Has anyone on here been pregnant after getting TN symptoms? We're ttc and I'm being told gabapentin is relatively safe during pregnancy. I'll accept using it if I have to but would rather switch to something that's for sure a safe thing. Any suggestions?
Wish I could help nicky but a suggestion could be tojoin the group tn and pregnancy and ask there.all the best, you are not our first member here to have a baby. We require pics when available!
I had to stop trying when my most recent attack started 9 mo. ago. Totally heart breaking but I've come to grips with it. I have a friend that has epilepsy and she has one child and is pregnant with her 2nd. She told me that Lamictal is the only anti convulsant safe for pregnancy and breast feeding. That is what she is on and had safe and healthy labor and delivery. It does make you high risk because they have to monitor your blood levels before, during and after but its the safest option. However, in all of my research its often found that not all anti convulsants help TN patients. Tegretol, is what is known to help most people. And then beyond that, I've read that people often have to combine anti convulsants in order to relieve pain. So it's a combination ... I hope this help. I wish I had a better reply for you but I feel your pain. We don't have any children yet and it was very difficult for me to come to the realization that I need to take care of myself first and formost and then come back to trying to get pregnant after I could get things under control. I'm here if you want to chat more ... I totally get it. XO Jessica
I'm actually going to be doing an Unassisted Childbirth in the water next time. Midwives will be in the house just in case something goes wrong but there will be no monitoring and no help from them. They won't even be in the room. Only my husband, our daughter and my doula will be present for the actual birth. So anyways, monitoring won't happen. I have never in my life had anything even remotely near high blood pressure so I'm not worried. Even my last pregnancy it only was at 115/70 at it's highest. So I'm not worried about that. I guess we'll just go and see. If I have to deal with TN pain to keep my baby safe then I'll do it I guess. Let's just hope labour doesn't trigger it. LOL
I'll also be breastfeeding for a minim of 2 years after so I don't know what I can take that's safe when nursing. I guess I'll discuss that with my neurologist and midwife when the time comes.
nwaring said:
I'm actually going to be doing an Unassisted Childbirth in the water next time. Midwives will be in the house just in case something goes wrong but there will be no monitoring and no help from them. They won't even be in the room. Only my husband, our daughter and my doula will be present for the actual birth. So anyways, monitoring won't happen. I have never in my life had anything even remotely near high blood pressure so I'm not worried. Even my last pregnancy it only was at 115/70 at it's highest. So I'm not worried about that. I guess we'll just go and see. If I have to deal with TN pain to keep my baby safe then I'll do it I guess. Let's just hope labour doesn't trigger it. LOL
I am also hoping to get pregnant soon. I was on Topamax, Baclofen and Nortriptilyn with Morphine as PRN med. My doc is having me wean off everything except Morphine and he also told me if I want to he would put me on Gabapentin. It has taken me a month to get almost off the Top., down to half a pill now. Off of Nortrip. and also working on Baclofen. It has been a rough month but I am trying other ways to deal with the pain (right now I am trying a TENS, not so sure what I think about that though). My doc tried to reassure me by telling me that there are women who take all kinds of illicit drugs or who don't take care of themselves and have perfectly healthy babies all the time. He also told me not to stress about it as that would make it harder for me to conceive, make my pain worse and, once I am pregnant, it is not good for the baby either.
I also would encourage you to join our tn and pregnancy group. I hope this helps you.
Where do I find the TN and pregnancy group?
Let me know about the TENS. I've heard about it for labour (never used it as I went all natural and honestly, TN is worse than natural childbirth) but never for other pains.
Karen said:
I am also hoping to get pregnant soon. I was on Topamax, Baclofen and Nortriptilyn with Morphine as PRN med. My doc is having me wean off everything except Morphine and he also told me if I want to he would put me on Gabapentin. It has taken me a month to get almost off the Top., down to half a pill now. Off of Nortrip. and also working on Baclofen. It has been a rough month but I am trying other ways to deal with the pain (right now I am trying a TENS, not so sure what I think about that though). My doc tried to reassure me by telling me that there are women who take all kinds of illicit drugs or who don't take care of themselves and have perfectly healthy babies all the time. He also told me not to stress about it as that would make it harder for me to conceive, make my pain worse and, once I am pregnant, it is not good for the baby either.
I also would encourage you to join our tn and pregnancy group. I hope this helps you.
found it
Nicky, go to the black header at the top of the page, click on groups and scroll down to any group you want, click, join and enjoy!
nwaring said:
Where do I find the TN and pregnancy group?
Let me know about the TENS. I’ve heard about it for labour (never used it as I went all natural and honestly, TN is worse than natural childbirth) but never for other pains.
Karen said:I am also hoping to get pregnant soon. I was on Topamax, Baclofen and Nortriptilyn with Morphine as PRN med. My doc is having me wean off everything except Morphine and he also told me if I want to he would put me on Gabapentin. It has taken me a month to get almost off the Top., down to half a pill now. Off of Nortrip. and also working on Baclofen. It has been a rough month but I am trying other ways to deal with the pain (right now I am trying a TENS, not so sure what I think about that though). My doc tried to reassure me by telling me that there are women who take all kinds of illicit drugs or who don’t take care of themselves and have perfectly healthy babies all the time. He also told me not to stress about it as that would make it harder for me to conceive, make my pain worse and, once I am pregnant, it is not good for the baby either.
I also would encourage you to join our tn and pregnancy group. I hope this helps you.
I found out that I had TN while I was pregnant and opted to not take any meds. Things went fairly well and the pain wasn't overwhelming. Some people find their symptoms are mild during pregnancy.
Many patients go into remission when they're pregnant. This is probably true more for classic TN, not ATN.
nwaring, while I respect your desire to have a home birth, if you have TN, that probably isn't a good idea. I'll just leave it at that, as I don't want to tell you stories and put things in your head.
I want to be pregnant too! The TNA recently featured a study that showed that the newer anti-convulsants did not have bad effects on the baby. You could probably search their site and find it.\
My Neurologist has told me that there are tons of epileptic women who can't go off their meds, and they're having healthy babies all the time. I'm going to try and avoid meds, and if I can't, then I'll take Category C meds but will not take Category D.
One of the members of the site is currently pregnant, maybe she'll stop in and comment. I hope she is doing well.
It's too bad that most of the benzos are category D, because my Klonopin really helps me.
Hospital birth is just not an option for me. I even spoke to the midwives today and they said they see no reason why this would make me need a hospital birth. Homebirth is the only option I will accept unless an emergency c-section is needed. I don't want to get into it (actually I can't get into it since it's still in the courts) ut my daughter's birth was just horrifying and I will NOT go back to a hospital ever. Period. TN or no TN
I would actually like to know these stories of childbirth thoughl; I don't scare easy because I do my homework. but I'm curious as to how a pinched nerve in my face can affect my uterus and vagina in any way.
crystalv said:
Many patients go into remission when they're pregnant. This is probably true more for classic TN, not ATN.
nwaring, while I respect your desire to have a home birth, if you have TN, that probably isn't a good idea. I'll just leave it at that, as I don't want to tell you stories and put things in your head.
I want to be pregnant too! The TNA recently featured a study that showed that the newer anti-convulsants did not have bad effects on the baby. You could probably search their site and find it.\
My Neurologist has told me that there are tons of epileptic women who can't go off their meds, and they're having healthy babies all the time. I'm going to try and avoid meds, and if I can't, then I'll take Category C meds but will not take Category D.
One of the members of the site is currently pregnant, maybe she'll stop in and comment. I hope she is doing well.
When I said I didn't want to tell you stories, I meant that I didn't want to invent hypothetical situations of possible ways TN could make a pregnancy riskier. Those with chronic pain and/or on meds during pregnancy are usually considered a high risk pregnancy. And with this kind of pregnancy, you'd want your Neuro, OB/GYN, and pain management specialist to be in good communication throughout the entire pregnancy.
As for the connection between your compressed nerve and your uterus, it is simply that the compression causes chronic pain, causing chronic stress, which can have a negative effect on a pregnancy, and the birth resulting from it. The effect of chronic stress on pregnancy is poorly understood, but it's thought to increase the risk of such things as preeclampsia, low birth weight, etc.
I'm sorry to hear about your previous birth. Obviously it was pretty bad since you can't legally discuss it. I hope that you and the child are safe and healthy.
I won't have an OB, just a midwife. My last OB sexually assaulted me during labour (I can say that much) as well as some other things so I will NEVER do that again. Even the midwives will not have permission to touch me at all unless distress of me or the baby is suspected. Just having pain or being on meds does not make you high risk here. It wouldn't affect my labour or delivery in any way and so it wouldn't play into whether I'm high or low risk.
This seems to be just more of the over medicalization of pregnancy that is going on in North America. It's very sad to make women think something is wrong when there really isn't. To think pregnancy is some illness to be watched carefully. It's just a normal part of life and doctors should not be involved in 95% of pregnancies. Only 5% are truly high risk but doctors like their money.
That's so awful, I don't even know what to say. I'm so sorry that happened to you.
Good for you nwaring! Sounds to me like you've researched and know exactly what you want and need for giving birth 2nd time time around. As the woman carrying and giving birth to your baby, nobody knows better than you what your body and baby need and how you are likely to cope with whatever comes up. I totally agree with you re the over medicalisation of pregnancy and birth and sadly, it's not just in N. America.
Whether your TN decides to flare up or take a break during pregnancy, labour and birth, I'm sure you will do the very best for you and your baby and I wish you all the very best for a wonderful home birth. If my partner and I ever manage to get pregnant and carry full term, I hope to be doing the same.
I have never taken pharmaceuticals for my TN (over 5 years now) except for a few weeks of codeine (before developing an allergy) back when I still thought the pain was a dental problem! I find the whole pharma business quite unethical and even stopped taking paracetamol and neurofen almost 4 years ago, so the thought of mixing drugs and pregnancy is inconceivable (pardon the pun!) for me. However I totally understand why other people turn to medication as it too often seems like the only option in our one-dimensional western health system...
Anyway, wishing you all the best x
Ya I hate big pharma and the crap they push on us all (we don't even vaccinate...waits for angry responses LOL). So it's hard for me to accept that I need to take medications now. the Gabapentin is working great now. I'm 4 days pain free and sure as heck making the most of it with our 2 year old now. I've come to accept that I'll likely have to be on it during pregnancy but talked to my neurologist and she said she supports it as long as I know the risks (which are not too great and she's only seen 1 out of the hundreds of women she's had on the med while pregnant).
I feel a big part of our medical system (in Canada as well as the US) is that we're taught to just trust doctors without question. And when we do doctors often make us feel stupid and almost brow beat us for even asking. What we forget is that just like when we walk into a store and ask for help with clothing. Yes the expert is there to guide us but we are still the customer. We still have a right to question, ask for other options, and when we are not happy WE can fire them and go elsewhere. We do not have to dred seeing our doctors because they don't agree with something we do. I had this issue with my daughter. I had doctors trying to bully and even threatened to call Child Protective Services on me for not vaccinating her. They said she'd never go to school. it's all lies. There are exemptions for schools that anyone can get (with the exception of 2 US states). CPS can NOT remove a child for a medical decision. So what did I do? I fired their asses. I picked my daughter up and walked out and found a new doctor. I went through 5 before I found our current doc. Anyways, now I'm off and rambling lol To get back to my other point is that doctors think med school means they know all the answers in life. Many times doctors give advice on breastfeeding (this is just one example) when they have no training. Seriously, in med school they get 30 min of training on breastfeeding. In these cases they should be referring a woman to a lactation specialist. But they refuse to admit that they don't know something. This results in many babies on formula who don't need to be. Only 5% of women cannot genuinely breastfeed yet only about 50% are. Formula leads to MANY health problems throughout life, some may show immediately, some not until adulthood. Not to mention all the benefits of breastmilk that they are missing out on. Why? because doctors want business in the future. They don't want us healthy. If we are they have no business. And they have no incentives to get their patients healthy.
Okay so now I'm really rambling and onto my conspiracy theories. So I shall end this post here. And say thank you for your support.
Hey, rant away - It's good to express, right.
I agree of course. The western medical system and the teaching of, is based on illness, dis-ease and 'things going wrong'. Thus medical professionals, on the whole, only see the problem and can only measure it according to 'the standard'. The individual traits, experiences, understanding and wishes and of the patient are ignored or as you say scoffed at.
It's sad that wellbeing and holistic health are not the centre of our medical system but I feel sure that this situation will change and is already changing as more and more people realise that our power has not only been taken or given away but we can reclaim it. I've just been reading this article which you may resonate with.
And don't feel bad about the choices you make re taking medication. Sounds like you've made them with an open mind and honest heart so they are the right decisions for you, for now. Being able to spend pain free time with your daughter must be wonderful :)