25 week twin pregnancy, really struggling.

[April241]

Morning everyone,

Just as the title suggests really. I'm 25 weeks pregnant today and I've been really struggling the last week. I work full time in a busy operating theatre however work have been absolutely fabulous. They've let me use annual leave each week so I can cut down my working week and I don't work more than 2 or 3 shifts in a row. I worked my last weekend a few weeks ago and I was taken off my on call shifts as I need to stay over in the hospital.

This week I had to call in sick on Monday as I had been awake the majority of the Sunday with heartburn/vomiting and chest/jaw pain. I went to work on Tuesday and really struggled through my shift but managed it. Wednesday I had to go to the triage unit due to upper back pain/breathlessness and palpatations, spent 3 hours there while they checked me over before letting me home. Yesterday I had a day off and today I woke up, got ready for work and ended up hunched over the drawers with the same pain/breathlessness and had to call in sick again.

I really don't know what to do, I'm off all next week so I'm hoping I can get rid of these pains and then I only have 4 weeks left of work before finishing up.

I'm taking annual leave from 30-33 weeks then my mat leave starts. I've looked into starting my mat leave earlier but I don't think it can be any earlier than 29 weeks. I've just been given all my paperwork with dates etc and I need to give 28 days notice to change it so I'm a bit stuck. Has anyone had a similar experience?

I really really don't want to call in sick for the remaining 4 weeks if I can avoid it, my work have been so good and I don't want to seem like I'm taking the piss.

Go to your gp and get them to medically reduce your hours maybe? At least then the company have prior notice and can plan for your absence. Hope you feel better soon x

I completely understand the feeling of not wanting to go off sick. But, if you are, you are. You've got to make you & the twins your top priority.

My hospital sometimes moved people into quieter roles in cases like this - so outpatients or something?

(From a nurse 15 weeks into a twin pregnancy!)

Ps. You're on ranitidine or similar, yeah?

I got signed off at 21 weeks with my twin pregnancy - if you need to you need to. IMO the babies are more important than the job!

I had a whole host of issues - my pelvis kind of collapsed, heartburn, sick, we also had TTTS that I had laser for at 17 weeks and was signed off for two weeks after that. If I could have gone to work I would have, but I have 1.5hr train commute and just couldn't do it.

Hope you start to feel a bit better

Hi everyone thanks for your replies.

Welshy11 Thank you. I'm one of the team leaders and I make up the rota just as normal then the seniors have a monthly meeting and they allocate me annual leave whenever it suits the dept, it's always at least 4 weeks notice so they're happy to do that and it's been working for the last 2 months. My current problem now is though that even with the reduced hours I'm not managing to go into work, it's a bit of a pickle! ><

Duckyneedsaclean I agree, I don't know why i'm worrying so much as there as plenty of people who take the piss out of the system, I guess I don't want to let the dept down as we're so short staffed as it is. Our connecting outpatients dept is just as busy as the theatre but for most of my shifts i've been the "spare/tea person" and able to get on with more management type stuff which has really helped. I've been moved back into the scrub role for the last few weeks but I could talk to them and see if there's anyway I can move back into anaesthetics or be the spare person throughout the day. I have ranitidine yeah, I usually take it at night so that's helped too. I've been to physio aswell for lower back/pelvic pain and wear a support and i've started pregnancy yoga classes - trying to do as much as possible to prolong my time at work but this week it feels like it's all getting on top of me. Congratulations on your twinnies!

idontlikealdi Thanks , hope you're doing well now or if your babies are here hope everyone is well! Yeah I travel too, 30-45 mins each way which isn't the best although I drive so I can make myself more comfortable. I think i'll phone up my boss today and just have a chat, see what my options are. Maybe in a few days all this pain will go away and i'll be able to continue on no problem. One can hope!

We're all fine DTs are 5 next week!!

Good luck with the rest of your pregnancy, and the baby twin days:)

Honestly, I don't know how you do it...I'm struggling with my large baby at 27/40. Would be better if you could get signed off, you don't need them coming early.

idontlikealdi aww 5, I had my 1 yr old Godson over the other day and couldn't stop laughing at him learning to talk and walk - will be hilarious to have two of them bopping around (although i'm sure very stressful at times too). Thanks!

NovemberInDailyFailLand congratulations! I never expected pregnancy to be so difficult, can't believe how useful I feel some days.

Have spoken with my boss who was really lovely, so i'm taking the next week off sick to see how I get on with these back pains. I'm supposed to be on annual leave but i'll get that week back so I can use it to reduce my working week to 2 days if I want.

Just taking a day at a time now and seeing how things go :)

^^useless not useful!