Itchy itchy

Here is an update on what's been going on with my pregnancy in the past few weeks:

At 30 weeks I started to notice some itchiness on my palms and the bottoms of my feet, as well as random places on my body. It felt very reminiscent of my last few days of being pregnant with Ruby. All I thought was, "oh crap, here it is again...cholestasis." My mother had it when she was pregnant with me which she so loving passed on to me which I will most likely pass on to my daughters. Sorry girls, it sucks. Once you have it in one pregnancy the odds of you developing it in subsequent pregnancies is 90%. So I was kind of expecting it, but not this early! I had 10 weeks left at that point.

If you're wondering what in the world cholestasis is, the American Pregnancy Association defines it as "a condition in which the normal flow of bile in the gallbladder is affected by the high amounts of pregnancy hormones." To further explain, "pregnancy hormones affect gallbladder function, resulting in slowing or stopping the flow of bile. The gallbladder holds bile that is produced in the liver, which is necessary in the breakdown of fats in digestion. When the bile flow is stopped or slowed down, this causes a build up of bile acids in the liver which can spill into the bloodstream." Which is what causes the severe itching all over your body. A developing baby relies on the mother’s liver to remove bile acids from the blood; therefore, the elevated levels of maternal bile cause stress on the baby’s liver and can be quite dangerous.

I called and made an appointment for the following Monday, since this all went down on a Saturday. At the appointment I told my doctor about my symptoms, my history, and that my mother had it with me and he ordered a blood test to check the bile acid levels in my blood. We had to wait for a few days for the results (since my blood had be sent to Utah, funny enough, to be analyzed by ARUP) and when they came back it showed that the levels were normal and that it didn't show any evidence of cholestasis. But man was I still feeling the itch! A few days later I had an appointment scheduled as well as an ultrasound to make sure baby boy was doing okay in there. Thankfully everything looked normal and he was moving all over the place. It didn't seem to be affecting him one bit. :)

I went to see my doctor after the ultrasound and was thinking he would have some ideas for what to do to treat the itchiness. As we chatted I told him how the symptoms were still the same and the itchiness had gotten worse. It's manageable during the day but at night, oh boy, it is in full swing! I can't stop scratching pretty much everywhere (I have scabs all over my body to prove it). My doctor said looking at my symptoms and my history, along with my mother's, he said we should still treat it as if I have it because sometimes the tests can be wrong. Better safe than sorry. So he said he will have me tested again in a few weeks and gave me a prescription that will regulate the bile flow, Ursodiol. Trey just told me tonight what it actually is. Yeah, I'm taking bear bile piles. Hey, whatever works! I've been taking them for 4 days now and am waiting for the itchiness to go down. My doc said it can sometimes take up to a week before the itchiness decreases. It's getting really hard to be patient, let me tell you! I just keep telling myself, this won't last forever. It goes away as soon as you have the baby.

I went from having a normal pregnancy to a possible high risk pregnancy. I have my next appointment on Tuesday, which happens to be my birthday (woohoo!), so I hope to get some answers if I will be induced earlier than my due date. More than likely I will. They won't let you go longer than 38 weeks with cholestasis. So that puts us at around Valentines Day! Exciting!! I need to start getting stuff ready! I'm 32 weeks along right now so only 6 more weeks along as everything goes smoothly.

In the meantime they are monitoring me closely, having me come in weekly for ultrasounds and appointments. I have to make sure I feel baby boy move at least 5 times within the 2 hours after every meal I have. It's been a little stressful and uncomfortable for me, I just hope baby boy isn't affected by the craziness.