I've always wondered what my blood group is, and now I know. It's A+, which is the second most common for people in the UK. My husband is O+, for the record (which is the most common). I also found out that I don't have HIV or syphilis (didn't think I did, but nice to have the proof!) I'm also not a carrier of sickle cell or thalassaemia (due to my ethnicity I'm very low risk anyway, but again, nice to have the confirmation). Being a researcher, as soon as I got home I did a little googling to help me understand the results of my full blood count, which just looked like alphabet soup on the page. Here's what I found out about what all of those acronyms mean:
WBC - total white blood cells
RBC - total red blood cells
Hb - Haemoglobin (low Hb= anemia)
Hct - Haematocrit (the fraction of the whole blood volume that consists of red blood cells)
MCV - Mean Corpuscular Volume (the average volume of the red blood cells)
MCH - Mean Corpuscular Haemoglobin (the average amount of Hb per red blood cell)
MCHC - Mean Corpuscular Haemoglobin Concentration (the average concentration of Hb in the red blood cells)
Platelets
Neutrophils - may indicate bacterial or viral infection
Lymphocytes - higher with some viral infections/leukemia, lower in HIV
Monocytes - raised in bacterial infection, TB, Malaria, leukemia and ulcerative colitis
Eosinophils - increased in parasitic infections, asthma and allergies
Basophils - increased in bone marrow disorders like leukemia and lymphoma.
Good news for me - everything was in range, except for the Eosinophils, which were at the very top end of normal. Since I've had asthma since I was four, and also have masses of allergies, this was to be expected.
I also had my blood pressure taken. It was 120/64, which is brilliant for me. I asked whether BP tends to go down in pregnancy, and was told that it can do, although it usually finds its way back up to the levels seen at the booking appointment by the time women reach the third trimester.
We also talked a little about what I can expect to happen over the next few weeks. I'm 17 and a bit weeks now, so I may start to feel baby's movements any time (this usually happens between 16 and 22 weeks, and can be on the later side in first pregnancies and bigger women). The advice from the NHS is that you should expect to feel movements every single day after 24 weeks, although they won't be consistent throughout the day since baby has a cycle of sleeping and waking. If you don't feel a movement, or if you are having noticeably fewer movements, then you should call the maternity unit by 9pm, and they will bring you in for tests. We also talked through the symptoms of pre-eclampsia. This is more common if you have close relatives who've had it (my mum did), if you have diabetes (tick), a BMI of 35+ (tick), and if it's your first pregnancy (tick!) Signs to watch out for include raised blood pressure, protein in the urine, bad headaches that don't go away, blurred vision (or flashing lights/spots in front of your eyes), bad pain below your ribs (especially on the right hand side) and vomiting. Again, any problems, and you call for help immediately!
I'm not seeing the midwife again until I'm 25 weeks, so that will be around mid January. In the meantime, if I want my Mat B1 form before then (which in the UK allows you to arrange maternity leave, amongst other things), I'll need to contact J at 20 weeks, and she'll leave it behind the counter for me at our GP's practice. Next stop in the pregnancy wagon train is my 20 week scan on 9 December.
I also finally had my flu jab today, so I'm typing this with a very sore left arm! :(
I'll finish off with the obligatory fruit/veg pic (although I'm a little suspicious of this one, since I think onions are usually smaller - at least they are when they come out of our veg box or from our allotment!)
No comments:
Post a Comment