Pre-eclampsia mentalling thread

[Fishandjam]

A place to come and kvetch/worry/chill for anyone at risk of developing pre-eclampsia in their pregnancy. We have buckets for those still feeling sick, cushions for those who are just plain knackered, and crisps and ginger beer for everyone else. Come and say hi!

dirty Hang on in there, we're all here sending our love and support. Have they made any noises about induction or anything yet? Have you had the dreaded magnesium?

wingding I'm so glad your lovely GP is on the ball and what a relief to get a diagnosis! Fwiw, I've heard of others having a uti in pregnancy with no 'traditional' symptoms.

I'm just back from hospital, not a great morning. Scan shows baby slightly small with too much fluid on one kidney - although sonographer said it's not in the danger zone and boys do tend to have 'slower' kidneys. Uterine doppler all good. Have been feeling exhausted and 'doomy' all morning. Next stop was nurse, bp 141/92 - I burst in to tears as all my worst fears came true. She said she thought it was the wrong sized sleeve, 2nd go resulted in 127/73 but by this point the tears were in full flow. Next stop consultant who said everything is fine, the kidney thing is not major, the growth is fine and my bp is good. She's given me an extra appointment as obviously I'm getting worked up about it. Also told me to ring the delivery suite anytime day or night if I develop symptoms or have a wobbly.

Am home and need to sleep I think. :(

Thanks yes they have said that if the blood pressure doesn't respond then they will end the pregnancy which I assume means induction or c section. No one has mentioned magnesium - they have said last night that at the moment I don't seem to have preeclampsia. I have only a small amount of protein in urine which is mixed with things like blood so seem to be infection rather than anything else .my blood tests are normal so far although just done yet an

Thanks yes they have said that if the blood pressure doesn't respond then they will end the pregnancy which I assume means induction or c section. No one has mentioned magnesium - they have said last night that at the moment I don't seem to have preeclampsia. I have only a small amount of protein in urine which is mixed with things like blood so seem to be infection rather than anything else .my blood tests are normal so far although just done yet another so who knows . It's just the blood pressure but he seemed to think that once I had the steroids it might be better to just get the baby out - I agree in a way because I know that there are risks to leaving it but I have not had a baby this early before so I'm a bit worried ! .

Hi everyone!

pony, sorry to hear about your rough morning. I agree that rest would be a good idea right now! And at least you know you're being monitored and taken seriously. Hugs to you.

dirty, again, at least you're being closely monitored, and you're in the right place if anything does need to be done. Hugs to you too!

And hugs to all you other lovely, worried mums-in-waiting.

PS: I was wondering - given the wide range of experiences on this thread, perhaps we should come up with a list of symptoms that we think shouldn't be ignored by any pregnant lady? In addition to high BP and proteinuria (which go without saying)? Obviously all unscientific and not medically approved... but given that so much of the info out there in the Googlesphere focuses on high BP and proteinuria, maybe trying to spread the word about other sinister problems would be A Good Thing? (Yes, I know that pre-eclampsia is defined by high BP and proteinuria - but stuff like HELLP, which is on the PE spectrum, doesn't necessarily present like that and is possibly even more dangerous.)

For what it's worth, these are mine, in vague order of urgency:

1. Extreme fatigue
2. Profound loss of appetite
3. Pale or yellow faeces
4. Urine which is darker than normal
5. Urine output which does not correlate with fluid intake (i.e. much less coming out than going in!)
6. Oedema in face, hands and feet - especially when in conjunction with any of the above symptoms
7. Flashing or squirming lights in vision
8. Epigastric pain/pain under ribs - which may feel like severe heartburn, but which is not eased by antacids
9. Hyperreflexia (the registrar who diagnosed me tapped my on the knee with the mallet thingy, and I nearly kicked her head off)

10. Persistent headache, not eased with paracetamol 11. Nausea, especially with any of the symptoms listed in 1-8 above

Anyone got some more to add?

I would add to the list - a feeling that something is wrong or igreatly ncreased anxiety , I have had this each time without fail but never any other symptoms like swelling etc

My visual disturbances looked like a snowy television or seeing stars

I'd add vomiting, dizziness and bleeding from the nose and that swelling is the most common symptom when there's a listing, some people don't get any at all

Face like a beachball! ;)

Quick update - I am going home today , midwife tomorrow then back Ro hospital Monday.

And my sister is finally getting induced - the finally did blood again and of course it showed problems so she has just been started with induction - so expecting a baby one way or the other in the next couple of days !!!! Can't wait!!!

Bumping, because this thread's too important to be left languishing on page 4!

So interested to hear all your stories - I had such similar symptoms (rapid onset totally out of the blue, liver/kidney disaster horror!) to many of you, at 33 weeks with my first (now 3), being induced a couple of days later. I've never met anyone else who has had a similar experience, so really nice to know that there are others out there! Now 13 weeks pregnant with number 2 and fingers remain firmly crossed that there's no repeat of last time's shenanigans...

can i ask how many of you were induced with the onset of pre-eclampsia symptoms rather than emcs and at what gestations you were?
i am really surprised by the number of people who are induced once their bp is already climbing.

I was induced successfully at 34 weeks with my DS in March. My body just seemed to kick into get-the-baby-out mode quite quickly and I had him 12 hours after the pessary was inserted. My pre-eclampsia was suspected two weeks previously but didn't show up in the bloods, and when I turned up to my midwife appointment that week everything had gone through the roof. I was prepped for an emcs the day I was admitted (very scary day) but they managed to control things enough for a few days to do the injections for his lungs and growth scans and the like. I really hope it doesn't happen again!

missingmymarbles I was induced with gel (2 times) - unsurprisingly it failed as my body was far from ready to go in to labour. Hence the surgical team were scrambled and I was rushed down to theatre.

kurly That's amazing! I think you're the first person I've ever read about whose body did know what to do at 34 weeks!

I'm back to the hospital today for my weekly check-up, I feel a lot better than last week in myself, so hopefully no shocks today! I'm nearly 36 weeks - I wanted to get to 35 so I feel like I've won anyway. :)

I was induced with gel but my body wasn't having any of it. Once my bloods came back I had to have a crash section anyway.

I had dd at 38 weeks after induction. Ds at 33 weeks emcs . I was going to be induced but he was breech .

missing, I was induced at 38 weeks, immediately the problem was spotted. They didn't mess about though - first they broke my waters, and when that had no effect within a couple of hours, I was straight onto massive doses of syntocinon (I know they were massive from my notes!) I believe they went for induction rather than CS because I was already a couple of cm dilated, so my body was already sort of gearing up for birth. (Bugger me, but those contractions hurt though. From nothing to 3 minutes apart in the space of 20 minutes is definitely not fun.)

I think if the problem had been identified earlier, or my cervix hadn't been favourable, they'd have sent me for a crash CS without even trying to induce. They just wanted that baby out as soon as feasible.

I wasn't aware that there was a risk that being induced could send BP even higher - something to check on this time round! I have my first consultant appointment a week tomorrow so that will definitely be one of the things I raise with her.

PS pony, glad you're feeling better this week - let us know how your check-up goes.

Hi, can I join? I'm currently 15 wks pregnant. I had pre-eclampsia which was only diagnosed in my 39th wk during a routine antenatal visit. I had numerous symptoms, however, the midwives didn't pick up on them until I had protein in the urine at that last visit. My main symptoms were severe swelling of feet, hands and face, pain under ribs and elevated bp ( though this was never 'that high' but considering I started with a bp of 100/60 I think 130s/80s should maybe have been taken into account?). Once protein in the urine was discovered I was sent for blood tests which also confirmed a problem with my platelet count. I was then induced but ended with an emergency c-section as my bp was all over the place as well as not progressing and baby being in distress.

So far this pregnancy I've only had the booking appointment where the mw has taken information and medical history. No one has told me to take any aspirin or do anything differently. Should I be expecting or pushing for more monitoring? So far this pregnancy, apart from having Hyperemensis Gravidarum which is a whole other issue, I've had a lot more headaches than last time. Could this be an indication of things to come? Sorry for all the questions but I'm just a bit worried and want to know whether I should already be doing things to help prevent this from happening again.

Hello and welcome dinosaurs! I'm surprised you aren't under a consultant this time round, particularly as you had a platelet problem last time. Could you go and see your GP and ask why you haven't been referred to a consultant?

As regards doing things differently, I think there's very little that can be done to prevent PE - even the aspirin thing isn't a sure-fire prevention (there's evidence that it may help, and that it probably won't do any harm, but equally there's evidence that it may not do anything - you picks your research and you takes your choice!)

What can be done is better monitoring, to identify problems before they become serious. For example, your BP should definitely have been picked up on; I was like you, with a final BP of 130/90 which on the face of it isn't that awful for late pregnancy, but when compared with my booking-in BP of 110/65, was definitely cause for concern!

So, in short, I'd go and berate your midwife and/or GP.

PS: should say that the info/comments in my last post are all IMO, not medically trained or qualified etc etc :)

fish let me know what they say about induction with climbing bp. if i remember right, it's pain and certain drugs that can make matters worse. as much as i would love a vbac, i am terrified at the thought of induction due to pre-ec symptoms, whereas if i go overdue (haha) and am fine it doesn't seem so bad, iyswim.

Hi everyone. Hope you don't mind a new joiner. I've only just found out I'm pregnant a few days ago. 4+6 today only. Had my ds 4 years ago and started suffering from pre-ec about 27wks. They didn't pick up any change of blood pressure at the start only that ds was beginning to grow slowly. I didn't think anything of the frontal headaches as I do suffer from sinus problems and thought it was that. Infact when the sonographer asked me about headaches I said no until my partner piped up and reminded me I had been getting them quite a lot.

At 28 wks I had my b/p taken by my health center doc and it was 160/105 which he dismissed as nothing to worry about. When I travelled to the maternity hospital a couple of days later and mentioned it the mw went nuts and told me he should have sent me straight up to hospital. Tests showed abnormal liver and kidney function (my bp tended to go up and down but I was told this was a way they could tell my bp had been up at other times) and protein in my urine. I was admitted straight away and spent the next 6 weeks there on bed rest and meds. My ds suffered from IUGR as a result of my PE.

At 34 wks I was whisked off to have a cs as ds was found to have lost weight from the previous 3lb he had been scanned at 2wks previous, there was an absent doppler and my placenta had all but packed in. He was born at 2lb 12 and I spent the next 12 hours under close observation and unable to see him in NICU as my bp skyrocketed and they had problems getting it back down.

So as you can probably guess I am totally bricking it. I was meant to have a consultant meeting before ttc but this pregnancy is as my sister puts it 'a happy surprise'. I'm going to contact the mw tomorrow and ask for her advice as I'm unsure if I should be waiting until 12 weeks to see the hospital. I know I am meant to have any subsequent pregnancies in the same main city hospital as they have my records and they are the main NICU in the area. I can't even rely on the fact that the chances of PE decrease with more pregnancies as this one is with a different partner.

Sorry that was a bit of a long post . This is all the stuff I haven't thought about in a long time and it's amazing how it's all coming back to me now.