New and pretty overwhelmed

[blythe]

I'm glad we've helped . I remember how scary and overwhelming PE can be, knowing that it's serious but not even knowing what questions to ask. That's why we're here.

Keep watching your signs and symptoms just like you're doing, and let us know how your labs turn out. Holler with any more questions!

[arwen]

I'm so confused. They're saying this last 24-hr test had protein of 175 and creatinine of 1.6. That's still above the levels they consider "normal," which are 150 and .6-1.5 respectively. My BPs are still up, dancing around that 140/90 level, even if it's sometimes zigzagging so much I'm alternating between feeling faint and feeling out of it when my BP spikes. My hands, feet, and face are still puffy. My weight is steady from last week, but the two weeks before that it went up by about 3 pounds a week. I'm getting vague, transient nausea that seems to be completely unrelated to what I'm eating. The headaches get better with Tylenol, eventually, but it sometimes takes an hour or more. They're not excruciating but noticeable.

I saw a different OB this time, and went through my medical history pretty extensively with her. She thinks that I'm trending toward PE, and asked if I wanted to see a MFM specialist. Between what happened in my last pregnancy and what's going on here, she feels there's enough weirdness to warrant consulting with someone who deals in weird.

The thing that concerns me most is that over the past week, at both OB appointments, I've had to stay on the NST extra long because while my baby's heartrate was between 120-130, he wasn't moving around much. Both appointments were around the same time, and this baby has never been much of a mover and a shaker; he does jump around in the evenings, and kick somewhat during the day, but he's overall much quieter than my daughter was. They want me back for another NST on Thursday and said to keep a close eye on his movements. He moved at the doc's office after more juice (and I'd had two glasses during the day before that to make sure he was awake for the appointment) and that was enough to make the doctor confident that he's okay. Every time I start to worry, I get movements, which makes me think maybe he is just napping during that time of the day, but maybe I'm wrong.

[MomTimesThree]

I'm glad the OB suggested a MFM referral- I think that's a great step towards understanding the full picture of what's going on.

[sam10]

I am glad that the OB clarified your lab results, which are below threshold for a PE diagnosis. It is all very confusing, which is why I think it is a good suggestion to go see an MFM at this point, so s/he can take a closer look at your BP pattern and your labs and help clarify what it all means.

[blythe]

Good to hear that your medical team is on top of things, in your shoes I would definitely take them up on the MFM referral. It's my understanding that you don't necessarily need to transfer care entirely unless you want to / unless they recommend it, but an MFM consult to start with at least sounds perfect.

I wish I knew more about the NSTs - I do know that babies have different activity levels just like anyone, but when you've got a quiet one you just don't know if it's because of temperament or something else. So they just watch you and baby closely, hope that it's temperament and intervene as fast as they can if it turns out to be something else.

I think I was told that if baby was too quiet for my comfort, to drink a glass of orange juice and lay down for 5 minutes, and call if I was still concerned. In your shoes I'd ask if something like that would be right for you to try or if they had a better recommendation, and when exactly baby's movement - or lack of it - warranted a call or an L&D trip for you.

It's no fun being the "interesting" patient . Hang in there.

[arwen]

He perks up with juice, just slowly. I'm told if he doesn't perk up within ~30 mins to call. In the meantime, my BP is zigzagging more, I'm feeling either faint or like I'm going to explode. My pulse (resting) is pushing 100 more and more. It used to be around 80. I'm constantly feeling like my body is "wound up," yet at the same time exhausted. My MFM appointment is Tuesday, it can't come soon enough.

I hope I haven't wasted everyone's time here, I just don't understand why borderline numbers that I was previously told by one of the docs could only go up ended up going down. One of the OBs I saw said it was virtually guaranteed I'd be over the threshold next test. But there is *something* going on and if nothing else, your suggestion to see a MFM may be the key to figuring it all out, so even if I'm not having PE, I still appreciate everything so, so much.

I think at my next OB appt (tomorrow) that I will ask for another 24-hr urine test and see what is really going on here. Last time, I filled the collection jug and had to bring in the rest of the sample in a separate container, and it looked like the tech was guesstimating the volume. I also think they had my weight down wrong, it may have been off by 10 pounds--no idea if that makes a difference. I'm not really sure why they don't just give pregnant women 2 containers, it's not like we don't pee a lot, right?

[hannahsmom]

Hoping things are okay for you right now. Please update us when you can. I switched OB's during my second pregnancy. My OB had become one of my very best friends, but when I started getting PE symptoms at 25 weeks, I wanted to switch to my high-risk doc. She said no and hospitalized me in a hospital with a low-level NICU. If I gave birth there, the baby would have to be transferred to a high-level NICU. She said I now had severe PE and refused to let me out of the hospital to go see the high-risk OB. She was preparing for an emergency c-section. Her partner (also an OB) came to see me privately and said I should be transferred to the next city because the hospital I was in couldn't handle me or the baby. So I ended up having to demand to be released and was transferred by ambulance to the next city over to the hospital that the high-risk OB worked in. I had been down the road of a micro-preemie once before, and I wanted the best care if it happened again. The high-risk OB got me to 35 weeks. After that, my regular OB and I didn't speak for several months. I felt like I had lost my best friend, but we finally met and talked it over, and now we are really close again. You have to do what is best for YOU and the BABY. What everyone else thinks does not matter at this point. I am keeping my fingers crossed that everything turns out for the best.

[arwen]

I guess this is another thing that aggravates me. The OB I see the most out of my practice is the one who delivered my daughter. I hadn't seen him much before she was born, the OB that I saw most was delivering someone else at another hospital and couldn't get to me in time, so he was her backup. I had seen him when I had the flu, and he said he had no problems with aggressive management of my situation, including hospitalization, which made me feel better, especially since he said he'd tell my insurance company where to go if they gave me problems. He was awesome during the delivery. Totally calm, totally okay with modifying things because I was having a hard time breathing and we were nearing the 24-hour mark since my water broke and I was utterly drained. When I swelled up so badly in the weeks that followed, when breastfeeding turned out to be such a train wreck, he was really, really good. Even though we didn't know what was going on, he had no problems with my coming in a lot. Eventually I had to be referred out, my GP sent me for heart tests and blood tests and urine tests (no 24-hr urine though, in retrospect, I wonder if that would have revealed anything), but I made sure to keep my OB posted and he was great about that too.

Now, I feel like things were just brushed off by him, and that he's pushing vaginal birth no matter what. I can't even get a proper pro/con analysis out of anyone in the practice, everyone just seems to want to take a wait-and-see approach. All they want to do is induce, even though I've told them I've basically been down that road before, I barely got through it, and that was with a relatively normal pregnancy. They're treating this possible PE like it's predictable, when I know from this site that PE can suddenly blow up so it's NOT predictable. I can't take any more wait-and-see. My nerves just won't handle it at this point. I want a plan, even if it doesn't have deadlines or timeframes, even if it's just a flow chart of if this, then that. And I'm hoping this MFM specialist will be better about laying out pros and cons and figuring out a plan.

[blythe]

These subsequent pregnancies are just soo hard. We're on edge, our bodies are on edge, and our docs figure they know what's going on and can handle the complications, but in the meantime *we're* the ones on the cliff waiting for it to crumble. ((hugs))

For your readings that are going up and down - search Caryn's posts, she has a lot of good explanations about the biology. If I'm understanding right, it's like there is an "argument" between mom's body and the placenta, so sometimes levels are high, sometimes they are low. But it's virtually inevitable that the placenta will win by hijacking mom's internal systems, it's just a matter of when. That's why we just say "keep watching and reporting".

Your doctor sounds like he was amazing in your last pregnancy, I'm sorry he hasn't been as attentive this time around. Good luck at the MFM!!

[alexis]

Also, you are never wasting anyone's time by posting here--we're always happy to help when we can, even if it may only be support and reassurance!