Immune/NK cells - pred thread 30

[Sezmarelda1]

Starting a new thread as the last one was full. Please tag anyone I may have missed from the old thread...

@Sophi81
@InvisibleDreamer
@birdbybird
@Ralowi
@HoldingOn2Hope
@MyEasterEggs
@Tgrf55

I'm so sorry you've got all this extra stress @Tgrf55. Where had the baby's growth centile been sitting at and what has it dropped to if you don't mind me asking? With my previous successful pregnancy, my son was on the 75th centile at my 20w scan, 50th centile at my 32 week scan, and 25th centile at my 36 week scan, but the real tell tale sign of a problem was that his abdominal circumference centile had really dropped whilst the head circumference and femur length centiles hadn't dropped so drastically. They still let me go to 37 weeks and only induced me at that point because I pushed for it. He was fine but I dread to think what could have happened if we hadn't pushed for the induction. I'm glad they're monitoring you and the baby closely and do keep an eye on movements as well.

I'm 30 weeks now. I had reduced movements at 28 weeks so like you ended up with an extra scan. I was SO terrified I called the maternity assessment unit at midnight because I hadn't felt any movement even after drinking some cold orange juice. I have an anterior placenta too and it turns out baby had flipped from being head down to feet down, so I could no longer feel the kicks as clearly. Then at 29 weeks I caught Covid which I'm still recovering from. I've been quite bad with it but after a week I'm finally showing signs of improvement. Just hoping it hasn't affected the baby 🙏

Anyone had a uterine biopsy? Was it painful or ok? Got one on Tuesday at Dr. Gorgy’s clinic. Thanks

@Tgrf55 I’m sorry you’ve had the extra stress after everything you’ve already had to go through to get here! Hoping your little baby arrive safely & healthy, glad they’re keeping a close eye on you!

I ended up with a rescue stitch at 21 weeks (now 23 weeks) my cervix has shortened so much & was funnelling. So I’m hoping to at least get to 28 weeks but 30 is my ideal goal.

Blows my mind that we’ve all already had wildly traumatic journeys we have extra hurdles to get through!

@InvisibleDreamer i had an endometrial biopsy with prof Brosens? Not sure if it’s the same. It was a 10 second nip & very crampy but was over & done with quite quickly

@LuckyNo14 oh no I hope it all goes well for you. Can't imagine that how that must feel like. Have my fingers crossed for you.

I have my next scan on Wednesday and I'm so nervous. I Always get negative thoughts a few days after my last scans. It's horrible!

@Sezmarelda1 the exact same with me! Everytime ive gone in with reduced movements the baby has been breech. It really does mask the movements doesnt it. So we sound quite similar - baby has dropped from around 50th centile (jusy above) to 30th. Its the abdominal circumference that is slowing down in growth rate compared to previously. Nany is still growing, just more slowly. All dopplers are fine, baby looks healthy. So not even sure they can say its my placenta? Did you ever find out why? How much did your baby weigh when born and are they all fine from it? Professor Akolekar said to me he thinks I'll get to 37 weeks ok. Thats full term so makes me feel better. Glad im getting monitored closely. Sorry to hear you had covid i had it around 18 weeks. I know its so worrying but honestly you're way more likely to have complications from flu. I hope you're feeling a bit better. Its all just extra stress we dont need. Xxx

@LuckyNo14 oh no im sorry to hear! You are right, seriously WTF? Have we all not suffered enough? Im still in pity mode atm about it all. Ive been doing a lot of research about premature babies and they have such a good chance these days. There is so much help avaliable. Wishing you all the best xxxx

@Sophi81 @Tgrf55 thanks guys ❤️ feel like it’s just more time spent living on my nerves but I feel like I’ve been like that for a long long time! Hoping for the best outcome. I’ve also been researching loads about prem babies. Seeing my consultant again on Wednesday & have a list of questions. Dr Edge has also been great she’s seen me over zoom & prescribed tablets to stop early contractions

@LuckyNo14 listen to the drs and stay as calm as possible. I wont tell you to relax because i want to punch people in the face when they say that to me lol. Its impossible but breathing exercises etc can help if only for a short time. Glad you're speaking to Dr Edge regularly too. You're in the best hands. Xx

@Tgrf55 so growth was fine as I was scanned at crp until 16 weeks and discharged. I went for a local private scan a few weeks later for some 4D pics but once we arrived there we were told bcos of covid they can only offer us a normal scan. So we went ahead and the sonographer said everything is fine but just to double check with my midwife as the baby looks a little small. She said it may be nothing and said Asian people tend to have smaller babies so it could just be that rather than anything serious. So I mentioned it to my midwife who wasn't concerned. I also had anterior placenta so didn't even feel the baby until I was around 25 weeks. Anxiety levels were high throughout. Nhs already had arrangements to offer me additional scans at 28, 32 and 36 weeks due to my history of miscarriages so it was first detected at 28 week scan, it was horrible time I was more or less there or kept going to MAC due to lack of baby movements. At 34 weeks I ended up being admitted in hospital for a week as they thought the baby was coming so they gave me the steroid injection to help develop babies lungs but he wasn't ready to come out. I was discharged and still monitored but eventually they decided to take him out at 36 weeks as he just wasn't growing. I really do think the steroid Injection helped as he was breathing independently even though he was sooo tiny! As for why this happened I think it was due to the steroids I took for the first 14 weeks. I did ask crp when I went to try for my second as to why this happened and they said it was due to me not taking hydroxycloriquine! In this pregnancy I refused hydroxy again bcos my hair fell out again! So they put me on GCSF. Whether or not this has made a difference we won't know until most likely after the 20 week scan. My son was born on 10th percentile and is currently on 0.4 percentile.

@Sezmarelda1 omg covid. That's the last thing you need right now 😩. I hope you didn't get it really bad and you recover very soon! Being pregnant and ill is a horrible thing for us to go through on top of everything else. Wish you a speedy recovery. Can I ask how your son is now? Is he in line with children his age growth wise? My son is still quite small plus he doesn't eat, such a fussy eater which I guess doesn't help with his growth either 😩

@Sophi81 ah so yours was spotted quite early around 20 weeks then at the private scan? I did wonder myself about steroids but i tapered off at 12 weeks so doesnt really make sense that they would cause growth issues at 30 weeks +. I'll ask Prof Akolekar when i next see him though. Im grateful baby is pretty much already 4 pounds. Hopefully the scan on weds is ok. Im so upset about it. After everything i just wanted a normal pregnancy. I have my baby shower next week and i almost feel like cancelling.

@Tgrf55 awww try and enjoy your baby shower. I know you are going through a lot but the fact that your baby is already 4lbs and most likely going to be up to 5.5lbs is good news fingers crossed. Mine was nowhere near yet I'm so grateful that he actually made it in the end. I just hoped he had made it to at least 5lbs as that's still not too bad weight wise. But I totally understand how anxious this time is and the worry is real. Sending u lots of love. My sons scan was also fine at the nhs 20 week scan as they had no concerns. I believe it was around the 24-28 week mark most likely growth issues were detected. I did ask dr s why would that happen later. He said if a baby ends up with growth issues they are not usually detected until 28 weeks and before that usually the baby develops as normal.

@Sophi81 thank you. I know i should be more positive about it but i just feel sad about the shower. Its just unfair isnt it that some of us have to suffer so much and other people seem to have 3/4 children so easily. But i know its not a helpful attitude. My 28 week scan was fine, babies belly was really big on the chart. It was 2 weeks later they noticed it hadnt really changed. I hope it wasnt the steroids that would make me feel really guilty 😔 i dont remember the clinic even mentioning they can cause growth issues? Were you originally told you needed hydro? I didnt need that in my treatment plan.
Thank goodness your son is here and safe and well. Makes all the pain worth it xxx

@Tgrf55 it is unfair and your feelings are totally valid. Even I have lots of moments like this too all the time and i'm sure everyone in this forum feels the same so don't be too hard on yourself. It's very hard for us to be positive with everything we go through when like you said for some people it comes easily 😩. I just wanted to reassure you that it is possible that it can be fine as there's quite a few of us with premies/small babies x
As for the steroids, no nothing was mentioned to me at that time that they can cause growth issues. Originally I was put on hydroxy but I stopped taking it after 2 weeks as my hair all fell out and I was so traumatised. The clinic told me that my hair loss is not related to hydroxy but then when they put me on it again

@Tgrf55 oppps I posted without finishing.. I was just saying when then put me back on hydroxy for my 2nd pregnancy the same thing happened my hair all fell out so again I decided to stop taking it in both pregnancies. I just really hope I don't have the growth issues again in this pregnancy because of that

@Sophi81 ive seen a few people on here in the past say that it caused hair loss. You'll never know if thats why you had growth issues but tbh you did everything you could to keep your pregnancy and went through a lot to get there. So you did amazing. We dont have any choice, if we dont take the drugs we will miscarry. Im sure it wasnt the reason, some pregnancies just have this for no apparant reason. How old is your son? Ive read that most children catch up with growth by the time they start school. Im sure he will too ☺️ xxx

Hi ladies, I hope you don’t mind me jumping on your thread but I’m just having my 6th loss in the last 2 years (3 at 6 weeks and now 3 chemicals). I can see some successful pregnancies On here and wondered what protocols you were on? Were these under Shehata? I’ve been putting off seeing him as it’s a really long way for me to travel but feel like I’ve run out of options. My most recent two chemicals I had predisinole, clexane and progesterone from positive test from a private consultation but it hasn’t made any difference (only seem to start picking up positives at 12dpo). Feel like I’m a complete loss right now

@Tgrf55 aww thank you 🙂. The hair loss is a pain. I actually did recover from it the first time, took a year to grow back nice and healthy but this time it's totally ruined my hair. A year later and it's still falling out even though I stopped the hydroxy back in March. And it just looks manky and dead. I'm going to book a haircut and see if that makes any difference 🤷🏽‍♀️. The decision to take drugs is always scary but yes we have no choice unfortunately 😩. My son is nearly 20 months old now so I really do hope he catches up by school time. We have put him in nursery part time as I went back to work and he is definitely smaller looking than the other babies but let's see what happens. Hopefully he'll catch up xx

@LuckyNo14 I hope the rescue stitch keeps the baby inside a bit longer, that must be very stressful for you! So lucky that they picked it up too!

@Tgrf55 how often are you having scans now? The most likely cause of the slowed growth when I was pregnant with my son was pre-eclampsia. My blood pressure was high and I'd had a few hospital admissions because of it, but I had no other signs of pre-eclampsia until after the delivery when I became more unwell. My son spent a week in NICU but that was most likely a result of the blood pressure medication I'd been put on - he had trouble regulating his body temperature which I was later told is a possible side effect of that particular BP medication. He was 6lb 5oz at birth - a decent size but actually only on the 9th centile. He's 3 now and still on the smaller side but not by a massive amount. The main thing is he's happy and healthy.

@Sophi81 we've not weighed our son for a while but he was on the 11th centile about 6 months ago. He was 9th centile at birth but dropped to the 0.1th centile in the weeks after birth as he had trouble feeding due to tongue tie. He's a good eater now generally but he likes his fruit and veg best, and he doesn't eat a lot of high fat foods that would help with weight gain. He's got tons of energy and is meeting all his milestones though so I try not to focus too much on his size now. He's definitely smaller than average but not by much. It's hard to tell from the other children at his pre-school as some of them are a year younger than he is, and some are 9 months older.

@Sezmarelda1 im having another NHS scan on Wednesday and then seeing my consultant after for a plan. Im also seeing Professor Akolekar this week. Professor checked absolutley everything in such detail and cannot find anything wrong (thank goodness) so he suspects maybe placenta is starting to slow down. Ive also had a torch screening which has ruled out any infection as a cause. Im having daily CTGs (my request) those are also fine so im having my blood pressure regularly taken too and thats always been very stable all the way through at around 110/80. I had a few weeks of an upset tummy on and off for a few weeks in December (not a bug as it was so sporadic) and my 28 week bloods showed my white cells were slightly raised but they wasnt worried. But now im wondering if i caught something that affected the baby? But all drs have said a stomach bug wouldnt affect the baby and ive been tested already for serious infection. I even had a stool sample tested which came back negative! So i have no idea really what the cause could be 😔 i am dreading Weds. Xx

@Sophi81 that sounds awful about your hair? You poor thing! Im sure it will grow back though - is there any special kind of treatments you can use to help? Xx

@Piper89 unfortunately I can't help in anyway but just wanted to say I'm really sorry you're going through it for the 6th time! I can imagine it's incredibly difficult and sending you a big hug. Was it Dr Shehata who prescribed the Prednisolone etc?

I hope the scan goes ok on Wednesday @Tgrf55 , keep us updated! It's not unusual for white blood cell count to be slightly raised in pregnancy simply because of the pregnancy itself, there's a few blood tests where pregnancy itself changes the result (ESR and creatinine also come to mind). I know it doesn't rule out an infection but hopefully helps ease your mind just a little bit.

Due to being a high risk pregnancy I had an antenatal appointment with my NHS consultant today. I'd previously been told I'd be induced at 38 weeks, but the consultant I spoke to today is saying all being well they'll induce me at 40 weeks unless baby is still breech at my 36 week scan or comes earlier naturally. I can't bear the thought of waiting until 40 weeks after everything that's happened previously 😭I said I didn't feel comfortable waiting until 40 weeks but the doctor wasn't interested. I know in a sense that it means they're happy that the baby is doing well which I'm really happy about, but it feels like they're discounting everything else that has happened and the risks that poses. I feel so stressed and upset now I really don't know what to do 😩They said they'd decide a definite plan after my 36 week scan which is in 5 and a half weeks time.

Hi ladies, is there anyone else who is at shehatas nhs clinic?

im still wondering whether I need to seek private care as unsure if hydroxy will actually be enough. I havent been given any steroids and as its the nhs my plan is just baby aspirin, hydroxychloroquine, then progesterone from 3 dpo. No way of telling whether it will be enough unless I try I guess?

@JessL12 how is your pregnancy going? Hope all is well and medications are ok for you x

@SReyn hey just wondering how things are going for you? X