28 June 2011

Let the fun and games begin

Well it seems the fun and games of my pregnancy has now begun. I was wondering if I would go through the same rollercoaster ride I went on with my first pregnancy, and it seems that the ride has started!

For those of you who don't know my history, I'll fill you in. With my first pregnancy, I had acute severe pre-eclampsia along with HELLP syndrome which resulted in "Popette" being born at 29 weeks + 3 days (11 weeks premature).

At 28 weeks I was admitted to hospital and went through a week of suffering mind-blowing migraines, swollen ankles, high blood pressure, dropping platelet levels, protein in my urine (which are all signs of pre-eclampsia) and towards the end, my placenta started rejecting my liver and kidneys started to fail...this was all because of a dodgie placenta!!

"Popette" on the other hand was fine, and would have been quite happy to stay in Mummy's tummy, but as Mummy was getting rather sick she had to be delivered by emergency casearean, and was then admitted into the NICU for a 7 week stint.

Unfortunately it looks like I have another dodgie placenta...why can't I have a normal pregnancy.

A couple weeks ago I saw my OB/GYN and found out that my blood pressure was starting to rise, it wasn't quite as high as it was with my first pregnancy, but high enough to cause some concern.

I had to get an ultrasound done at 24 weeks which was all fine, but then had to get my glucose blood test done, which came back high...so had to get it tested again, just another thing to worry about.

From then on everything started to became a big worry. I’ve also been told that I have to take tablets for low iron, and antibiotics for a bladder infection I didn't know I had. Then last Friday, I had an appointment at the Fetal Maternal Assessment Unit within the hospital, where I was to be monitored over 4 hours. They also take urine and blood tests to check everything is normal, luckily all the results came back fine (and my blood pressure behaved itself, typical!!) so was able to leave earlier than expected.

Yesterday I had an appointment with my renal physician so told him what has been happening. He was pretty upset that things had started to play up, as he had started me early on clexane injections and low dose asprin, which should stop me from having these problems again.

My Dr mentioned that unfortunately there's a small percentage of women who get pre-eclampsia again, regardless of the medication they are on...I'm hoping I don't fall into that percentile. I have another ultrasound at 28 weeks, so depending on the results of the scan, he'll then decide whether I should start taking blood pressure medication.

So things haven’t been real great lately. I've also had a shocker of a cold and irritating cough for the past couple weeks so that has knocked it out of me and taken a long time for me to get over as there was not a lot I could take.

If I'm placed on blood pressure medication, I will feel sorry for my poor husband, as it makes me snore terribly, hehehe ;-)

At least I'm lucky that my hubby has been a great support. He’s very worried, and cancelled a trip to Canberra last week so he could work closer to home and be with me and "Popette".

He spent a couple days working from home and took Friday off so he could look after "Popette" while I was the hospital...I don't think it would of done my blood pressure any good if she came with me, lol. We’re just hoping I get past the 29 week mark this time round...its a little scarey that my blood pressure is playing up. I'm hoping that if I get put on medication early enough it’ll settle itself down and I can make it to the third trimester....which I didn't get to last time round.

I had a phone call from my OB/GYN today saying that my 2nd glucose test came back normal, so "Hooray" for that at least.

Now we just have to wait and see what happens with my blood pressure over the next couple weeks, and see how the scan goes.

2 comments:

Hello! Thanks for popping by, I love hearing from my readers. Feel free to leave your comment here :)