I am now 21w and feel the second trimester has been extremely stressful and I'm overwhelmed with the feeling that something is wrong.
At the start of my second trimester, I started throwing up constantly after eating, was unable to keep anything down even water, and I was in extreme pain. It was some of the worst pain I'd experienced and I went to A&E, where they diagnosed me with gastritis. I took some tablets for a month and it seems to have fixed it.
After that, I had some very light spotting (pink on first wipe then brown, then nothing) after sex. After calling the triage line, they told me it was nothing to worry about and is common after sex and to just to keep an eye on it.
A few weeks later, I started to notice a change in my discharge. There was a lot of it and there was a smell to it. I called the community midwives who told me to go to the GP. I went to the GP, who told me that no nurse was available to do my swabs and gave me a kit to do the swabs myself at home and bring them in. She wrote "bv(?)" under the thing that was being tested for. It took over a week for the results to come back and they just said "no further action".
Last week, I got COVID and was quite ill. My heart rate went went into the 130s/140s and the triage midwife advised I went to A&E. They did an ECG and told me that COVID-wise I was fine, but my blood pressure was slightly high. They also did a urine test and found protein in my urine so they wanted the obstetric consultant to see me about potential pre-eclampsia. I was warned they were extremely short staffed, to the point they may close the department, so if I needed to be admitted it may need to be to another hospital.
While waiting for the consultant, they took my blood pressure again and a blood test. Several more hours passed without hearing anything so I asked the receptionist whose computer system indicated that I was supposedly waiting for a bed on the ward (even though nobody had told me I was being admitted). More hours pass and eventually the A&E doctor said the obstetric consultant won't be down to see me, that they were happy with the blood tests and that my second blood pressure reading was better so I could go home. I wish I'd asked more questions but I had been there for 8 hours and was feeling very ill so just wanted to go home.
The original doctor who found the protein in my urine had also found some white blood cells (leukocytes) which he said may indicate an infection but there were no nitrates which apparently are a more reliable indicator of an infection. The doctor sent the sample off for me but said it wouldn't be back that day.
The next day, as happy as I was to have been allowed to go home, I was a bit confused about everything that happened. The COVID team came around to deliver my oximeter and saw that my pulse rate was still very high. I explained that I had already been to A&E and sent home but they advised me to ring the triage midwives back again to update them on what happened and let them know that my heart rate was still high.
This seemed pointless, but I was happy for an excuse to talk to a midwife, so I could get some reassurance and explanation about what happened. The triage midwife didn't seem concerned - said 20w was still very early for pre-eclampsia and it's good that my blood pressure had gone down enough to go home. Also wasn't worried about the white blood cells - said they don't treat for leukocytes without nitrates and that if there was anything in the sample that the doctor had sent off, I'd be informed. They said that regarding my heart rate, since the A&E doctors had done an ECG and I was fine, she would advise just to rest but that she would ask the doctor to double check.
I got an (apologetic) call back a few minutes later, saying that she had spoken to two doctors who had advised me to go back to A&E. She acknowledged that I had been there for 8 hours the day before and that I'd been fine, but apparently it was nothing to do with the maternity team because "the baby is fine" and that my heart rate is a medical thing that I need to go to A&E for. She explained that it is my choice what to do but she had to pass on the advice. I decided not to go back to A&E since my heart rate had already been checked out and the doctors there were not concerned at all. The only real potential concern raised had been about infection/pre-eclampsia, which had also later been dismissed. I reiterated to the midwife that I'd only called back because the COVID team had specifically told me to and she understood and apologised but said she had to pass the doctor's advice on.
My heart rate went back to normal over the next couple of days and is now fine.
However, on a couple of mornings, I've woken up to find I had some brown discharge. It was very light and only there when I wiped (none in my underwear). It was gone after a couple of wipes. Since I was COVID positive, and since I was due to have my 20-week scan a few days later, I decided to just keep an eye on it, instead of calling triage again.
I've not had any more brown discharge so far, but I'm starting to feel itchy 'down there'. I am not sure if the swabs the GP asked me to do were only checking for BV or thrush too. Honestly, since I was doing them myself I'm not even sure if I did them right or not.
I went for my 20-week scan today, and as the sonographer checked everything, she said everything was looking fine. However, at the end she had to input some measurements on the computer to find the estimated weight. She said the estimated weight was in the 9th centile so had to do some extra checks with the doppler to see if I needed earlier growth scans. The doppler checks came back fine and so I'm not being asked back for more scans. She didn't seem concerned at all. However, now I feel like it's just something else I'm worrying about.
My husband is 6 foot 6 and was massive when he was born. I'm short at 5 foot 1 but weighed 6lbs 14 when I was born, so I wasn't big but wasn't tiny. If anything, everyone's been teasing me that I'll probably have a big baby like my husband. Finding out my baby is smaller than 91 percent of others at this gestational age was not what I expected and even though they're not worried, I'm really nervous about what will happen if the centile falls further behind.
At this point I'm overwhelmed with feeling like something is going to go wrong. I honestly feel like I'm on borrowed time.
I'm feeling movements and it's lovely but I am so afraid of what might happen. I have been anxious throughout the pregnancy, even in the first trimester, but I really thought that after 12 weeks, I would relax. Things down there just feel so different and I don't know what's normal or not.
I've still not met my midwife in person. My 18 week appointment was with someone else. I don't want to ring triage again unless it's an emergency. I feel like when I google, I get told "if in doubt call your midwife" but it feels easier said than done, especially when I don't know my midwife, what days she works etc. The one time I called the number I had for her, I went through to a children's centre then got put through to a midwife (not my own) who answered my question but seemed confused that I'd rang as if that wasn't a number people normally ring.
I'm obviously not looking for medical advice or anything. I'm just feeling a bit deflated and wanted to vent.