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Pregnant after a Loss
tew213
member
MRI Update (VERY long)
tew213
member
Thank you s much for all of your T&Ps. Not many people IRL knew what was going on and it meant so much to me to have such a large group of women praying for me and LO!
Quick recap: started having weird vision problems, eye doc said I had a swollen optic nerve. That is caused by pressure/fluid in the brain. Had to have an MRI to check my brain out.
I was terrified through the whole MRI - literally crying. The sweet techs felt so bad for me but I was so scared I couldn't stop. But I managed to stay still and get it done in an hour (which is a really long time when the top half of your body is stuck in an itty bitty tube).
My doctor called me within a couple hours with the results, MRI was NEGATIVE (no tumors or abnormalities)! This was obviously awesome news, but we still didn't know what was causing the pressure/swelling.
So the next step was a spinal tap (eek!). In doing a spinal tap they could measure the amount of pressure and drain some spinal fluid if needed. This would at least relieve pressure and prevent me from having a seizure or stroke. I was worried for LO but my OB said it was safe and it really needed to be done no matter what or else me and LO would both be in danger.
So I had to check into the hospital and wait for my neurologist to show up for the procedure (I had met with him in his office before this to go over it all). It was painful but tolerable. DH held my hand (while I squeezed his) and rubbed my head. We thought of it as a practice for labor 
Normal pressure is 7-15, 20 is high. Mine was 31.5! So he drained 4 vials of spinal fluid. That brought my pressure down to 10. And the whole time he was doing this, him, the 4 nurses and MH were watching Wipeout on the TV and cracking up. It wasn't very comforting when the Dr was like "oh that's gonna hurt!" and I am like what? what happened? Thinking he made a slip up with the huge needle in my back. But it was somewhat funny and did lighten the mood.
But now the bad news: for this condition, they give you medicine after the spinal tap to keep the pressure down. Well, I can't have that medicine because I am pregnant. So now we just wait. I will have regular check ups with my eye doctor and if the swelling increases again, I will have to have another spinal tap. So this could be a looong 6 months left of this pregnancy. Neurologist said once LO is born, I am his and I will be put on treatment right away to 'cure' this.
So thats where we are now. Pretty much best case senerio as long as things don't take a turn for the worst. Still don't know the cause, it's called a pseudo tumor - my body reacts like I have a brain tumor but there is not one. Seems to be pretty easily treatable not pregnant - so now we just hope me and LO make it to November without any further complications!
Sorry so long, I am not good at making things short & sweet!
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Re: MRI Update (VERY long)
ITS A BOY!!!! Born 11/13/11 BFP #4: 10/29/12 edd 7/11/12
I'm so incredibly relieved to hear they didn't see signs of a malignant tumor on the MRI. I lost a cousin to brain cancer & you've majorly been in my thoughts since your last post. (His was found via an eye exam too)
It really sounds like this is the best case scenario for a sucky situation, and I'm so thankful that is the case. Hopefully things can continue to go well for you and they can deliver a healthy LO and then kick this psuedo tumors arse!
Have you gotten some relief from the pressure with them taking some of the fluid out?
Definitely keep us posted!
BFP#2 2.5.11 (EDD 10.15.11) DS born 9.28.11
BFP#4 8.27.13 (EDD 5.6.14) DD born 4.23.14
My Recipe Blog
~All AL'ers welcome~
Oh you poor thing. I can only imagine how scary that MRI would have been. I am so glad it's not tumors, but sorry you are dealing with this problem that is hard to treat while pregnant. T&Ps that it continues to work well for you and the next six months fly by!
BFP #1 5/2010 - Missed m/c at 8 weeks
BFP #2 2/2011
Baby G welcomed with love and relief 10/2011
Surprise BFP 1/8/2013...say what? Baby A arrived 9/2013
Motherhood is not for wimps
I'm so happy to see there was no tumors Tarah!
I will be praying you, DH, and LO. I can't imagine how scary this all must be for you.
Please let me know if you guys need anything!
((((hugs!))))
BFP#1: 3/9/11 Natural m/c: 3/21/11
BFP#2: 7/21/11 DS born 3/23/12
BFP#3: 9/14/14 EDD 5/22/15
BFP#2 3/16/11, beta 138; 4/12 Baby/HB DS born 9/10/11 at 29w4d due to partial abruption and PTL
BFP#3 8/19/13 Another boy! 17P, modified bedrest and Nifedipine helped us have a termie! DS2 born 4/19/14 at 38w5d.
I really didn't have the headaches they expected me to have with this condition - my only symptom was my vision, I can see my vision slowly improving, but they said it wouldn't be instant and may not ever be back to normal. Since the spinal, I have had some headaches, but they said that's a normal/expected reaction to the procedure.
I am so sorry to hear about your cousin. I only had 1.5 days to be thinking of a brain tumor, but I was more scared than I have ever been.
I am not sure if it is the same thing, but he gave me some of numbing shot. Then asked if I could feel when he pressed in certain areas, some I said yes to, but then he did the puncture right away. It wasn't a sharp needle pain, but an intense presure. I started laying down, had to sit up, then back to laying down. So maybe he had trouble getting it in? If the cream is something different though I'd be glad to ask him about it - thanks!
DD#1 9-4-04 *** DD#2 10-15-07
BFP#3 10-25-10 *EDD 7/1/11 * missed m/c @ 13w3d
BFP#4 7-30-11 *EDD 4/8/12 ~ DD#3 born 4/4/12
Dx: MFI- 3% morph
IUIs: Gonal-F + Ovidrel + b2b IUI= BFNs
IVF with ICSI= BFP! EDD 11/25/11
3/18- Beta #1 452! 3/20- Beta #2 1,026!! 3/27- First u/s- TWINS!
Our twin boys arrived at 36w5d due to IUGR and a growth discordance
Be kinder than necessary, for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.