PIH Update

My wife delivered her 24hr specimen to the midwife's office yesterday. We decided she would go by herself rather than all of us go--including the 2 y/o teething her 2 y/o molars at the moment.

Her BP was elevated again, and was back to normal after resting for a few minutes. More alarming though was the fact that she had gained 7 lbs since Friday. There was no midwife in the office yesterday, so we have yet another appointment on Wednesday where I can only hope we can stave off admission. One note of good news is her UA dipstick showed no protein again, we'll see what the 24hr catch shows.

It's been very frustrating actually. My wife has been keeping meticulous records, (she IS a nurse after all.) Our scale at home has never varied from the office scale by more than 1 lb in the past. Yet when she got home yesterday, our scale read 4 lbs lighter than the office scale. Her wedding rings still fit. Her ankles aren't swollen, she has no evidence of edema anywhere. If someone had gained 7 lbs in 3 days, shouldn't there be at least some sign of water retention? Because even with a baby growing, it would certainly be difficult to gain that much weight that quickly anabolically.

I also took her BP immediately after she got home. She had been driving for 20 minutes, and picked up the 2 y/o on her arrival home--yet her blood pressure was totally normal--120's over 60's. I'm pretty comfortable taking BP's, it was a required element of our exams at school, so I've done it hundreds if not thousands of times...

The clinical picture we see at home is not what is showing up in the office. I don't understand why that is. And I'm afraid we're going to end up admitted which will for SURE get her stress level up, her BP up, our risk for many, many things up... I feel like we're on the apex of a slippery slope, one small slip and we'll set in motion the American intervention nightmare birth. And the worst part about it is those professionals that we selected to help us navigate this fine line between safety and a completely natural birth, instead of steadying us, are tugging and pushing at us trying to knock us off balance, or so it feels.

I have never doubted that I would always put my family's health foremost in our healthcare decision making. From my independent reading and research during chiro school I developed a serious sense of mistrust of the medical profession as a whole. I think a healthy dose of skepticism is a good thing. And I honestly think that in an emergency situation, there would be no hesitation on my part. But this experience with the midwives office has only strengthened my mistrust. It just feels like they are trying to funnel us into the baby mill machinery, which is exactly what we wanted to avoid.

But, is their scale off? I don't know, I didn't see her zero it. Are the intake nurse's BP readings really that inaccurate? I don't know, she was getting ridiculously low readings in the past, and no one has independently verified her readings... Even my wife who is notoriously willing to accept what she's told in a medical office without question, is telling me that in her gut she doesn't think she gained that much weight.

It's just a very scary thing, because this clinical picture they've assembled could very well get us admitted.