Preeclampsia or something else?

[ClimbAHill]

Don’t worry this isn’t a should I call the mw post, just looking to understand how relaxed or otherwise I should be.

I’m 36 weeks and have been given kit to check my bp and proteins at home ‘because of my age’. I’ve been checking weekly and my bp has typically been 110/70 or lower. I’ve had a couple of instances more recently that the diastolic reading was high 80’s, including once at mw but she rechecked before I left and it had come down again. Last week I had what I thought was a migraine (I’m a very occasional suffer) with visual disturbance and a headache that lasted all day, bp was something like 120/86 when I checked.

Yesterday I woke up with another cracking headache that had started the night before so checked my bp which went up from 124/91 to 133/97, no proteins when I checked at home. I went into maternity triage and bp was pretty normal again but the headache continued all day and they said probably unrelated. I got a good check over and have been told to keep an eye on it but I felt they were a bit dismissive about the fact my bp had been quite a lot higher at home.

I don’t want to get obsessive about bp so was just going to check it first thing and try and forget about it but I’m not sure if I should be more concerned than that. This morning it was 114/89. I feel totally wiped out, nauseous on and off and the headache has come back but not as bad. I’ve also got severe pgp so I’m not feeling at my most resilient at the moment! I’ll obviously contact me again if it goes beyond 90 again. Have others had anything similar and it’s just been normal pregnancy woes?

There's lots of things that can affect your blood pressure. If it's gone back down again that's a good sign!

You're right to be cautious though, I had some high blood pressure readings at the end of my last pregnancy and was diagnosed with preeclampsia at the onset of labour. Hope things go well for you, but definitely keep an eye on it ❤️

I had preeclampsia in my first pregnancy.

I was diagnosed with hypertension at 29 weeks, when i was having constant headaches that were making me throw up. My BP then was 142/90 and was yo-yoing from that to normal. By 32 weeks it was preclampsia and was up to 180 so was put on medication.

I felt the signs started in second trimester with migraines and the headaches started occuring more often as time went on.

I would check BP 2 or 3 times a day and get an average, write it down. Obvs if you are having a headache/vision disturbance check it. I took a photo on my phone of the machine results to show nurses. As a few times it was 190 but by the time i was checked and had taken meds it had gone down. They needed to know to tweak meds. I was almost discharged until i showed them the photo, then an hour later on the ward it had gone crazy again.

Its hard not to stress. Good luck :)