And, it's official...

I do in fact have yet another ailment that won’t go away until the baby is born. The doc said that PUPPP usually goes away within a few weeks of delivering so there’s that to look forward to. He prescribed me a stronger topical steroid cream for me to use for the next three weeks and then he’ll check back and see how it’s going and if it’s not getting any better at that point, I’ll have to take an oral steroid. I’m really hoping to avoid that.

I read online that there’s a soap called Grandpa’s Pine Tar Soap that women with PUPPP swear by. It’s only found in health food stores and online so I’m hoping that I can find it. I’ve been told that the smell is horrible, but the effects are incredible soothing and calming. I guess it’s kinda like the Neutrogena T-gel shampoo – effective but not pleasant.

So if I didn’t feel like I was ready to be done with this pregnancy already, I certainly do now. Let’s hope that the next 80 days fly by!

 

PUPPP

So I thought that I had enough to deal with in this pregnancy, but apparently the powers that be thought that it would be funny to give me something else. (I’m a little on edge at the moment, can ya tell?) Anywho, I have this INTENSELY itchy rash covering my stomach, mostly in the stretch marks but spreading outward. It’s seriously horrible and sometimes I feel like I can’t function because it itches so badly. At first I thought that it was the intertrigo rash coming back from a month or two ago so I started using the creams that the dermatologist gave me before. Then it just started getting worse and worse.

I called the dermatologist’s office first thing Monday morning, hoping that I could get an appointment right away but apparently he’s out of the office until Thursday. THURSDAY! I have to wait through this horrible itching for three more days before I might get something to make it feel better in a few days.

So today I sit at work and all I can think about is the itching so I decided to hit my favorite medical diagnostic tool, Google. I learned that there is a common skin condition during pregnancy called PUPPP or Pruritic Urticarial Papules and Plaques of Pregnancy. Basically, these red bumps form in the stretch marks on the belly and then they get bigger and spread out and get more intense and itchy. It generally affects women in the third trimester and resolves itself a few weeks after delivery. Treatment options include steroid creams that can be applied up to 6 times a day (yeah, like I have time for that at work…) or oral steroids (yikes, that doesn’t sound good for the baby).

Last night I tried a home remedy for the itching because it was bad enough that I just wanted to cry. I got a cold water bottle out of the fridge and held it on different spots on my stomach. The cold helped bring the inflammation down and stop me from feeling like I needed to scratch it incessantly. The funniest part about this whole thing was that Zoey went crazy over it! She really did not like the cold!! It felt like she was climbing around in a big circle trying to get away from the cold of the water bottle. It was cute and funny but slightly uncomfortable at the same time. As soon as my tummy warmed up again she stopped and I finally went to sleep.

So now I will wait until Thursday to find out what the doctor thinks and see if I can get some relief or if this is another thing that I’m doomed to deal with for the next three months. Stay tuned…

Dun Dun Dun...

Well, it’s official. I got the call from my doctor’s office this morning confirming my suspicions. I have been diagnosed with Gestational Diabetes. Blah.

The 3 hour glucose test was horrible! It made me feel sick and dizzy and overall not a happy camper. I think that making a woman who’s seven months pregnant go 15 hours without food then drink super sugary crap and get poked over and over again for 3 hours should be considered cruel and unusual punishment! By the end I was super starving but luckily I had planned ahead and had a banana and some chips in the car. Then I drove a block down the street to Carl’s Jr for some chicken strips. I was in serious need of protein at that point.

The next day I logged online and found my results: 87 mg/dL fasting glucose, 232 mg/dL 1 hr after 100 g glucose, 166 mg/dL 2 hr after and 95 mg/dL 3 hr after. The first and last readings are within normal ranges, but the middle two are pretty high.

So now it looks like I will have to meet with a diabetes specialist who will teach me how to monitor my blood sugar and what diet and exercise plan I should follow. I am really not looking forward to it but I suppose sine it’s 2 weeks away I don’t have to worry too much about changing my diet over the holidays, right? Well, I guess I can try to snack a little better but I’m surely not missing out on my holiday favorites, that’s for sure!

Gestational Diabetes

Just writing the title sounds ominous. Now, I haven’t been diagnosed with GD yet… but I might. Yesterday I had to take my glucose challenge test to see how my body handles an influx of sugar. Basically, I go to the lab, drink an insanely sugary orange drink with 50 g of glucose in it, then wait around for an hour until my blood is drawn to look at my sugar levels. Normal (or screening out) is a level under 130-140. What was mine you ask? 164! Yup, that’s a pretty high blood sugar level. I totally failed the test.

Here’s a quick rundown of GD. Basically, the hormones of pregnancy, mainly progesterone and cortisol but there are a few others like HPL that play a role, cause the mother to need to increase insulin production because the body is basically trying to keep the sugar in the bloodstream so that it can be passed to the baby. Well, in mom’s with GD, the pancreas doesn’t increase the insulin level enough and all that sugar stays in the bloodstream and goes into the baby where the baby then has to create more insulin to process it. That can make the baby a lot bigger (can we say 9 lb baby?) and it can also cause the baby to go into hypoglycemic shock after it’s born when that constant sugar supply through the umbilical cord is cut. It also puts both mom and baby at risk of having diabetes in the future. Basically, this is just not a good situation all around.

So what do I do now? Well I have to take another glucose tolerance test, but this time it’s worse. I have to fast for 14 hours and then come in and get my blood drawn for a fasting blood sugar level. Then I have to drink the ultra sugary crap only this time it’s 100 g instead of just 50 g. Blech! Then I will get my blood drawn once per hour to see how well my body is producing insulin to get that sugar out of my blood stream. If the results from two of the four draws is considered above the required range, then I’ll be diagnosed with GD. That will mean changing my diet and making sure that I eat at specific times during the day, upping my exercise to at least twice a week and checking my blood sugar several times a day. And that’s if I don’t end up needing insulin. I don’t even want to think about having to stab myself with a needle a few times a day… Let’s just hope that the next test yields positive results and I get to be done with this before it starts!

100 Days to Go!

Well, the countdown has officially begun. No, not the countdown to Christmas… I am excited to celebrate it this year, but it’s not what I’m counting down to now. There are only 100 days left until I reach my due date! Can you believe it? I’ve gone through 180 days of pregnancy so far and am only two weeks away from starting my third trimester. It seems like it’s been forever and at the same time it also feels like the time has gone by pretty quickly. I don’t quite understand how I can feel both at the same time but I guess pregnancy=ambivalence. I have been checking off the days on the calendar at my desk. When the new year starts and I go back to work, I’ll only have 76 days left. On Valentine’s Day, I’ll be down to 34 days. And by St. Patty’s Day, the countdown will be down to 3! Thinking about it in these terms makes me realize that there really is very little time left and lots to do. At least now I have all the furniture that I need except a glider (Thank you mommy!). Now to finish cleaning up and arrange the room and we should be ready to fill it with everything we will need.