if pre. the 1st. will it happen the 2ed pregnancy

[heather]

I just had my 1st child 3 months ago and it was the worst pregnancy ever. I kept telling my doctor something was wrong due to my feet, legs, hands and face where swollen. My back and hips hurt all the time. I could not get any sleep sense laying down at night was so painful and the light kept me awake during the day. I kept seeing little flying lights that almost looked like flyer flies and kept putting on massive weight. At the beginning of pregnancy I weighed about 215 pounds and the day before I delivered I weighed a little over 280. Now I am down to 222 pounds, so I can tell that a lot of it was water weight. I looked so bad. My doctor jumped on me and told me I was just eating too much when I felt like I was starving all the time even though I did eat, ( some junk food, but what pregnant woman does not eat donuts and cookies?). My blood test came back okay and my urine just had a trace of protein. My blood pressure was fine, most of the time except sometimes it would be high but then the nurse would just take it again and say it was because I moved and now it is back to normale.. it seemed odd to me... why I had a lot of the symptoms of preeclampsia and yet the doctor did not diagnose it at the time... yet when I gave birth she diagnosed it in documentation but did not tell me. I just found out today... 3 months latter due to some file mix up at the hospital that also ran a clinic that I went to at the beginning of my pregnancy that because of loosing my file and me getting upset over it I switched to a privet doctor that had privileges at that same hospital. So to make this long and painful story short they finally found the record they lost. I had complained to them the other day and signed a release of info to myself to be sent to my home and just got it to review and then I found that she had diagnosed me with Preeclampsia on the day that I had delivered my son.

I thought this was a bit toooo late considering it is a life threatening disease for both mother and child but I cant do much about it now... but if anyone reads this... make sure you push your doctor to keep a close eye on you if you just have the smallest feeling that something is not right with your body... you are the best judge and know your body better then anyone else and you are the only one that baby has to depend on.

but to my question... if anyone can answer it and is qualified... because I got preeclamsia with my first pregnancy will this happen for sure with my second or what can I do to try to prevent it? Is there any thing that can be wrong with my son now that I had it... he seems fine and happy but is there anything I should look for in the future?
Thanks,

[joanne]

Heather

Sorry you had a bad experience. You'll find you are in good company on this site. Doctors are often reluctant to give pateients the full gory details. If you seem fine now ( 3 months after) and your son seems fine you probably are.

The riskiest time for the baby is during the preganancy where he may be deprived of nutrition. Once out he is probably ok. Problems occur when the baby needs to come out very prematurely eg pre 32 weeks becasue the PE is preventing him from getting all he needs to develop. The main problems then are those commonly associated with premature babies.

How far along wherer you when you delivered?

Jo 30
Sandy 33
Kit 31 weeks
EDD 12/28/03