Looking for Your Experiences with Pre-e Testing (24 hr urine collection)

[miriam_bat_avraham]

Hi everyone-- I'm 28 weeks with twins and at a recent doctor's appointment, my BP was a bit higher than normal even while lying down (138/60 instead of 110/60 or so) and my urine protein test was 673 (it should be under 200). My 1 hr glucose test also came back high, so I retested with the 3 hr (ugh) and it came back "borderline for gestational diabetes."

My doctor had me do a 24 hour urine collection because of the original urine test results. I'm wondering if anyone else has ever

* had results sort of like mine in the first test (673)

* had to do a 24 hr collection and how your results were

* had bad results to start with and had the 24 hr test come back fine

* how it all worked out for your afterwards-- did you go on bed rest, deliver early, how long did you last, etc

I just need to have some sort of idea what I could possibly expect (while knowing that everyone/every pregnancy is different and no anecdata is a guarantee) to calm my nerves a bit while I wait for my results tomorrow morning!

Thank you!

[StephandOwen]

Well, I was much farther along than you when my issues cropped up. At 38w5d I was admitted to the hospital with high blood pressure and spilling protein. I was originally told they were going to keep me 24 hours to do a urine collection. That was at about 9pm. We started doing the urine collection that night, but by 7am the next morning (10 hours later) the dr came back in and said that my bp was getting much worse and I was far enough along that it was safer to deliver than to wait, so we did start an induction at that time.

At 28 weeks there are some medications they can give you to try and keep your bp down, but if you have pre-e then the only cure is to deliver the babies. They could admit you to the hospital to keep an eye on you (giving you magnesium sulfate and steroids to mature the babies lungs) and you would likely deliver early.

Good luck tomorrow morning when you get the results!

[Bokonon]

Originally Posted by StephandOwen 

At 28 weeks there are some medications they can give you to try and keep your bp down, but if you have pre-e then the only cure is to deliver the babies. They could admit you to the hospital to keep an eye on you (giving you magnesium sulfate and steroids to mature the babies lungs) and you would likely deliver early.

If you have mild preeclampsia (BP between 140/90 and 160/110, with protein between 300mg and 5g, with no other severe indicators like fetal distress, IUGR, severe headache and visual disturbances, etc.), at 28 weeks, expectant management would likely be practiced - perhaps twice-weekly NSTs and fluid checks, and home bedrest.  If your BP is high, meds might be prescribed.  A doctor won't deliver at 28 weeks due to mild preeclampsia without other indicators.

I developed pre-e at 29 weeks with my second pregnancy (after delivering my first at 32 weeks due to severe pre-e, with protein over 6g and BPs of 200/110), and was in and out of the hospital, on bedrest, with increasing BPs despite meds, but borderline protein (300mg) for 5 weeks.  Once my blood pressure became unmanageable with meds, I delivered.  My protein never got above 383mg, but I had a severe headache and visual disturbances the whole time.  Other docs might have delivered me with the onset of those symptoms, as they can be indicative of cerebral swelling, but I had a clean MRI.

Preeclampsia is a really tough condition to predict because some women just creep along with their symptoms staying the same for weeks.  For others, things turn bad within hours.  That's why it's so important to keep an eye on the symptoms.  Even when I had BPs over 170/100 and protein over 6g, my blood work was perfect and I had no obvious symptoms except some swelling.  But my son and I were very, very sick.

Best wishes to you and the babies - it sounds like you are getting great, proactive care and in all likelihood will make it many more weeks!

A great resource is www.preeclampsia.org and its forums, by the way.

[miriam_bat_avraham]

Thanks for the replies so far! I did call and check for my 24 hr collection results, and I got them-- but from a nurse, not a doctor, so I didn't get an explanation of what they thought of the numbers or what I should do about it. My "overall protein" was 650 and my "protein/g creatinine" was 444. On my previous urine test, which was just one urine sample, my protein/g creatinine was 683. I don't know how that compares with these results specifically, only that they're all above normal. My creatinine alone, for what it's worth, was within a normal range both times.

I have to call the office tomorrow morning anyways about my glucose stuff, so I'll also be asking about this and what I should do. Your stories so far have at least given me an idea of "what might happen," which eases my mind a bit... I'd rather know that not know, so any possible scenarios are better than "I don't know what this means!" So thank you :)