Toxemia
Feb 22 '03
The Bottom Line Please see bottom line...
On New Year's Eve last year, I got a most amazing present: a baby girl! Only one problem: She was 3 months early. Now that she's healthy and home, I can write more about the experience that brought her into the world too quickly.
If you are pregnant, you must listen to your body. With my first pregnancy, I felt beautiful the entire 9 months. I just knew my second pregnancy would be the same way. Boy, was I wrong! From the beginning, I felt bad. I chalked it up to that first trimester that usually gets everyone down. After my 20th week had passed and I was still feeling bad, I chalked it up to going through pregnancy during flu season. I knew my husband was growing weary of hearing my list of pregnancy complaints day after day when we'd tried for a year to get pregnant.
I was grateful to be with child; but I was also miserable. I'd begun to swell horribly, had no ankles to speak of, had sausages from fingers and toes; even my eyelids were swollen. On Friday, the 27th of December, I worked a long 10 hour shift at the bank. We were quite busy, and I was on my feet for most of the day. When I went home, I was so swollen, but chalked it up to work. I brushed off my family's attempts to get me to call the doctor, figuring swelling just went with pregnancy.
By Sunday, I couldn't get the swelling to go down, I wasn't eating and I had a headache that would not go away. Throughout my whole pregnancy, I hadn't gained any weight, and had actually lost 5 pounds, but just chalked that up to being overweight before I got pregnant. At 3 a.m., I realized sleep was eluding me for good, so I got up to watch television. My normally active baby was asleep, it appeared when it hit me; I hadn't felt her moving all day!
I quickly called my doctor's emergency number, and there was a doctor on call that I'd never seen before. When I described my symptoms, I was told to drink a soda, lay on my left side and count the movements for one hour. I counted 6 in the hour, movements I'd have never felt had I not been so in tuned with my stomach. The doctor said "I should feel reassured and that the headache and general lousy feeling was probably because I was getting the gastric bug that was going around." Afterwards I vomited twice (the Mountain Dew didn't help matters) and figured he was right. I'm sure it is difficult to diagnose someone over the phone, which is another reason you must listen to your body!
The next morning I had the good sense to go into the doctor's office for my migraine. After a routine blood pressure and weight check, my pressure was sky high, my urine had protein in it and I'd gained 15 pounds in 2 weeks. I began to cry, telling the nurse that I hadn't even been eating! I was worried about the weight gain, not thinking how dangerous the rest of the symptoms were!
I was admitted to the hospital on December 30, to be monitored. It appeared that I had symptoms of preeclampsia, also known as Toxemia, and I was told that I was on bed rest for the remainder of the pregnancy. My first question: "Now, by bed rest do you mean laying in bed or just for me to take it easy?" After all, I have another child at home. Turns out I didn't have to do that, anyway!
My condition progressed so rapidly, that the doctor's began to prepare for the inevitability that the pregnancy would have to end. They would have to deliver my 28 week baby and would give me an ultrasound to see if she was in position to be delivered vaginally, or if I'd have to have a Cesarean section. They wanted to give me an injection of steroids to help the baby's lungs develop, and I was talked out of a tubal ligation because the baby was to be so little. It turns out that I had two seizures during the ultrasound, and had to be rushed for an emergency C-section to save mine and the baby's life.
Now I can happily report my baby is fine. She had to stay in the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) for nearly 2 months, but she is in excellent health. I've been told I'm lucky, very lucky that she is doing so good for a 28 week baby. I believe it.
Preeclampsia is a serious problem, one that I've learned a lot about in the last few months. If you have any of these symptoms and you are pregnant, please trust yourself and call your doctor!
Symptoms:
High Blood Pressure
Swelling
Rapid Weight Gain
Protein in the Urine (found with urinalysis)
Nausea and/or vomiting
Changes in Vision
Racing pulse, anxiety or being confused
Trouble catching your breath
Pain in right shoulder or stomach
Lower back pain
Who is most at risk for Preeclampsia
It generally happens, according to the experts, in first pregnancies. However, mine happened with my second pregnancy, prompting my doctor to ask me when my husband was out of the room which baby Dustin was the father of! He seemed amazed that he was the father of both.
There is a genetic correlation. I'm told that you are more at risk if your mother or sister had preeclampsia. My maternal great-grandmother and her daughter both lost their third child to this disease. All of their children were fathered by the man who fathered their other children, so don't think you are out of the woods if your first pregnancy went off without a hitch!
Multiple births, being a teenager or over 40, having high blood pressure and kidney disease before becoming pregnant are all risk factors. I had none of these situations, yet still had the disease, so keep your mind open!
Doctors do not know the cause of preeclampsia.
My bout with preeclampsia turned out good in the end, but it was the sickest I've ever been. I also could have lost my baby. If you are experiencing any of these symptoms, make sure you inform your doctor! (And remember that they are human, and therefore make mistakes, so keep a watch on your own health!)
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
Mom2TyZick
|
 in Personal Finance |
 - Top 500 |
|
Member: Suzanne
Location: North Carolina
Reviews written: 202
Trusted by: 238 members
About Me:
Real Estate Rock Star
|
|
|
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.