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!

hello macca Yes, they can have a look at the placenta using a doppler scan they check that the blood flow too and from the placenta is sufficient. If you're able to see the screen you'll see this as "sparkly lightening" like flashes in blue & red. :)

Good luck with the cyst, I got a similar fright last week when they said my baby had water on its kidneys - but apparently it's a very very low reading, What have they said about your's?

Thanks AlpinePony, I will definitely ask her to check that following the protein result, even though it's not what i am there for.
The cyst they said was a blocked duct of some sort that was on kidney, gall bladder, or could even be ovarian cyst, as baby is a girl. Amazing what they can see but scary at the same time. Will only know more after tomorrows scan as it has only been seen once so far and tomorrow will be an indicator to if it is getting bigger, in relation to baby growing. Fingers crossed- not!!

Having one marker for PE makes you constantly look for others eh? Spending all the time hoping something else doesnt show too, but want to get on with life for rest of the family's sake.

Keep reading up about how old dd needs to be to have most chance of being developed before delivery!! Paranaoia or what! :( x

Hi Macca. Re your proteinuria, might you have a UTI or similar?

I had PE in 1987 with DD1

Symptoms were
Headache
Oedema- went from 7st to 14 stones. back to 8 stone in 3 months after birth.
seeing black "soot" infront of my eyes
Hypersenitivity to sound etc
Went into kidney failure etc etc etc

BP was 210/130 at it worst

delivered DD1 vaginally very quickly at term - DD was only 4.5lb!

DD2 came along in 1992 and started with PE at week 10!!!!

so this time i was closely monitored - still ended up on bed rest and anti hypertensives DD2 born 3 weeks early 6lb

advised not to have any more children as kidneys and liver were struggling

20 years later i have malignant hypertension (i am 43) diagnosed when i went for a routine smear

BP 220/135!!!!!

banana, dude, that sounds grim. Do you have any hypertension history in your family? My mum had PE with me and ended up with severe high BP later in life. It does worry me a little...

Fish Yes i do have family history of malignant hypertension. on both sides!!!!

My mum had me in the 1960s and she had PE too....i was a small baby.

Bloody hell bananas, that's one scary ride you had, but I'm very glad you all made it ok.

I'm just back from consultant. Not looking good, bp is now 139/98. :( left them with a pot of wee and consultant will ring me hopefully in an hour or so. As I won't be bf, they're happy to start meds soon and I'm back ion Friday for more checks. I don't think I'm going to make it much further and we've got no family around until 11th Feb. :( aaaargh.

Good luck Alpine. How far along are you? I hope they manage to get things under control.

I'm 36+5 which is as far as I got last time, so at least he's a good size! It was 151/98 Durrr which I know isn't the worst, but it's up 20 points since last week. Bugger. :(

Sorry to hear your news pony. Do you know if you're down for a CS or induction? (Sorry if you've said this already on this thread - I'm getting baby brain already...)

Thinking of you alpine, at least you are so close to term...

Ah joan, I've got the "Meet The Veggies" song going through my head now!!

fishyjam I have a CS planned for 13th Feb but not sure I'll make it that far now. They won't induce and had said that if I go in to spontaneous labour before 37 weeks they'd want me to "try" to VBAC, but ime people don't spontaneously go in to labour this early... so it looks like it'll be another section. I have a meeting planned on tuesday with the anaesthetist - I suppose I ought to fill in the forms today...

Well, my consultant appointment today was pretty bland. She'll see me again at 32 weeks (which feels ages away!) when they'll do bloods and an umbilical Doppler etc. But otherwise, unless I get any of the symptoms I had last time between now and then, I don't need any more monitoring. I'm mostly pleased, though a bit nonplussed that it's so low key. Still, at least I know what to look out for this time!

hiya!! Just jumping in, am post birth now but am being monitored for PE. I had PE with ds2 and 3, I cant remember if I had PE with ds4 or just heading that way(Had traumatic stuff going on at the time so that part is a blurr) This PG I had high BP protein at times and visual disturbances. I had ache in tum and sickness but I also had Hyperemisis so thought vomiting was that. I was extremely exhasted and had hospital stay and many MDU visits.

At one scary appt, I was sent straight to labour ward and put on meds and spent the night there. I was transferred to antenatal ward. In my mind, I thought I was being monitered to check for PE as I was at risk and on Postnatal ward I was on PE moniering, I was on weekly consultant appt but also had to visit MDU every 2 days,growth scans and doppler, at last consultant appt they made decision to start things off with sweeps.

At home MW visits kept having me sent to triage with High BP and I was thinking they were being over zealous... On attending BP check with my GP however she greeted me and told me I had developed PE this time again!! I am so sure no-one told me I had it but maybe I blocked it out. Anyway.... my BP still remains higher than we'd like and I had weekly checks.

I am now 5wks post birth and at last check this week it has gone down some but still higher than "normal" am staying on meds till 8weeks and missing them 3 days before check up to see what the reading says then.

I suppose I didnt realise you can have PE after baby is born as I had always thought that Bith is the only cure and I went back to normal after the last PGs.

I feel rotten some days and today I have headache and funny eyes, have the flashing at times but I feel like I am panicing alot over nothing. I had PND last times and can feel it slipping back now and that makes me feel worse but could that be a symptom too?

Anyway.... I have gone on and on!!I was looking for a thread to chat about PE experiences and also if anyone had it post birth... I may also start a thread talking about post birth PE as I dont want to clog this one up about that

Hi champs congratulTions on your new baby :).
After each of mine it has taken a while for my bliod pressure to get back to normal - with my last baby i was on the tablets for 11 months after she was born the dose got gradually lower until i was off them - then ih 2 months later had a positive test for baby number 5 lol. I had pnd after my son (dc2) was bprn and alot of that was related to the preeclampsia I dont think the preeclampsia itself caused it butthe experience made me very anxious over my health and that in turn became PND. I would really siugget talking to the doctor about it just a little bit of reassurance can makeva big difference at this stage cant it!

As for me today the midwife came to the house my blood pressure was high at first but then came back down so i didnt have to rush up to hospital but i also had 2+ protein so have had blood tests etc sent off now.no idea when i will hear about that.

The midwife though said that at my appointment on tuesday they may well decide to induce either that week ir the week after as its pretty standard to induce then whith igh blood pressure and a history of preeclampsa) i will be 36 weeks next week) so im a little confused because they Have been avoiding talking about it before now.

Does anyone know is it standard to induce for high blood oressure that hasnt yet become preeclampsia?

Congratulations on the new baby champ!

Like dishes it took quite a while for me to go back to normal. And then I got pregnant again. I didn't have any issues with PND though which tbh I was very surprised at because I'm suffered depression in the past. dishes Surely inducing you at 36 weeks is utter bloody madness? I don't know what the thought process is but I suppose they think that the high bp is only going in one direction - namely PE.

I had CTG & BP monitoring this morning at the hospital. Best reading was 134/84 but unfortunately higher than they'd have liked. So I gave a pot of wee - proteins very low. Gave two pots of blood as they're now looking at kidney & liver function in me. I've been given Methyldopa unless my bloods show anything nasty today and I'm back after the weekend for more monitoring. I'm not overly thrilled about the methyldopa as I was given it last time and it made me put on so much weight, but am trying to take a philosophical view of it not mattering how big my arse is, I need me and and my baby to be safe! :)

Very disheartened by the fact that I seem to have PE twice - which is STRICTLY AGAINST THE RULES!

Oh yeh and outside the maternity ward we bumped in to my husband's boss and his wife. My t-shirt had ridden up, no make-up and I was clutching a pot of wee. Not exactly the best impression to make? ;)

hi all, thanks for the lovely congrats messages.

dishes I was told that there was a risk of my placenta abrupting(think that's the term) with the high blood pressure and that was why I had a sweep, I think the risk goes up the longer baby is in, from 36 weeks onwards. I think they would rather stop you from getting full or severe PE if it looks like you're heading that way rather than just waiting to see if you do. Also you may be at risk from fitting etc.
I was sent to have a sweep and told to come back 2 days after for my checks (BP CTG etc) and have another sweep when I went for check on the Sunday, I was told I would have to have an Appt for induction but baby came on the Monday.

Interesting that you were on meds for 11months or so, I had read that PE is less severe in subsequent PG's if you do have it but it seems to have affected me more after birth this time as opposed to antenatally with the others. ds2 was worse in that I was hospitalised more through PE and protein was much higher. This time as I said before, I had HG too so was hospitalised and had outpatient treatment for that so the two seemed to have played havoc with my body.
I was worried to be on meds as I dont want to be stuck on them for life.

pony I see you had a while to get better too. I hope the meds don't add to my already large butt as I am hoping to finally loose this weight for once and for all.

had to chuckle at you're impression with husband's boss and wife, I'm sure they'll know they have to take you as you see you being at the hosp :)

Hi everyone. I just got back from my appointment with the midwife. I'm 16+4 and they took 2 bp readings. The first one was 127/80 and second 116/80. My booking bp was 99/65. The midwife said the second reading was fine but I'm not too sure. What do you all think? I won't see a consultant for 4 more weeks and I'm not on aspirin or anything. Is there anything I can do at this stage to reduce any potential risks or is it just down to luck? Sorry I have so many questions but I'm terrified of getting PE again!

hi toomany

can i ask how come you are not on aspirin, if you had pre-eclampsia in the past?

on the face of it, they are good bp readings but they are 15/15ish above your booking. your bp does go up a bit naturally when pg due to extra circulation, but obviously it needs to be comparable to your original bp. i wouldn't worry too much about the first reading because if they took it as you went into the appt, it's not unusual for it to be a bit higher. you would expect them to be more similar if the first was 'accurate', in terms of not affected by movement etc, if that makes sense (i so know i am not making any sense ).

aaaannyway, will you be seeing a mw before your consultant appt. so you can have your bp checked again? or does your gp surgery have a bp machine in their reception, as many do? perhaps you could check it yourself, periodically and call the mw if it continues to go up.

Hello everyone. I'm 37+4 and I've spent the last month essentially being tested for pre-eclampsia which I'm pretty sure I don't have!

Am I right in thinking that PE is signed by high blood pressure, not simply a rise from low to average? All the assessments seem to have been kicked off by my going from 70/45 to 110/70, as this is a rise of over 40/20. However this is my usual bp - the low one was only for a few weeks while I had a vomiting bug.
Also I always have some protein in my urine, but usually only 1+, but 2+ week before last.

So have had 3 weeks of being told to come in as they might want to induce, then being told it's OK as long as [yet another urine or blood test] is OK, then they get results and we start again - until finally told the other day to just chill out and get bp+protein test done weekly.

Previous pregnancy was totally boring except I was exhausted for much of it (falling asleep and off the loo level of 'tired') and this is similar, so I'm recently panicking baby isn't moving much but I think it's just I'm asleep much of the time.

Does this treatment sound sensible?

Hi toomany I really don't know about the aspirin, I've heard 'take it', at the same time I've been told it's just a placebo. If I were in your shoes I would try and maybe get checked by GP at 18 weeks to at least know what my BP is, although at such an early gestation there might be limits about what could be done, otoh perhaps you'll get prescribed arse expanders BP meds.

notcitrus it does sound as though you've got an 'unlucky' combination of symptoms going on there, but I think maybe you just need to suck it up a bit longer and keep proving them wrong with your clear bloods. It's too big a risk to ignore PE, at the same time I sympathise - over the course of 7 days last week I had 10+ appointments!

Well I've now been on meds since Friday, went in for more checks on Tuesday and my BP although not low, was at least stable. Back in again on Wednesday and got the best news - bp slightly lowered (130/80 ish, sometimes lower!) And pretty stable. I presented them with the world's smallest urine sample which came back clear and once again gave more blood which was also clear. As a result unless I deteriorate at home they've let me free (!) Until Tuesday! :) I'm very tired but I suppose this is normal, I wouldn't know as I've never been 'this pregnant' before, baby is not engaged and I've had no BH, my body is clueless.

Comedy fans: this week's humiliation came about in the consultants' waiting room. I was bending down to pour a drink of water when I dropped it. Bent down further to pick it up and my jeans fell down as my top rode up. I became painfully aware my arse & knickers were on display. My husband ran over to yank my jeans up and save my dignity but I fear the battle had already been lost.

oh alpine! how embarrassing! good news about your freedom though

notcitrus the change is significant, however, if the low bp was the spurious one and you normally run about 'textbook', alpine is right - you probably just need to keep proving them wrong. it sounds as though, they are starting to see that though, if you're monitoring has reduced to weekly. take care anyway; hope it all goes well from here

Scientists at Melbourne University say they have identified a molecule that releases the Pre Eclampsia causing toxin into the blood stream