without forking out for the scan and all the tests, not to mention the fact that I could do with some good news for a change.

Great news on your scan Free. By the way, St Helier Hospital is not in Epsom, it's in Carshalton, which is not that far out of London actually. Just a bit past Wimbledon. Probably about half an hour drive from you, I think. Who was it that was asking if they do intralipids there? Was it Picolina? (Welcome, and congratulations to you, by the way!). I have a feeling they don't. They didn't mention it to me when they decided to put my dose up to 40mg Pred after BFP. Scooter was also seeing Mr S on the NHS and she ended up having the intralipids privately.

Pleased to hear your scans are going well too Iggi.

Sue, I'm so sorry to read your news of the chemical pregnancy. Especially as you have been a fellow 'struggling to get pregnant' person since being on the pred. I'm glad to hear, at least, that you don't have to take a break before trying again.

I seem to be lucky when it comes to the pred insomnia. It's not affected me really. Mind you, I get lots of the other side effects so it's only fair I should have some consolation!

Fantastic news free! So very very pleased for you. Must feel like your first trimester has gone on forever. Soon you'll be coasting through the second.

On a note re: hospitals. I think you need to be where you feel comfortable and confident. But the travelling aspect will definitely have an impact on those later midwife appointments. You may even want to move into your bil's house from about 38 weeks - in case you end up with a fast progressing labour. And even if your labour is a long and drawn out one - you may end up going in and then being sent home a couple of times till you're more dilated.

From my experience with ds - my waters broke at 2 in the morning at 36+5. Because I was technically pre-term we immediately called the labour ward to ask their advice. They said to come in for a check. As we started getting our things together I started getting mild contractions. The hospital is only 10 mins drive from our house and after faffing around getting hospital bag and all the other things I thought I might need we were there by 3 or 4am. I was examined at 5am and was 3cm dilated (this is when the mw believe you're in actual labour) so was 'allowed' to stay.

I'll save the rest of the story for another time - but I had a fairly straightforward labour with no intervention. Would be interesting to know of others' previous childbirth experience on this thread - I often wondered if my pre-term labour was connected to my immune system and ending up with high nk cells.

great news freeReally happy for you. ! So how far along did baby measure? Bet you can't believe it's happening!

X-posted kittens welcome back.

free I am happy to hear that you have had another good scan.

kittens I am glad the funeral was as nice as these things can be. I hope you get good news this month.

Lovely news free. Really pleased for you.
Maybe if he puts me on the hydroxy I'll get a properly sticky one too next time. Sorry to sound selfish but I'd have been at exactly your stage now so while I'm delighted for you and you're my source of hope it also clangs a bit too iykwim.

Anyway, I must keep pecker up, keep looking forward and all that.

Kittens good to see you back. Fingers crossed for you, you are certainly due some good news!

Waves to all

same here...kittens nice to hear from you and good luck with this month ttc, god knows you deserve some nice happy news x

My childbirth experience was that I was 7 days late and didn't dilate past about 1/2cm in 24hrs of labour. I seem to remember head never really engaged properly in last few weeks. Hence waterbirth and all those lovely plans went out window. I ending up having a c sec after hanging on as long as possible, in fact the surgeons went home as was so against it and had to be called back. I had a low lying placenta which was only real issue but that didn't seem to cause to many issues.

I was about 20mins from hospital and I wouldn't want to be any further than that. They tried sending me back home because I wasn't dilated enough I begged them to keep me in. DS head was pressing on back/spine (no tummy pain,all in back, weird) so things were pretty unbearable and the thought of them sending me home..well I wouldn't have gone, I'd have sat in corridor wailing till they let me back in!

On that I must catch up on One Born Every Minute missed it the other night and love that prog -the OH's in it are hilarious!

Kittens, so glad to hear it all went as well as expected. I feel so sorry for uou with your granny. It must add to the sadness and confusion.

Thanks for all the support re the scan everyone. I measured 11+4 again which is bang on my LMP dates and consistent with all measurements with mr s previously. St marys have always been 3 days ahead and luckily Digi pre warned me that happened with her too so that's one thing I haven't mentalled about!

It's great to hear birth stories Digi and yes would be helpful to hear more. Was ds technically premature then? It must be odd in a way having a due date in mind then adjusting this when the baby is actually born a month earlier. Will be interesting to see if anyone else has similar stories.

I think I remember reading in dr beer's book that he had a pref for c sections at 38 weeks with his immune patients but can't remember why.

I haven't ever even thought about what sort of birth preferences I have! I dOnt yet have any opinions. But I guess I have a few milestones to get passed first before I really need to start worrying about it. But yes, point taken re distance to hospital being potentially challenging!

Woo hoo free what fab news YEY

Iggi sorry didn't rep last night was straight to sleep but I too stopped the aspirin at 20 weeks, as Digi says was sooooo nice to be pill popping free at last !!

Digi, just wondered have they mentioned anything about u maybe not going full term with this pregnancy? I'm really convinced that I'm going to go into labour early with ours, don't know why I'm just certain! Any thoughts anyone?

Crossed posts with choccy and snoopy and stogan.

I am aware that choccy and ari would have been the same stage as me and scooter even further along. I know how it feels having been there before. I've been hanging around the miscarriage and conception boards long enough to see people have babies that share two of my due dates. There was a time when I was pregnant until 8 weeks and Digi was havjng a tough time getting pregnant. Then I miscarried and she got pregnant and is still successfully pregnant as we know. It's bittersweet, but with this thread as ww are all going through the same thing, hopefully the successes of those in front of us are good signs that the treatment works and can give us all hope we will all get there too.

Good to here snoopy's birth story too! I think that's why I haven't developed any strong opinions about what I would like from a birth. You hear so many people making plans that are totally futile once it comes down to it! How was the c section experience? Does that mean you will have another one next time? I also haven't thought about mine in ant realistic way because it just seems a bit far fetched to think I might get that far. But I guess birth plans are one of those things you can speculate about (like baby names) even if you're not actually having a baby imminently! Anyone got any strong opinions about a speculative birthing experience?

free I remember reading in the Dr Beer book about early sections too. I think the reasoning was that the NK cells could attack the placenta causing it to fail early (I feel a bit odd about typing this as I don't want to give you and the other pg ladies something else to worry about but I guess we probably all have the book and have probably read this at some point anyway). However, I haven't seen any research to back that up. Maybe the effectiveness of the treatments in early pregnancy means it is no longer an issue? I guess Mr S has seen plenty of births in women with high or v high NK cells so it could be something to ask him about when the time comes.

Agree with everything you said euro. And yes, looking forward to seeing what mr s has to say about it further down rhe line