During a routine 36 week antenatal appointment on Friday, the midwife found my pulse to be high so sent me for monitoring at local hospital. Baby fine but my pulse still too fast, my SATS were low and I was quite breathless so they admitted me for tests.
Due to my symptoms they wanted to rule out anaemia first so had blood test, then to rule out dvt so had arterial blood gas test, then chest infection so I had chest x-ray. All of these tests were negative and I was happy to have them as none could affect the baby. Even the x-ray was pointed only at my chest area and I wore a lead apron across my bump.
However, they then wanted to rule out a blood clot on my lung and sent me for a CTPA scan. This involved injecting my veins with dye and being sent through a CT scanner. I was advised that there would be some radiation involved for me and the baby and also very small increased risk of breast cancer but these risks were far outweighed by potentially fatal risk of unidentified pulmonary blood clot.
I went ahead with the test and thankfully it was also clear and I know that really I had no choice but to take the risks. But now I can't help feeling a bit worried about the radiation to the baby!
Has anyone else experienced this and have any outcome experience? So far all I've found online is that baby does get radiation during the test and medics disagree on whether its a problem or not. Worryingly I've seen some info about increased risk of childhood cancer and recommendation that babies are tested for thyroid disorders after birth due to the iodine used in the dye.
Any shared experience welcome.