New : 22 Weeks Pregnant

[challis]

Hi,
am new to this site ( so happy i find it)
i am a patient aof lupus for 2 years now and i been up ad down. At this movement am 22 week pregancy and still going through ****. my doctor told me that there will be a 80% chance of me feel better when am pregeant ( am still waiting)
so far i have only 1 scan and am still waiting for my 20 week scan.
i was told that i will have regular scan to check on my baby growth, but no one any said when. i have a received a paper of all my appointments and there is only two scan date on the paper and o few regular appointment.
I am started to get worry, as my lupus is get worst as the day go by (finger, toes, hair loss, butterfly rash and joint pains mostly).
have any one got any advice on how to improve my progress? or should i ask my doctor for more scans.
Please reply, cause am new to lupus, pregeancy and am only 21


:thanks:

[cath]

Hi Challis,

Nice to meet you! I'm glad you have found this site too style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cloud9.gif

Congratulations on your pregnancy style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/foryou.gif

Where do you live? I am guessing the UK? From what you write it looks like you are being cared for by your GP and midwife. Is that right? Have you seen an obstetrician at the hospital?

By now the ideal plan is that you should have had two scans - one to check the age of the baby (at 8-10 weeks), and a second between 18-22 weeks to look at all the organs of the baby and check he/she is developing normally. When is your second scan date? Is it soon?

The most important thing right now is that you should be under consultant care, that is, you should be having check ups at the hospital with an obstetrician. Have you told your doctor and midwife you have lupus?
They need to know this and to refer you to the consultant.

In addition to the care that every pregnant woman gets, you need some extra tests. The obstertician or your rheumatologist can do these. You need to know if you are Ro positive. Ro antibodies sometimes cause neonatal lupus in the baby, so if you are positive, the doctors should watch out for possible complications such as a slow heart beat (congential heart block) in the baby.This is tested with an ENA (extractable nuclear antigens).
You also need to know if you test positive for the lupus anticoagulant or have cardiolipin antibodies. These somtimes lead to an increased tendancy to blood clots called APS or Hughes syndrome. If you have these antibodies but have never had a blood clot or miscarriage before, they might not do anything about them, as some people have the antibodies but they never cause a problem. If you have had a blood clot or several miscariages, they will try and stop you having clotting problems in this pregnancy by giving you asprin and heparin.

Women with SLE have higher rates of pre-eclampsia and pre term labour than other women. For this reason your check ups should be a bit more regular than standard (discuss this with your obstetrician, but at this stage probably every 4 weeks, every 2 weeks after 32 weeks, and every week after 36 weeks. I expect that they will also want to do a couple more scans on you later in pregnancy to check that the baby is growing well.

In terms of managing your lupus, your rheumatologist is still the one to be in contact with. If you are flaring (and it sounds like it), you need to see him/her. What meds are you on? Prednisolone is safe to take in pregnancy. It is better for you and the baby to manage your lupus well than to avoid drugs for the baby's sake.

OK - I've probably overloaded you now, so I'll stop...
Hope this all makes sense,

Looking forward to hearing more from you,

X C X

[Maia]

Just wanted to add to the previous excellent post a little personal experience with my pregnancy:

(1) I had a 24 hour total urine analysis doneearly in pregnancy to be able to have a baseline protein excretion to compare later on if it became necessary to distinguish between lupus kidney problems and pre-eclampsia
associated protein in the urine
(2) In the states, most people don't get scans until 20 weeks or so and this includes lupus mothers. I had scans done 3 times is all; it would be more frequent had a problem been identified such as intra-uterine growth restriction
(3) I was advised to stay on Plaquenil throughout pregnancy (& add prednisone if needed). No NSAIDS during 3rd trimester.
(4) The ro antibodies and anti-cardiolipin and lupus anti-coagulant antibody tests are very important. If you have these features of lupus then you should be put on a baby aspirin a day until just a few weeks before your due date. It's possible you'd also be put on heparin if you have had actual clotting incidents/miscarriages before
(5) Congratulations! By 22 weeks you're past the threat of misccarriage!

[pnutts]

Hi Challis,

I had a bunch of ultrasounds. Probably around 12. I actually felt my best while pg. So sorry to hear your having no improvements.
I would definately tell your dr.'s how your feeling. They should be able to do something for you. Congratulations and Good luck on the rest of your pg.