A general moan and question about blood pressure going up and down?

[Deb2202]

hi,

Ive had a horrible few days and was after some advice/reassurance.

Started tuesday with awful head cold, blocked sinus, head/ear pain hot/cold. I felt really really poorly.

Saw my GP on Wed who felt my glands (which are HUGE) and said its a virus go home drink water, rest and take paracetamol, which i did.

Yesterday I was still feeling awful but dragged myself out of bed to see the midwife for my 36 week check up (im 37 weeks on Monday). She said that my blood pressure was high, its normally 120/80 ish but was 140/100 when she took it. She sent me straight to the hospital for "monitoring" BTW no protien in urine.

They took blood tests, I think for my liver, blood count and something begining with L, which were all clear. They then put me on a monitor machine thing where it recorded the babies heart on a graph and I pressed a button when he moved, they said that was fine and when they took my blood pressure again it was back down to 121/78.

The nurse said that as the blood pressure has gone back down and that the blood tests are clear that the virus/bug must have caused the high reading earlier in the day and has sent me home to rest and take paracetamol (bit of a theme developing).

Doe anyone know anything about this sort of erratic blood pressure? Its my first and Im totally clueless.

Even if no one has any words of advice it feels better just writing it out and getting it all off my chest, its been quite stressful and Im feeling a little tearful (must be the hormones!) Thanks for reading.

I guess I'd just be very aware of any other PE sympthoms developing and if you have any frther concenrs contat your midwife asap...

Yep. Your blood increases when your body is fighting infection or under another form of stress. I had preeclampsia twice and also a bad case of white coat hypertension - whenever a midwife or doctor was in sight my BP shot up.

But then shot down whenever I realised I was stressed

A fever will cause your BP to go up anyway.

Don't worry about it.

Went to hospital last week and blood pressure was 152/90, retested 30 minutes later and was 130/80. Mine seems to do that. Had protein in urine so probably have a minor infection too. Again nothing unduly to worry about. They will have looked for signs of swelling in the face and elsewhere to check for pre-eclamsia. Presumably you see the m/w next week and she can check again and they monitor pretty regularly in labour too. Don't think they would have let you go if they were concerned but sorry you've been under the weather - are you feeling any better?

I had all this at the end of my pregnancy...with the up and down BP i mean...
eventually i was induced as it wouldnt regulate and i had a small amount of protein in my urine.I was at the end of my pregnancy anyway so i think they thought they may aswell go ahead just incase....When my high BP was originally discovered at a prenatal apptmnt the midwife asked to do a follow up BP at home which she did and it happened to have returned to normal.Then at my next appt it was high again so sent to hosp for monitoring like you describe,pressing the button etc and took bloods etc then decided to keep me in and it went from there.During my stay which was 7 days in total my BP was all over the shop so after the baby was born they gave me labetalol to regulate it...have only just stopped it now and dd is 7wks.
For you it sounds like it was and effect of the virus but i would expect your MW to be keeping a very close eye on it from now on and like bonjour said just to be on the very safe side i would look up all the side effects of PE and go straight to the MW at the first sign of any of them.I´m sure it is nnothing to worry about in your case though so dont panic.
Bear in mind that if you continue to have erratic BP they like to keep you in for 5 days after the birth.This is what they told me...i missed xmas!

Thanks for the replies.

Im off to see the midwife next week need to book an appointment for Wednesday.

I was relieved when they sent me home, they were talking about swopping me to consultant lead care but when the tests were all clear they've left me with the midwives.

They were asking about swelling my hands are a little bit but nothing major. My urine tests were clear though so they didnt think it was PE.

Im feeling pretty rough for what is just a head cold, I know that colds/flus are worse in pregnancy but this is ridiculous!

At my regular check up on 39 weeks my BP was slightly raised (140/85). GP said he was not concerned, midwife was and sent me to hospital, where I was kept in as every bloody time a doctor came in the room I could feel my heart racing and BP was up. They left me home the following day having given my Labitolol (sp?) in hosp [and a sweep]. Went in to labour 3 days later and BP did go up during labour. Had an emergency CS (NOT linked) and just before being released BP shot up. This went on for 3 days (down in night when no chance of going home, up every time a Dr checked as I so badly wanted to go home I panicked!). In the end they did let me go home and midwife checked on my daily for 2 weeks, over which time my BP returned to its "normal rate" (approx 120/75).

I write all this not to worry you but to say that a. it had no effect at all on DD and b. no long term problems for me. It is best to keep monitoring regularly though, particularly as you're getting quite near to baby time!! Do keep us updated

I had this. At 24 weeks my bp went from 90/60 to 150/100 when I had a virus. It was 140/85 a few days later. No explanation from useless GP though and no midwife until 28 weeks (first appointment...long story about lost forms).