We had another appointment yesterday, and it wasn’t all good news. Kaylea’s blood pressure was the highest it has ever been in the office 158/100. The docotor’s decided it was way too high and they diagnosed her with chronic hypertension. This wasn’t a complete suprise to us, as they told us before that if it stayed too high they may do something about it. They went over the issues that this can cause, the complications, and prescribed her some medication to lower the blood pressure. They also suggested some medication she can take for her sinus, which as of late, have been cause her some problems and that she should take it easy if possible.

They also told us that if they can’t get her blood pressure under control with medication, that the next step would be bed rest.

Now after talking with our parents there immedate response was what about pre-eclamsia. Well after some research and a really good article at OBGYN.com I was able to explain to them the difference. Pre-eclamsia is really gestational hypertension, chronic hypertenion comes on before the 20th week of pregancy and does not include any the of signs of pre-eclampsia or gestational hypertension. So now you ask what are the symptoms of gestational hypertension well according to the article at OBGYN.com they are
”

  • High blood pressure,
  • Edema (swelling, more suggestive of gestational hypertension if it is central of the face rather than peripheral of the ankles–peripheral swelling is normal),
  • Hyperproteinurea, or spilling protein in the urine, and
  • Hyper-reflexia, or exaggerated deep tendon reflexes (the knee-jerk, for instance).”

From Hypertension in Pregnancy

Kaylea is lucky in that she doesn’t have the protien in her urine. Also all her liver and kidney function tests are good.

We will now have weekly visits to the office with monthly ultrasounds and regular non-stress test. They are going to watch this carefully because of complications that high blood pressure and cause and because they want to make sure it doesn’t evolve into gestational hypertension.

In good news we have an ultrasound next friday and with any luck we will find out if we are having a boy or a girl.