Dr.'s Orders - Go to Work!

I may have mentioned that the last time I went to the doctor, about 8 days ago, my blood pressure was a little high. A second reading 5 minutes later yielded a much lower blood pressure. When a pregnant woman's blood pressure reaches 140/90, they start to worry. High blood pressure could cause stroke among other bad things. My first blood pressure reading was 130/90. The second was 117/76. But I was told that if at my next visit (this Friday) my first blood pressure reading was still high, I might get taken off work. Of course I don't want that. Not because I would miss work but because I would have to lay around all day on my left side. That's not for me. And second, the time I took off work before the baby was born would deduct from the time I would be able to take off from work once the baby arrived. Not only do I feel great right now (haven't felt better throughout the pregnancy), but I don't have any other preeclampsia symptoms - headaches, protein in urine, dizziness.

So for the past 8 days I've been resting a lot, eating healthy, and trying to get lots of exercise in (pilates and walking). I've been eating lots of oranges (vitamin C might help) and taking 1 tablespoon of olive oil every day (also heard it might help). I've also been monitoring my blood pressure and it's been fairly consistent in the high 130/80 ranges. In general I have high blood pressure. My husband has low blood pressure. We balance each other out.

Well, now I have a good argument for not getting taken off work. It seems like I'm more relaxed at work than at home. When I first got up this morning, my blood pressure reading was 136/88. I've taken my blood pressure 3 times at work today and the readings have been 130/80, 127/82, and 136/83. So the diastolic blood pressure (second number and of bigger concern) has been going up consistently, but I am at the end of the day and it hasn't increased that much. I'm going to measure again tomorrow and take this data with me to the doctor.

As a side note, a preeclampsia story...my friend was telling me that when she delivered, her blood pressure spiked to 210/150. Yikes! She was immediately given some heavy metal (can't remember which one) to equilibrate her system. The doctors actually lost her once and her daughter twice during the delivery. That must have been scary.