Ok, I'm back! Not after dinner like I expected, but two days later-- the effect of having four kids!

I've had two pregnancies since my rsd started. For both I went off my regular meds (with dr's ok and co-ordination which is HUGELY important). My first one was a breeze in rsd terms- I went into a kind of remission while pregnant and only had symptoms in the last month when the fluid retention started flaring it up. But my symptoms came back within hours of the birth, and way worse than it was before.

With my second (Hannah, my fourth baby) I was getting great relief from ketamine infusions, and able to stay off meds for long periods of time, so thats why we thought we'd have one more baby. Before then there was no way I could go off my meds and have baby #4, I was just too fargone. But the ketamine changed that. So I fell pregnant 6months into my second ketamine infusion pain-relief time. Unfortunately I started getting flareups that I couldn't take anything for, and then had my pain spread to my leg during the pregnancy thanks to a spiderbite. Although it wasn't caused by the pregnancy, the pregnancy meant I couldn't get pain relief for it and that was horrible. And then my arm pain came back pretty regular as well.

By about 7 months I was taking endones occasionally (maybe 2 or 3 in a week), but that's it. I otherwise had to stay med free. I know another RSDer who kept taking MS Contin thru her pregnancy with the understanding she'd wean off it at 7months so her baby wasn't dependant on it, but she instead went into labour prematurely so the baby didn't get to wean off it first and was born dependant on the meds.

I was very much dependant on my husband to do everything, and it was really rough. If I knew the pregnancy was going to be like that, and I wouldn't get a remission or benefit from the ketamine still, I wouldn't have done it. As much as I love my daughter and wouldn't trade her for the world, it was a really hard pregnancy on all of us, because of my rsd being so loud.

Since the birth its been hard too, to be awake for nightfeeds when my meds make me a zombie, or to carry her and do things for her like bath or change her, when I can't walk well, or use my arm or hand. My husband is a stay at home carer- I couldn't do any of this without him. So unless you have great support, its really hard, if not impossible. As Hannah gets bigger I won't be able to lift her, I can do it now but she's getting too heavy and big for me to do that for much longer (she's 4 months old now)

I had my Dr's ok for both pregnancies, and I was off my medications with the Dr's ok, and had home support for the things I couldn't do. If you can get all that happening, then go for it! If you need to stay on some meds, bear in mind that taking them in the first 12 weeks is very risky to the baby, and fairly risky the rest of the time. You have to ask yourself if you are happy to take those risks, one being the possibility of a disabled child, when we have so many disabilities ourselves. But hopefully you have a really supportive (and hands on) partner and support system to help out.

It is hard day by day, being a mum or being pregnant, in terms of pain and disability and your ability to function as their mother, but its BEING that mother that makes it all worthwhile!

This is just my experience, anyway!

Take care,

x Kate