Hi everyone! Just giving an update: I am now 14 weeks and 5 days pregnant. Since getting pregnant I have found out a lot about pregnancy and WD that I didn't know. I guess I was lucky to conceive as WD patients have fertility issues. It only took me 2 months but I have near-normal liver stats now. I have a high risk of miscarriage, pre-term labor and pre-eclampsia. But I am feeling wonderful - my belly is showing now! I have a great high-risk OBGYN and my WD liver specialist. I meet with them both once a month. I feel well-cared for and I am looking forward to a happy healthy pregnancy.
I hope everyone had a happy healthy Thanksgiving! I will keep checking in as I know a lot of you will be/are facing issues with whether they can be a parent and what that means with WD.
Best of health to everyone for the holidays and beyond!!
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Still Pregnant
Explore topics in this discussion:
Eclampsia Abortion Miscarriage Infertility Pregnancy Penicillamine
11 replies
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- Newest first
- By sismeliss
- Posted November 28, 2008 at 3:12 pm
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Hi,
I'm happy everything is going so well for you! Best wishes for you and your growing family :)
- By -Melissa-
- Posted November 28, 2008 at 11:29 pm
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Thats great! Yea, WD can cause a lot of issues with getting pregnant and even staying pregnant. I unfortunately experienced both... trying to get pregnant was tough and then actually staying pregnant was another obstacle. So far this pregnancy is going along just fine. (knock on wood) I do wish I knew when the miscarriage rate would decrease for a WD patient, or if its the same as a person without the disease.
I see a high-risk OB too, but they are monitoring me every 2 weeks and checking my liver function tests monthly. I think they are being cautious because they've never seen a WD patient before. Being overly cautious is just fine with me though!! It helps give me more reassurance when I get to see/hear the baby's heartbeat!!
My WD doctor also wants to check my copper/zinc levels every 12 weeks during pregnancy.
- By junebug23
- Posted November 28, 2008 at 11:43 pm
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how far along are you? they're doing ultrasounds on me monthly and I see both docs monthly. I'm doing copper/zinc every 3 mos. like you. I'm also doing 24h protein to check for pre-eclampsia. I don't know how often those are but I know they plan on doing more.
I know my appts. will get a lot more frequent the farther along I get. I am glad for only two a month right now - I know it's not going to last.
Good luck with your pregnancy - we'll have to stay in touch.
- By junebug23
- Posted November 28, 2008 at 11:43 pm
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how far along are you? they're doing ultrasounds on me monthly and I see both docs monthly. I'm doing copper/zinc every 3 mos. like you. I'm also doing 24h protein to check for pre-eclampsia. I don't know how often those are but I know they plan on doing more.
I know my appts. will get a lot more frequent the farther along I get. I am glad for only two a month right now - I know it's not going to last.
Good luck with your pregnancy - we'll have to stay in touch.
- By junebug23
- Posted November 29, 2008 at 11:27 am
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Irregular periods are common with WD - I think it is probably one of the key reasons why we have infertility. My doctor told me that the worse your liver stats are, the less likely to conceive. When I was in liver failure my periods were terribly irregular. I was on the b/c pill for a long time to regulate that. I still managed to get pregnant one year after liver failure but had to terminate the pregnancy because I was on ridiculously high doses on penicillamine and it is highly tetrogenic. I was told my baby would have missing limbs, etc. I was too young, too sick, and it was the right choice at the time.
For the last six years I have been on the marina IUD for birth control (it is a copperless IUD). It had a progestrin insert so I had no periods, so I don't know about my regularity. But when I removed the IUD I had a regular (28 day) cycle for 3 months.
I had to go off of all my meds (psych/seizure/chelation) before I was able to get pregnant because of birth defects. Zinc therapy is the only med they recommend for pregnancy so if your friend is not healthy enough for that, pregnancy would probably make her sicker.
Good luck!
- By McVeggie
- Posted November 29, 2008 at 10:13 pm
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Congrats to you Junebug and Melissa. When I was pregnant my prengnacy symptoms were hitting right on target every week as the pregancy rate progess. The only thing didn't hit on target were my weights gain. it only took one unprotected sex with me to get pregnant. My blood flow every month is regular in terms of time but the amount reduces a lot since I got off the birth control.
- By -Melissa-
- Posted November 30, 2008 at 3:33 pm
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Are you still pregnant McVeggie? Your post makes it sound like you're not. If thats the case, I'm so sorry.
- By McVeggie
- Posted November 30, 2008 at 9:30 pm
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Melissa,
no I had an abortion on my 17th weeks of my pregnancy. I posted it in the other topic of the forum.
- By mom2six
- Posted December 1, 2008 at 11:47 am
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McVeggie, I'm sorry to hear that. I hope you are doing ok.
- By McVeggie
- Posted December 1, 2008 at 1:01 pm
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yes i am doing ok actually. thanks. mom2six.
- By RICHA
- Posted December 2, 2008 at 4:55 am
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Dear Mc Veggie,
I hope you are o.k. and are moving ahead in you life.
Love!
Rosepetal
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