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I went on a family reunion cruise when I was about 22 weeks pregnant. The

Posted On Tuesday, October 15, 2002  by Kara
I went on a family reunion cruise when I was about 22 weeks pregnant. The night of the captain's dinner I had to carry my shoes to dinner because my feet were so swollen. As the cruise progressed so did the swelling. With the advice from all the women around me I went and saw the ship's doctor. He checked my bp and for protein in my urine, both were fine but he stressed to me to follow up with my ob/gyn when I got home. I saw my ob/gyn the week I returned and was told that the edema was due to being in a warmer climate and that it was a "sign of a first pregnancy". Those are words I would hear again and again. As the weeks progressed the women I worked with constantly told me how bad I looked and to call my ob/gyn. I did on at least two occasions complaining about the swelling and each time was completely ignored. Again, it was "a sign of a first pregnancy". At about 27 weeks I saw the ob/gyn and he told me there was protein in my urine, but since my bp was ok he didn't need to see me for another month!! THANK GOD for my mom. She's a nurse. She told me if I waited a month to get my bp taken she would take me to the hospital and check it herself. I had to beg her not to call the doctor and say something to him. One week later I checked my bp in a drug store. It was 195/115. My normal bp was 120/60. I called my doctor when I got home (it was a Sunday) and he was at the hospital delivering and said to come see him there. At this point he took me out of work put me on bedrest and said to follow up with him during the week. On my visit during the week I got, who I feel is the only competent doctor in the practice, and I was immediately admitted to the hopital and later that evening taken by ambulance to a medical center 40 miles away. I met the perinatologist that night and he was GREAT!!!! I was kept on a magnesium drip and on strict bed rest. I was hoping to get to 32 weeks but only made it to 29 weeks 2 days. My retina's detached and they were forced to take the baby against my strong arguments. He spent the 1st 70 days of his life in the NICU. His lungs collapsed, he had double hernia surgery and the list goes on and on. I didn't get to hold him for 23 days. Thank God my son now is fine. He is a very happy, healthy and well adjusted 4 year old. He has no problems in school and no problems with his behavior. At least none that are different from every other 4 year old. I hold a lot of resentment to my regular ob/gyn. This was something my mom who is a geriatric nurse picked up on!! Why couldn't my ob/gyn??? If they realized it earlier maybe I would have gotten further or at the very least my son would have had a number of more doses steroids and hopefully his lungs would have been more developed. I'm now 33 and my husband and I have finally decided to try again. They say the chances are only about 25% that this can happen again. I was told I didn't have to see the perinatologist, but I don't trust my regular doctors to catch it this time. Maybe they would but I don't want to chance it. I'll be driving over 50 miles to see the perinatologist but to me it's more then worth it. Thanks for listening and I hope this may help someone.
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