inflammatory responses and placental clots questions

[AmandaS]

So I have been considering trying again. I live on an island in the Bering Sea and we don't have OB's. I do have a great provider here though who is helping me finally muddle through my records and all from my first pregnancy. We have discovered that I have a history of inflammatory conditions and diseases myself and in my family (migraines, raynouids in myself and a whole host of others in my fam) and I have gone on an anti-inflammatory diet which has seriously reduced the frequency of my migraines! Yay! Also she did a complete underlying disorder testing and the only interesting thing that came back was Heterozygous for MTHFR, but said that it really isn't typically considered a problem unless you have 2 copies. She did say that the work up on my placenta was interesting and was noted to contain many large clots. I also had problems with my blood clotting too quickly when being drawn at the very end of my pregnancy... to the point it was clotting as they drew it and the tech was concerned the lab would not be able to use it. Anyway, according to my records I presented very a-typically with severe swelling and CNS involvement while pressures remained fairly low- elevated but not at severe levels and with protein hovering around 400, again not at severe levels, but the CNS involvement was so severe that I had lasting damage to my optical nerve from it. So all in all, she thinks that I already have a super inflamed body (also I forget what test showing an immune inflammation response a while ago when I could not get over my asthma, but normal was below 5 and mine was over 20, and a repeat test recently showed still very elevated)... with some wonky clotting factors that we don't know to test for yet (hence reccurent miscarriages before finally getting pregnant taking aspirin with my PE baby) and that we could do this again and really work on lowering my bodies inflammatory responses. I am leaving the island this week and have an appointment in April scheduled with a peri in Louisiana. I just don't know what to think. My doc here wants me on aspirin before and during pregnancy and I feel comfortable with that, I am just scared and wondered if anyone here knows more about "abnormal clots in placenta" and more about inflammation and pre-eclampsia.

[MomTimesThree]

Hi-

Wow, first, what a great provider you have to be so thorough looking over everything. I'm sorry I don't have experience with what the results revealed. I am hopeful that you'll have even more answers when you meet with the peri.

I can empathize with being away from a medical team... I'm on an island in the middle of the pacific... though gosh, compared to what it seems like there I now feel like I'm in a metro area!!

Keep posted,
Lauren

[jenh]

I feel like I'm reading my own story: migraines, Raynaud's, hetero MTHFR, repeat miscarriages, PE with pressures that never got super high but with severe CNS involvement, and clots in the placenta. My first birth was very scary, as by the time I was diagnosed at 35 weeks I was really sick. My OB missed it at first despite my reporting concerning symptoms because my pressures "weren't high enough to be concerning" even though they were MUCH higher than my baseline.

I had a second child with a different doctor who monitored me much more closely. I started showing the same warning signs, but further on in the pregnancy. I was diagnosed with mild PE and induced just short of 37 weeks. No CNS involvement or clots in the placenta.

I then had a set of twins, which was a shock. Having two babies and two placentas made me so much higher risk. I ended up with PIH at 22 weeks, mild PE at 31 weeks, hospitalized at 33 weeks, and induced at 36 weeks after 14 weeks on bedrest. Things got really bad after delivery, but they turned around after a couple days. I was on low dose aspirin for this pregnancy, and I credit it for my twins being such good sizes. How ironic that my twins were normal sized and my singles were both mildly growth restricted.