Protein still there

[jolynn191978]

Hi!!! I am new to this, but I am worried. I had Preeclampsia my last pregnancy at 30 weeks. Bedrest for 5 weeks then my daughter was induced born preemie. She is fine. I never had to high of BP's (the most was 150/98) but the protein was +5 at the end with a +3 average. The strange thing was after Kyri was born, I continued to have +1 in my urine yet normal BP's!!! The nephrologist wasn't too worried about it though. But now, I'm pregnant again (5 weeks only) and my protein is +2 as of yesterday. Has anyone heard of this before? Do I have preeclampsia again already? I am doing a 24 hour catch test this month to find a baseline.


P.S. Bp's still normal

[julie f]

Hi and welcome, congratulations on your pregnancy!

I am 8 months postpartum and still spilling protein in my urine. Although my blood pressure readings are quite normal, they are slightly higher than pre-pregnancy. It was recently explained to me that I have some residual damage from preeclampsia which is causing my kidneys to still dump the protein. More specifically, my blood vessels are still damaged and therefore "leaking", causing stress on the kidneys - causing the spilling of protein. I'm sure you can tell by my explanation that I have no medical background so, I would definitely ask your doctor about your issue! We're trying to get this under control before I get pregnant again but, I suspect that it may not completely resolve. I do think that some women spill protein throughout their entire pregnancy and it never progresses further than that but, I believe it does increase the risk of preeclampsia.

Are you seeing a high-risk OB? Please keep us updated!

Julie (27)
Zachary James, 7/22/03-7/27/03, born at 26wks - severe pe

Southern California Coordinator

[catherine]

Hi I recently read some guidelines on this, proteinuria, as representative of underlying reduction in kidney function. The point that the paper made was that it need not necessarily be a problem, we have plenty of excess capacity, however, diagnostically it is very important to remember that a) risk of preeclampsia is higher in women with renal damage and that b) the diagnosis of preeclampsia made be delayed if the advent of increased protein over baseline is not recognized.

It sounds to me like your OB is doing the right thing in identifying your baseline. Then I'm guessing that you'll be making friends with that jug regularly throughout your pregnancy to make sure that protein levels are not going up excessively. I would ask your OB when you get your results back about the exact numbers and also at what level, set for you personally, would he/she become concerned and why?


Good luck, I hope that things go smoothly

Catherine
Mom to Finn, Lucy (preeclampsia and HELLP) and Chloe.
Moderator HELLP Syndrome Survivors

[jolynn191978]

Thank you for he stories and the advice. I will definitely ask my OB about my baseline. It is wonderful to know I am not alone in this and there are others who have survived all this happily. I am glad that I found this website!!!----


Jolynn