Continued support and best wishes. "Knowledge is power," as Schoolhouse Rock used to say, and in this case, it's true. (Of course, they always used to say "Conjunction junction, what's your function?" but I digress and used to watch way too much children's television.)

I'm glad that you and your wife are on top of things and that you have an open relationship with her OB.

The studying is good - the knowledge base lets me "rationalize what is happening and build a sense of control over something uncontrollable" as our doctor said.. heh. Thought that was such an accurate observation.

Thanks for the support.

Sounds good: keep doing your homework, make sure you understand what's happening, and remember that this is yours and your wife's pregnancy, and not your doctor's.

Hopefully your wife's OB has a practice that is similar to my wife's perinatologist, where all of the doctors are on the same page and will back each other up in terms of treatment and what to look out for. You having the right questions to ask and being on top of your wife's health helps a great deal.

Continued wishes for the best,

quote:Originally posted by Gordon K

More than anything I'm glad that the doctors and nurses are beginning to listen to and take you seriously. It seems like your response from them is much better than in the past.


You know, the only thing that really changed is that I know the right questions to ask I think. Reading up on things here has helped a lot and the helpful support has perhaps boosted my confidence.

For example, now that I see the potential link between the drop in platelets and HELLP, I plan to ask about the liver enzymes on the assumption that they were taken and see what they were - if nothing else I'll know a good baseline was established... and if HELLP is not on the forbrain of our Dr then it will be after the question. It also has helped tremendously that she (our doctor) seems to be doing everything very much by the book in terms of what the concensus "right way to treat" is - i.e. she is taking labs and checking them. When I see her doing what my research suggests is good it helps my comfort level... I'm also pleased to see that our re-worked appointment schedule has us only meeting with doctors - i.e. we were going every two weeks and meeting nurse every other time, but now we are weekly with doctor(s) - our primary is going on vacation next week (ack!) but we met her associate (partner?) and have no reason to expect problems...

Thanks for the update. SOunds like baby is doing well. I hope you guys are able to stay pregnant for many weeks to come yet. Keeping you in my thoughts.

I'm glad your concerns are being taken seriously and that your baby boy is doing so well. In my last pregnancy, my home BPs were generally higher than at my OBs office. I think it was because he was so good, I really realaxed when I went in - whereas at home I was generally anxious. That said, when they did start to climb, the readings became much closer.

I can't be of much use regarding platelets, except I know that my first and second babies were delivered on the strength of them dropping too far. At that point, I'd say I definitely felt not quite right -nothing specific, just unwell. I'd urge your wife to go in and be checked out if she notices any changes in her symptoms. But I hope things remain stable for a few weeks yet.

More than anything I'm glad that the doctors and nurses are beginning to listen to and take you seriously. It seems like your response from them is much better than in the past. Continued good luck, thanks for the update.

Yes,thanks so much for the update! Were you able to find the information that you were looking for??

Thanks so much for the update, congrats on the BIG boy!

Cuff differences I think we can eliminate as an explanation since I actually went to the office and took the reading myself with my own equipment and was able to see the same reading as they did. Just an odd/interesting pattern perhaps. Maybe I make her nervous when I go to check (or perhaps having two little ones running around while taking the reading does it to her... perhaps she would be safest to stay in the OB's office the rest of the pregnancy :)

From what I have learned so far on the platelets (only half day of research...) is that our change is well within the reasonable changes that can happen over a couple months (time since last test). Thus the need to monitor next week and see if they fall further etc (always hard to draw conclusions based on a single data point or two datapoints seperated over a long time).