Blood pressure problems.
I consider myself very lucky and grateful to have largely had an incident free pregnancy. I haven’t really had much in the way of morning sickness and little baby boy has been right on target with every scan.
Now that I’m in the third trimester, however, a chronic problem has come up to haunt me. Ever since my twenties when I had my wisdom teeth out, I’ve had a problem with high blood pressure. I’ve been on medication since then. It’s intrinsic hypertension and it runs in my family. My dad also has it.
Throughout this pregnancy I’ve been monitoring it carefully with my little electronic device. You guys remember when it went really low. Well, really low is better for baby than high.
I’ve been pretty busy so have been only checking it on weekends, and last Sunday got a bit of a shock to get 142/100. Phoned my mom and got into a bit of a panic. Decided to phone the emergency line for my gynae (who turns out to be away) and I get his replacement with a funny European accent (was it Russian?) that I’m trying to figure out. He says, not to worry, it could be isolated, rather take another reading in the morning and then see.
The next morning I got 129/89 (much better) so off I went to work. But this whole time I have been feeling really weak, so have been sitting down a lot. I kind of decided to leave things, was really busy so didn’t really have time to phone the doc’s rooms, and kind of left it. But my mother kept bugging me. Plus the news came through that my maid (who is on maternity leave supposed to be having her baby) lost her baby directly after the cesarean. I can’t help thinking it was a lack of monitoring that led to that horrible outcome. It is heart-breaking, and I can only be ever so grateful that I have a good medical aid and good care that I can take advantage of.
So on Tuesday I made the call and they said I could drop by in the afternoon and the midwife would take my blood pressure. Sr J was really great. The first reading was really high so she got me to rest up a bit in the waiting room while she saw another patient. Then she took it again and we got it down to 140. She wrote a note for my work so that I could work half days and said come back on Friday.
My boss has been great and even has a temp lined up for when I need to stop work. It also sounds like she is more open to me taking longer leave now. It could be a good option to stop, but I’m still trying to make all the right decisions. However we settled on me leaving around 2 which would be when school finishes anyway, and I would mark books at home.
In any case, Friday came around. She raced through the meeting and I actually left at about quarter to three. But the thing is, not knowing if I am going to be around or not, I have to be part of these meetings.
I get to the labour ward (Sr J had long gone home, but suggested I go there and then then phone her from there).
I got there and they told me to go lie down on a bed so long. I thought this was good logic: let me rest and then the reading would be lower.
I didn’t quite count on them forgetting about me.
About half an hour past. I poked my head around the corner (this was a room right next to the reception area) and asked how much longer am I expected to lie there?
Poor old dolly had forgotten about me. She came and took my measurements. She got me to lie on my left side. The first one was 149 and the second one was much better – 129/76.
So this was an excellent reading. I phoned Sr J and left a message.
I went to the car and phoned my boss. She is still pushing for me to stop and getting a replacement. I think she doesn’t understand why even when I have a good reading, I’m still feeling weak, and needing those half days. Is this all in my head? I don’t know. Still trying to figure this all out. Am I back in the infertility “just relax” zone again?
I phoned my DH and went over to his work where he was still busy. Had a nice chat to his boss’s wife who took a full month off before the birth. I think I finally understand why! I also got a phone call back from Sr J who encouraged me to keep going with the half days and see her again on Tues, and then I will see Dr K anyway on Thurs.
When I phoned my mom she was glad about the reading, but still pushing for me to stop work. She is a doctor and she is convinced I am going into pre-eclampsia and basically depriving my baby of blood. According to Wikipedia, Pre-eclampsia is diagnosed when a pregnant woman develops high blood pressure (two separate readings taken at least six hours apart of 140 or more in systolic blood pressure and/or 90 or more in diastolic blood pressure) and 300 mg of protein in a 24-hour urine sample (proteinuria).
In any case we went home and skipped our normal Friday night grocery shop. Just got some stuff from Woolworths (like TV dinners) and I basically went straight to bed. And yes, I’m doing my best to sleep on my left side.
This morning I’m feeling a lot better and got another good reading 126/92.
I’m taking it easy. I’m having my afternoon naps and going to bed early. I’m doing what I can and I think it’s helping. The real question is: should I take the next step? Should I stop work now? At the moment I’m tending to take a “wait and see” kind of attitude, especially till my appointment on Thursday.
Oh and to end off on a lighter note – here is something B has been longing to do for ages…. making baby a Bulls fan before he is even born.
Sounds scary and frustrating, but you are doing everything right – I hope the readings continue to be reassuring! Are they having you do the 24-hour urine collection, or not yet?
Not yet. But when I go for an appointment I have to pee in a bottle.
Hoping that the blood pressure stays down. Take good care of yourself and don’t overdo it!
This is going to be a long comment since I had pregnancy-induced hypertension during both my pregnancies, and was eventually given a diagnosis of pre-eclampsia. But other than both babies being delivered a little early, everything went fine.
“Wait and see” was pretty much what my doctors ordered, as long as the protein in the urine was below a certain level, and I didn’t have other symptoms like pain around my liver or excessive swelling in my feet and legs. But my BP was so volatile (labile, I think they called it) that we watched it for the duration of the third trimester both times.
If you have any other symptoms – headache, swelling, vision problems, pain on the right near your rib cage – please don’t hesitate to call the doctors! Your BP readings are nowhere near as high as mine were (170/118, e.g.) but even so, you are NOT malingering or being lazy by taking it easy! Listen to your body – rest, drink fluids, keep your feet up – things can change quickly, and rest is the best thing you can do right now. XO and hope the BP stays down below 140/90. Keep us posted!
Thanks, Elizabeth, Shannon and Marwil, I really needed to hear that. 🙂
Take it easy and hopefully the readings get better. I personally would take the safer option, and listen to your mom. Hope the next appointment give you some more answers. In the end, you have to do what feels best with what the dr recommend at this point.
And how horrible for your maid. That’s just heartbreaking.
I will pray that you get well soon. Don’t push yourself too hard. You have a supportive boss – use that to your advantage. Xxx