I've been put on low dose aspirin because it's my first pregnancy and I'm... err... a mature mother. 👵
Since taking the daily dose, I have noticed the following things:
- When I went for my whooping cough, I bled loads. The nurse practitioner said she'd "never seen anybody bleed so much". I thought it was weird but I shrugged it off.
- I cut myself dismantling boxes a few weeks ago and I bled loads. The blood just seemed more "runny" and took longer to stop than usual. Say it took 10 minutes to stop instead of about 3-4 minutes.
- I sat on a crappy loo seat yesterday at a friend's house and snagged the back of my thigh on some errant bit of sharp plastic. (I know, right?) I didn't immediately feel it but when I stood up, the toilet seat was a blood bath and I actually thought I must be miscarrying. After what felt like a lifetime of blind panic, I realised that my thigh was bleeding. And boy oh boy was it bleeding. This teeny cut was producing an impressive stream of fresh red blood and, again, it wouldn't stop for around 10 minutes.
- I smacked my finger nail into the solid rock of our wood burner when I was cleaning our fireplace last week. It didn't break the skin but blood pooled under the surface and under my nail in that way it sometimes does and leaves you with a discoloured nail. But it didn't just go a little discoloured, my entire nail turned an awful shade of angry red and became swollen for an hour or so, until the blood drained away. It occurred to me that it seemed like a lot of blood.
I have shrugged each incident off as just a "side effect" of taking low dose aspirin. But yesterday I was nattering about pregnancy with my mum and SIL at a family do and they said it's not normal and I need to tell my midwife. They said it could be dangerous in labour (I'm 30 + 4)
Is this true or are they overreacting? Surely if they've prescribed me aspirin, they are prepared for the risks that come with that? Or am I having an unusual reaction to it?
I have a feeling that whatever I say, the midwife will shrug it off. But obviously I'll push a bit harder to be listened to, if it's genuinely dangerous. I have my 28 week check up tomorrow.