I am 27 weeks pregnant. A couple of weeks ago, I told my OBGYN about some symptoms/problems that I’d been experiencing (shortness of breath, heart palpitations, rapid heart beat, and cramping). He referred me to a cardiologist. The cardiologist did a blood analysis, and an EKG and ultrasound of my heart then sent me home with a heart monitor (which I wore for 24 hours). I was told that, other than seeing the murmur that I knew about, he didn’t see anything alarming.

The next day, I received a phone call that my potassium and magnesium levels were dangerously low. He said that magnesium levels being that low would typically cause symptoms similar to the ones that I am having (irregular heart rates, insomnia, chronic fatigue, shortness of breath, etc.). He also said that it was probably just a dietary issue and prescribed supplements for both (400 mg of magnesium 2x a day and 250 mg of potassium once a day), which I was told to take for two weeks then come in for a follow up.

I had a follow up appointment yesterday. My cardiologist told me that the heart monitor didn’t reveal anything that he considered to be life threatening to either the baby or myself. He did see some ‘extra beats’ and rapid heart rate at times but nothing that he felt required immediate attention. He said that, normally, he would do a chest x-ray but he wanted to avoid it because of the pregnancy. So, he set an appointment for April 15th (a month after my due date) for me to come back and see him. Then, he sent me down to the lab to have some more blood drawn.

Last night around 7pm, I got a call on my cell phone that I didn’t recognize. I don’t normally answer calls from numbers that I don’t know but, when they turned around and immediately called back, I made an exception. It was my cardiologist. He said that the supplements hadn’t helped and that my magnesium levels hadn’t come up at all (they are still at a dangerously low level even after two weeks of taking 800 mg a day). He said that it is likely that it is not a dietary issue. He is concerned that I have a magnesium deficiency and that I am either unable to absorb it or I’m excreting it. He said that, he felt, this problem has been present for quite some time and is only just now being recognized and that, right now, his main concern is getting me through this pregnancy safely. And that, obviously, now we need to focus on trying to figure out the source of the problem. I’m scheduled to come back in a week from now for more blood work and he raised the dosage to 1200 mg a day.

I’ve driven myself crazy obsessing over the ‘potential causes’ of this problem and have found a number of articles about it on the Internet (thanks to google). Of course, the first is dietary but since we’ve pretty much ruled that out I have to move on to others. Diabetes, Hyperglycemia, Heart and/or kidney disease, toxemia, the list goes on and on. So, as you can imagine, I’ve worked myself into a frenzy. I also learned, from the internet, that drinking coffee and tea can cause you to excrete magnesium… so I have completely cut my morning coffee out (which was the only remedy I had to the chronic fatigue).

This is my 2nd day off of work (which I cannot afford… especially with Christmas around the corner). The chronic fatigue has been growing worse and, last Monday, I had to take a break (which turned into almost 2 hrs) just to take a nap in the car. One of the side effects of having low magnesium during pregnancy is pre-term labor. Well, ever since Sunday, I’ve been cramping every day (last night from midnight until early this morning). Any ideas about what could be causing this? Obviously, I am doing everything I can (making apts and keeping them) but if there is anyone out there who has had experience with magnesium deficiencies (during pregnancy or otherwise) I’d like to know what caused it for you and how you remedied it. Thanks.