[dee68]

Pruritic Urticarial Papules and Plaques of Pregnancy - PUPPP

most of us get itchy, especially during the dry winter weather, but it could be something more....I found a few links I wanted to share and have put them in our
Helpful Info Forum as well

[Trish36]

Yeah, I've had that twice. NOT FUN!!!!! I hope none of you ladies have to go through that.

[kellyanne]

I feel like a debbie downer here, but I suppose I should add that there is another "itchy" condition far more dangerous than PUPPS. If you have a persistent itch everywhere, but mostly on your palms and feet, and have NO rash....go to the doc immediately. You need to have blood taken to be screened for Obstetric Cholestatis. It is extremely rare, so many docs either don't know about it or don't suspect it....but it happened to me!

[Celena]

Kelly could you tell me more???? That's the main source of the worst itching!!!

Thanks for the article and link Dee, I have it up right now!

[kellyanne]

Sure. It is normally something that starts late in pregnancy (so hopefully you don't have it). Did you itch in past pregnancies? It has a very high rate of recurrence in subsequent pregnancies (and tends to start earlier). For me, the itching was so bad that I couldn't sleep. A very "internal" itch that can't be scratched, rather different from any other pregnancy itching I had experienced. My itching started between 37 and 38 weeks. Because OC carries a risk of stillbirth, I was induced immediately. A diagnosis involves checking liver function and bile acids. My liver tests were quite elevated and we didn't wait for my bile acid test to come back (a true diagnosis) because it takes a week. When it did, however, my OC was confirmed. Here is a link.
Itchy Moms Overview

I should reiterate, though, that it is extremely rare (1 in 1000).

[Celena]

Well 2 things... I have an autoimmune disease & I don't have a gallbladder, so it scares the crap out of me if that has any contributing factors since it has to do with the liver & over production of bile. A girl I worked with had that, she had an odd smell to her also... but her hard headed self continuted to work when her DR said she should be on bedrest! I didn't know it was really that bad, she made it seem like it was nothing.

I have another appt tomorrow for beta#2 wonder if they can screen for it tomorrow

[kellyanne]

Do you see a high-risk doc? Perhaps you could convince your doc just to test your liver every once in awhile (due to your history). Then, if that comes back high, you can start looking into other testing. The bile test has to be sent to one of only a few labs in the country that can do that test, which is why it takes a week to get results.

I've never heard of bedrest for it, but they do have a really helpful medication.