Er Last Night

[cgilsing]

I work at a retail store by myself all day, and during slow times it can be pretty lonely so I called up my mom and was chatting with her. Then all of a sudden the vision in my left eye got weird and it looked like I was looking through a beveled glass. I told my mom about it and she said she was coming down (she lives an hour and 15 min. away though, so it would be a while) My husband was also about an hour and a half away looking at a job site. I felt ok though, other than my vision thing, so I just kept talking to mom on the cell phone. Then the beveled vision started moving closer to the front of my vision and I started seeing black spots, my hands started sweating, and I just felt weird, so I decided to call my neighbor ( a retired nurse) who was about 5 minutes away. When I got on the phone with her I started passing out, and she said she was on her way. Right after I got off the phone with her though I started feeling normal again and my vision went back to normal! When she got here though she said my face was really red and she took me to the emergancy room. It turns out that because I had been trying to cut back on sodium in my diet (I'm puffing up really bad, and I'm only 30 weeks) and because I eat gluten-free and don't get as many carbs through bread, I had thrown my blood sugar out of wack. They said we were fine and told me to go eat some steak and potatoes! Has anyone else had to do both low-sodium and gluten-free? Does anybody have any suggestions on how to do it without having this happen again??

[TCA]

Eat a lot of little meals during the day, even if it's just fruit. That will keep your sugar levels up. I had toxemia with my first and swelled up like a balloon. Was put on bed rest at 34 weeks. Take care of yourself and try not to overexert. I think working some long hours is what started my problems.

[Fiddle-Faddle]

I had similar vision-weirdnesses during my first pregnancy (7th and 8th months), but without the passing out. It turned out that I had severe pre-eclampsia, which can be deadly serious. Later, after the birth I had similar visual things which turned into headaches--I was told that they were migraines, caused by hormonal fluctuations.

A home blood pressure monitor would be a very good (and relatively inexpensive) investment. Don't get the kind that just requires a finger--they really aren't as accurate. Look for the regular arm-cuff kind, but with an electronic readout. Pre-eclampsia can come on very suddenly, so take your blood pressure every day if you already have complications!

Good luck!

[flagbabyds]

I did no sodium gluten-free liquid diet this summer. Not fun. I would suggest fruit and smoothies. Potatoes are really good, i really don't like salt, so maybe that is why it was easy for me. But really you could just have all your food, just no salt. I started using a lot of pepper instead of the salt, and i turned into a completely peper person instead of salt.

[Idahogirl]

I'm 28 weeks and have a ton of swelling. I had to buy a "substitution" wedding band which was 1 1/2 sizes bigger, and now that doesn't even fit. I had a lot of swelling with my first pregnancy, gaining 7 pounds in a week at one point. I learned something the other day about hidden sodium. A lot of diet foods add a lot of sodium to make the food taste better. I looked at my Weight Watchers frozen meal (the potatoes, broccoli in cheese sauce is gluten free and yummy!). It had 480 mg of sodium, compared to 70 mg for a can of Mountain Dew! Sodium is tricky, you think it's just the salt, but it's really hidden in a lot of foods.

I guess that wasn't really an answer to your question I haven't been very good at restricting sodium (this gluten free thing is restrictive enough!) Do you have to totally eliminate sodium from your diet or just reduce it? I've noticed that regardless of what I eat, if I drink tons of water and put my feet up, it totally makes a difference in the swelling. Also, swimming can really help.

Lisa

[CarlaB]

Typically, if you supplement 1000 mg. magnesium and 50mg B6 (although I'd take a compex rather than B6 on it's own), swelling will go down. Salt probably won't need to be restricted.