Whammy :(

[MomTimesThree]

Seriously, when your blood pressure is high, why does the blood pressure monitor have to do that re-flate that lets you know that you just failed. I wish it had a poker face, because as soon as it does that, you know your pressure is going to shoot higher!

We're 18 weeks and at today's appointment I was unpleasantly surprised by a 160/74... then a 170/84! After resting in the office it was down to the 150s. Whammy.

I'm so upset, which of course does wonders for my blood pressure I'm sure. I'm crossing all crossables that it can be explained away by maybe stress of the traffic and running a bit late on the way there. To which our MFM says, lots of people sit in traffic, run late, it doesn't make everyone's b/p go nuts. I'm hopeful that this will just be one spike... please please please no more whammies!

We're gonna do a 24hr... continue to monitor bp... and check back in Thursday. My pressures were never that high until I was 36 weeks last time. I don't want PIH. I want normal.

[m]

Oh, that stinks!! I know what it feels like to just want normal! Hopefully your 24 hr will go well and your BP gets back to normal.

[mychaelelaine]

yikes. hope your pressure comes down!

[MomTimesThree]

Thanks for the well wishes. It took a bit... but before I went to bed it was finally back to a normal level and this morning it's also normal... maybe a lil' higher than my usual which trends a bit lower, but still normal! I'm super relieved but equally as bummed that it even spiked... especially when I wasn't expecting it at all! I hate that it's so out of your control. Grumble.

[ssaunders]

When I have anxiety, my bp is high. How were you feeling before she took your bp? I get panic attacks and I know its high so I don't bother to even check it. I wait until I feel better and more relaxed. If I have anxiety before she takes my bp, I let her know that I am feeling very anxious. It stems from pre e, high bp with my son. Then after I had him, several panic attacks have landed me in the ER. And always had high bp and high pulse. I had a bad anxiety episode during my gd test recently (im 25 weeks) and my bp was up, close to 140/90 but had gone down later, after the test was over.

[MomTimesThree]

My bp rises and falls with my anxiety as well... but sometimes not. I thought for sure I would get a high reading earlier in the day when I was meeting my new dr (my MFM is moving out of state ) but it was 118/60.

When the nurse at our MFM's office first took it I was feeling totally fine, comfortable, relaxed... until it did the double re-flate thingie and I knew I was about to fail! I was so shocked... that hadn't happened since I was hospitalized before we were induced. So I'm sure that made it rise a bit over what it was already going to be.

So far, takin' it easy to day, as easy as it gets with a two year old, seems to have things back where they should be and I'm hopeful that this was just some strange random spike that I'll never ever see again.

[libby123]

I've always protested those automatic cuffs. A doctor can take it manually and do just a better job, and can inflate it to the proper level. The automatic cuffs first inflate to 170, and if they cannot find the systolic pressure they reinflate to 220. However it was always my opinion that with the reinflation, they squeeze the arm so hard, plus the arm has already been squeezed, and the anxiety, that it gave a falsely high reading. My reading on an automatic cuff was always about 20 points higher systolic than my doctor would get manually.

If it were me, I would request them taking it manually. There is no law that says you can't refuse the automatic cuff and ask your doctor to take it manally.

[flori]

I'm sorry about your whammy! My fingers are crossed that everything works out and that the high reading was a fluke.

How do you like your new doc?

[MomTimesThree]

Today it was taken manually (thanks Libby) and it was 142/74 give or take. I stopped listening after I heard one for- booooo. I do think that might have been more nerves/movement but I also like to make a lot of excuses for why my bp creeps up... anything that keeps it from being anything related to pre-e! My 24 came back at 242... my baseline was 193 at 10 weeks, so now at 18 weeks I guess it's a jump... but it could sooo be worse.

I really really wanted to think that this was going to be my totally normal pregnancy and that I'd have all these extra monitoring appointments that would turn out all to be for nothing because it would be totally text book. I'm mostly feeling just totally deflated. I think I jumped in too soon with hope. Hey, who knows... it could stay "just" PIH... at this point that would be most excellent!

Flori- I do like her... when I don't compare her to my current MFM who I heart! She'll "do"... she was really nice, asked very thorough questions, was very compassionate and was comfortable talking about our daughter who passed away, and that means a lot. At this point hopefully all goes well and we won't actually see her again until we move closer to the hospital at 36 weeks... crossin' crossables that remains our plan!!