Man, sometimes I really miss Reading Rainbow and all the other PBS shows.

Anyway, at our clinic appointment last Friday they told me my blood pressure was a little high. It was lower than the critical level for diagnosing pre-eclampsia, but still 30 points higher than when my BP was tested at my first pregnancy appointment back in January, which raises some red flags for them. Also, there was protein in my urine, which can be a clinical sign of pre-eclampsia.

Now, when they told me back in June that I had haemophilia (which I don't; it was a false alarm) I did what any self-respecting e student would do. I went to the internet to find out what the stats, causes, treatments, etc. were. And it soothed me to do that, because I found out some important things, like "this has no impact on your life unless you have major surgery or a difficult labour" and "most people with this don't even know they have it." These things made me feel better. Clearly, I wasn't suddenly going to drop dead.

But with pre-eclampsia, the internet is not the place to go. Google brought back links to "Reducing mortality in PE patients" and other such fun topics. More concerning to me is that the only cure for PE (inducing labour to get the danged baby out) is NOT the standard treatment in the UK. Here, they prescribe bedrest, which has (in some preliminary studies) been shown to *increase* morbidity in PE patients. I don't know about you, but it is not soothing at all for me to hear that the treatment you're most likely to get is one with no benefits and some well-defined risks.

As a result, I spent the whole weekend laying awake thinking about the 1,001 ways I or my son could just up and die. Fun times.

We went back to the clinic today for a BP and foetal monitor thing, where they strapped a monitor to my belly and a BP cuff to my arm and I got to lie around for an hour while they measured all my (and his) stats. Everything was fine. Repeat urine showed no protein, and the bloodwork from Friday showed smooth sailing. Yippee!

Just wanted to share with you guys that, once again, everything is in the clear. And also that Dr. Google is not always your ally in health care.