Our Trips to the Doctor this Week

Alright, I've debated posting about this at all, but I feel like I should, if for no one else, for myself. Maybe it'll be therapeutic and help me from bottling up stress and anxieties that may come. 

Starting at 19 weeks I began having severe swelling. I called home and was talking to my mom and told her I knew pregnant women had swelling, but I had no idea it was this bad! She asked what I meant, I told her I had swelling in my feet and legs and some days the swelling would even go up above my knees.

My mom was concerned and told me to call the doctor. Sure enough they wanted me to come in. They told me that swelling with my level of severity wasn't supposed to occur till after week 22. The mid-wife I was going to told me we would keep an eye on my Blood Pressure (BP) but for then we were doing okay.

In the last two or three weeks though my BP has been on the higher end of the normal spectrum and my mid-wife had mentioned that this was something we needed to start monitoring a little more closely. So she told me to occasionally check my blood pressure at home. She let me know that anything with a systolic rate over 140 or a diastolic rate over 90 would be considered in the “Danger Zone” and I would need to call in to the office, and if I had anything 150 over 100 that I needed to come in or go to an urgent care immediately. She also said that if I ever had really bad headaches, dizziness or saw spots in my vision to take my BP.  

So we have been watching things. And then last Sunday, I was sitting in bed and got really, really dizzy.  As soon as the dizziness lifted I began having an extremely intense headache that come out of nowhere. So we took my BP and sure enough it was in the "danger zone" at 144/83.

With my mom’s history of high BP I gave her a call and she suggested that I lay on my left side for 15 minutes to see if we could get it to come down naturally. After 15 minutes it had dropped a little so that was a good sign. Throughout the rest of the evening I laid on my left side and it slowly continued to drop until we got it back down to the higher end of normal at around 132/80.

But the next morning when I woke up and checked it again it was slightly elevated. After getting up and ready for work, it had spiked again to the "danger zone" this time being 129/91. So we called in to my doctor to see what they wanted me to do. They had me come in to check Evie's heart rate and see how she was doing. When I got to the doctor my BP was 143/83, again in the "danger zone". But Evie looked good, thank heavens.

So we talked about a few possibilities and scheduled some more tests and a follow-up appointment for Friday. The doctor asked me to monitor my BP from home until our appointment on Friday. My BP was elevated all week with one number or the other in the danger zone. So yesterday we went in and again my BP was 142/81.

The doctor had ordered a growth ultrasound to see how Evie was measuring and she was in the 77% and her heart rate was good, but my amniotic fluid was looking a little low. The ultrasound technician was a little concerned but said we still looked okay.

After that we met with the doctor again. Sam and I both really liked him. He was extremely informative without giving us too much information that would just stress us out. He came in and talked to us about how at this point since my BP has been on the elevated higher side of normal and dipping into the "danger zone" we could be looking at either preeclampsia or gestational hypertension.

He wanted to order a few more tests and sent us over to the hospital to have those run. He told us that because he will be on call at the hospital in Labor and Delivery on Sunday, he would go down and get the results. He told us that he would call us with those results Sunday afternoon.

Preeclampsia is not a new or foreign term to us. My mom had preeclampsia with all 6 of us. In a way that has been a blessing because my mom has known what to look for and when things are a little more serious and needing some attention, since we are totally clueless as to what is and isn’t normal. Ha!

It also means that I know how important it is to have a good doctor who is proactive and on top of watching things to make sure nothing gets too dangerous. And the doctor we have been seeing has been wonderful. He told us he would like to see us weekly or possibly twice a week until Evie's arrival date. He also told us it is highly unlikely at this point that we will carry to full term before they will need to induce us, but for now I can continue going into work and keeping with our normal schedule.

If we are looking at preeclampsia or this becomes preeclampsia they will most likely induce us sometime shorty after week 37. And if it is just gestational hypertension then they will try and wait till we get to week 39 before they induce depending on the levels of amniotic fluid, my BP, and Evie’s heart rate and growth.

But so far we are all safe. We have been blessed to have transferred to a terrific doctor who is on top of our treatment and care. My mom didn't always have good doctors and she learned the hard way what happens if your doctor isn't being proactive, and that it can get super scary and dangerous very, very quickly. Plus I have an amazing employer who is being incredibly flexible and understanding. 

So like I said, we are blessed! God is watching over and protecting us. For now everything is okay, for now we wait for the results and will build a game plan after we hear back from the doctor!

On a happier, more exciting note here are some pictures! 

Because of our growth ultrasound we have a recent picture of our little lady. The technician even told us that our Evie has a few little chub rolls starting to grow. She pointed some of them out to us … so, so, so cute! I love chunky babies! 

 

And here is the most recent baby bump shot. It's from last week but it gives you an idea of where we are at!