Pre-conception appointment

So, we saw a doctor yesterday at Maternal Fetal Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic. I went in with my list of medications and made sure we were up to date, and then we started in. So I'm going to make a list and talk about them.

Lyrica - 300mg - 2 times a day - Fibromyalgia

• Personal decision; she has worked with patients who stayed on their Lyrica throughout the pregnancy.
• Best if I am off it for the first trimester and then if I am really not handling well, then she can start weaning me back on in the second trimester.
• This made me feel so much better about all of this!!!

Fludrocortisone (steroid) - 0.1mg - 2 in the morning - Tachycardia (POTS)

• She said to stay away from all steroids.
• This can cause cleft palette if taken during pregnancy.

Amerge - 2.5 mg - 1 as needed - Migraines

• Go off of
• Can cause high blood pressure
• Can make the babies really small

Diclofenac - 50mg - 1 to 2 as needed - Migraines

• Go off of
• This can cause issues with the kidneys in the baby
• Can also cause the pre-mature closure of a blood vessel in the baby's heart that it needs.

Vistaril - 4mg - 1 by mouth up to 3 times a day as needed - Anxiety

• This is okay to be on since it's really just a hyped up version of Benedryl, but this can't be taken with unisom.

Tramadol - 50mg - once a day - Fibromyalgia

• Must go off of.
• Babies can be born with a tolerance and go through withdrawl.

Vitamin D - 2000iu - once a day - Vitamin D deficiency

• Fine as long as the levels don't get too high.

Ativan - 0.5mg - 4 times a day - Anxiety

• Go off of
• Can cause dependency in baby
• Can also cause cleft palette

Ambien - 10mg - 1 at bedtime - Insomnia

• Personal choice. Might be better to try and use a lower dose.

Trazodone - 50mg - 2 at bedtime - Insomnia

• Not well studied, but she said if it was absolutely necessary for me, then I should use it.

Ginko Biloba - 120mg - once a day - Depression

• Don't take.

Tylenol - 325mg - 2 as needed (no more than 8 a day) - Pain/Fibromyalgia

• Perfectly fine!

Cymbalta - 60mg - 2 in morning - Depression/Fibromyalgia

• Personal choice; I have to look at the cost vs. the benefit of it.
• Very low risk of hole in heart (0.5%)

Fibercon - 2 pills a day - Irritable Bowel (IBS)

• Perfectly fine.

CO-Q-10 - 100mg - 2 a day -Migraines

• Go off.

Magnesium - 250mg - 1 a day - Migraines

• Perfectly fine

B2 - 100mg - 2 times a day - Migraines

• My migraine doctor said to go off of it, but this doctor said it should be fine. It's water soluble and will mostly go out with the urine. 

Prenatal Vitamin - 1 a day - Nutrition/Fibromyalgia

• Very good!!!

B12 - 1000mg - once a day - B12 deficiency

• This is fine, but she wanted to get my levels checked so she ordered a blood test for that. As long as the levels are normal, then continue to use.

Bentyl - 10mg - 1 capsule up to 3 times a day as needed - IBS

• Probably shouldn't take.

Petadolex - 75mg - 2 a day - Migraines

• Go off of.

Docusate Sodium (Colace) - 100mg - 1 a day - IBS/Constipation

• Very good! In fact, it might be wise to take a little more or something slightly stronger in pregnancy to help keep the bowels moving.

Albuterol HFA (inhaler) - 2 puffs as needed - Asthma

• Perfectly fine.

She said that she doesn't feel it's fair to ask a woman to go off of ALL of her medications, especially when I have so many depression issues. In the end she made me feel a lot better about all of it. I feel like I can do this!

Asher asked about his ADHD. She said there's a 50% chance of a son ending up with it, 25% for a girl. We'll just have to wait and see. 

But she thought it was very smart that we wanted to come in before we got pregnant to go over all of this and to start getting off of it.

Next week, I see my rheumatologist and I will ask for the doses of Lyrica to start going off of it. I will post more then!

Pros and cons

So, as per usual I haven't talked a lot about what is going on right now, so before we go into tomorrow, I just wanted to say thatAsh and I are going to be trying to conceive soon.

Tomorrow we go to Maternal Fetal Medicine at Cleveland Clinic for a pre-conception appointment. Basically what that is is a high risk pregnancy office where they specialize in pregnancies with moms taking certain medications, with certain issues and illnesses, and so on.

The hope is that they will tell us exactly what medications I would have to go off of, what medications we can use in their place, and what we can do to try and make this as good of a pregnancy as possible despite all of my health issues.

It's terrifying, to be honest. I want children, but I also feel that it's possible that this time I just won't have the strength for it. It's very possible we'll go in tomorrow and they will say that they don't think I'll be able to do it. Or a month in to going off the meds, it will be so bad that I won't be able to function or get out of bed.

I don't know yet. But we're taking that first step.