(re)introduction and blood pressure / pre-eclampsia talk

mattandlora · January 2015

Hi all. I popped in a few months back with HEG. It finally settled down a few weeks ago......just in time for my blood pressure to start creeping up.

I'm 30 weeks and have watched a slow climb in BP at each OB visit since 24 weeks. Now I officially have gestational hypertension. BPs run 140s-150s / 80s-90s. From what I've read, things will be perfectly fine if I maintain the status quo through the rest of pregnancy. However, given my profile (# of pregnancies, age, prior issues, development during 2nd trimester, etc), I have about a 50% chance of this progressing to preeclampsia. The symptoms I'm supposed to watch for aren't helpful. Headaches? I got migraines before the pregnancy and being pregnant didn't change that. Difficulty breathing? Yeah, especially as DD crowds my lungs. Abdominal pain? Check. I've been calling it heartburn this whole time. Swelling? Yeah, I'm pregnant. So far, I have no protein in the urine and totally normal labs. From what I've read, rest and decreased stress can lower BP, BUT that's just a temporary thing. There's not much I can do to control whether or not this progresses to pre-eclampsia. I'm just on autopilot, waiting to see what happens.

So, yeah, let me just sit and stress about how stress raises my BP.

I hope to hang out here at least another 5 weeks, preferably 8-10 weeks!

itsmevkb · January 2015

My blood pressure is in the same range as yours and my doc said he'd consider treating it if it gets up to 150/90 consistently. He's expressed concerns about pre-e given my age and that I've had very high blood pressure spikes towards the end of all my pregnancies but I guess thankfully went into labor prior to things progressing to something bad. I just keep telling the baby to stick with me until 37 weeks.

mattandlora · January 2015

Hello @itsmevkb. Nice to know I'm not alone in limbo! My magic date is 35 weeks. That's when the baby can go to the regular nursery instead of the NICU where I'm delivering. I'd prefer 37 weeks, but I'll be happy with 35!

citymama2012 · February 2015

With pre-e, I had SEVERE and SUDDEN swelling (not regular pregnancy related swelling) starting at 34 weeks. My ankles and feet were so bad I could feel water sloshing around in them. My weight jumped 10 lbs in 1 week due to the extra water. I never had headaches or abdominal pain, but my blood pressure sky rocketed. My whole pregnancy I was around 120/80, then it went up to 150/90 and in just a couple weeks it was 190/100 (at which point we induced labor). I was on a week of bed rest, during which time I was encouraged to lay on my left side to improve circulation and I had bought a blood pressure cuff from CVS to monitor my bp at home. If you're really concerned you could get one of those. I was getting non stress tests performed every other day to check me and the baby. I did two 24 hr. urine tests both showed increasing levels of protein in the urine. After 2 weeks (I was at 36 weeks) and increasing BP and protein labs, they began my induction.

Basically, your dr. should be monitoring you closely already, there isn't much else you can do. Decreasing stress, deep breathing, meditating, etc are always good, but if it's true pre-e you can't really stop it. You can monitor yourself at home if it makes you feel better, but once your bp hits a certain point and you have protein in your urine, the best course of action will be to deliver, since that' s the only way to "cure" pre-e.

However, since you don't have protein in your urine, perhaps it will just be gestational hypertension in which case you could carry to full term. FX for you!

Good luck and hopefully you and baby are healthy enough to hold out to 35 weeks (or longer!). Just keep a close eye since it can take a turn for the worse quickly.

mattandlora · February 2015

Thanks everyone! We have a home BP monitor and I work in healthcare and can check my BP at work daily. I'm still on every 2 week visits with the OB, with instructions to take my BP daily and call for high readings (160/100 or higher) OR for symptoms. In the meantime, I'm just hanging out and trying to reduce stress while I stress about my BP. I already had meetings wtih my boss about the possibility that I might be put on bedrest or deliver early. Now it's just a waiting game. If everything stays status quo (140s - 150s / 80s) then I should go full term. When I'm not pregnant, my BP is usually 100s / 60s. This is so weird.

Charmedseed · February 2015

I hope all is well! I come in with a 10-year diagnosis of chronic hypertension, medicated successfully for the last 8 or so years. I'm 34, btw.

Just two weeks ago (at 26 weeks) my so far well-managed BP (usually about 120/60, better than my usual BP before pregnancy) taking 100 mg labetalol, leaped to 140s/90s. Spikes have been as high as 150/110. We've upped the medication to 200 mg twice daily, still showing 140s/90s two weeks later and now I'm upping the labetalol to 300mg twice daily.

I've had lots of extra ultrasounds, just about every month, and at this one OB says baby is small (I've asked for the specific percentile since I like numbers, yay) - I noted on the ultrasound screen that though we're at 28 weeks (we know the conception date), he's presenting like 25 weeks gestation.

There's still lots of therapy and medication to go through, but I'm frustrated and afraid. I'm not showing any other specific signs of pre-eclampsia (a few headaches here and there, wedding rings don't really fit anymore, hard to breathe but as OP said HEY we're pregnant, right?), but the news about his size and growth has been VERY disconcerting. Visits and ultrasounds will be every two weeks starting now, so I know we're keeping a close eye on things but... as I'm sure you all know, it's frustrating.

I don't know what to expect if things go sideways, and I feel like I look paranoid if I ask. It helps to know you ladies are out there feeling it, too (though of course I certainly wish we weren't!). How are you all coping? How are things going?

(re)introduction and blood pressure / pre-eclampsia talk

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