Did anyone have preeclampsia?

I have really severe swelling in my legs and arms. Not just the usual swollen ankles in the evenings I've experienced in other pregnancies. This is quite spectacular. I'm so swollen it looks like I'm wearing a fat suit and my ankles look deformed. It's really uncomfortable, putting pressure on my joints and nerves. I'm 26 weeks and so far my blood pressure is fine and nothing in urine. I'm just wondering for those who developed preeclampsia had you any symptoms early on in pregnancy before blood pressure went up? Thanks in advance.

I had swelling like that from early on in my pregnancy, about 18 weeks. I couldn't get shoes on from about 27/28 weeks and lived in flip flops right up to the end of my pregnancy and my ds was born in December. I had no ankles to speak of and even my face was all puffy and swollen. My bp was normal until I hit about 36 weeks and I had small trace amounts of protein at 39/40 weeks (I went to 40+10) but not enough for them to worry about it. The midwife who delivered ds even commented on how fluidy I was, so much so that within a week of him being born I was 2 and a half stone lighter than when I had him, he was only 7lbs when he was born. I never developed preeclampsia, but they did keep a close eye on me after I voiced my concerns early on due to the swelling. If you're concerned mention it at your next visit, but they told me that it was perfectly normal for some women to experience swelling on that scale. As long as my bp and urine were normal they were happy to let me plod long as there wasn't much they could do.. Moisturise even more than you are for now, the swelling caused me immense itching that nearly drove me insane and drink plenty of fluids (sounds odd, but it helped me)

Thanks kaniela. I've been to the doc quite a few times with this already and like that she's not overly concerned so long as my bp and urine are clear. I bought a monitor for home use just to keep myself happy. I've had this from 15 weeks too. Doc says ill probably spend about 3 days on the loo after baby is born passing out all this fluid. Thanks for the reassurance. I've been worried that it will eventually lead to preeclampsia and worried that I won't realise somethings not right because I'll be so used to swelling up.

I felt the exact same, was full sure if it did start happening I would miss it because I was so used to being so swollen, but my sister assured me that I would know something wasn't right.. She had preeclampsia on on her first pregnancy and even though she had swelling for weeks before, she just knew something wasn't right and her ds is 17 now. When my bp went up I was monitored twice a week, Monday's were at my gp and Friday's were at the hospital. I knew what they were checking me for, but it gave me better peace of mind that I wasn't the only one monitoring for changes and that if there was they would be caught quickly. I know it's easy to say, but try not to worry, if you're monitoring yourself at home and having it done at your visits any changes will be caught quickly.. Hope the remainder of your pregnancy isn't to hampered by the swelling. I know it can get very uncomfortable when it's on that level.

I started off with high blood pressure and swelling from 22 weeks which got progressively worse, had swelling from about the same time time which was pretty bad towards the end, had no protein in urine until I went for a check-up at 40+6 and it was there and blood pressure very high so was induced the. I would also just suggest to you to keep a very close eye on headaches as these were always a giveaway to me that my bp was up - if you have a headache that won't go away after paracetamol or if you have any spots/ visual disturbances in your eyes call the hospital straight away. Like Kaniela, I was in flip flops for about the last 10 weeks and after my section the midwives commented that my face had gone down a lot - i didn't realise how swollen I had gotten until I saw pics of myself afterwards. Best of luck and I hope the swelling improves a little, it's very uncomfortable at best and at times very painful.