New insights into itching

My itching and rash is waaaaay better. Like practically gone. This is odd, as PUPPPs rashes are not supposed to go away before the baby is born. In fact, they usually get worse for 1 to 2 weeks and then stabilize. Mine grew from Thursday to Monday, improved dramatically on Tuesday and Wednesday, and is nearly gone today.

I went to meet another pediatrician yesterday- she was great. She used to have a mixed OB and pediatrics practice before she moved to Missoula (now she just does pediatrics only), so I took the opportunity to ask her, "What gives with my outstandingly odd PUPPPs good luck?" She said that once or twice in her practice she had seen women that had PUPPPs that waxed and waned with their mental (i.e. stress) state. More stressed equaled breakouts, and then when that stressor was relieved their breakouts would diminish or even disappear.

This is incredibly intuitive (and I feel very, very lucky that I am one of these people, apparently). All immune system reactions are tempered in part by stress. Duh! And PUPPPs is an immune system freakout of your poor stretched pregnant skin. So while some people might get PUPPPs regardless, it would seem that very few, like me, get it just when they are stressed out. And of course severe itching might be a stressor until itself, so it could evilly self perpetuate as well. That is awful to think about.

Now you might ask- was I really that stressed on my business trip? I would say no, but yes, at the same time. It was a great trip- enjoyable, not overly hectic, fun people, lots of learning and listening. But I didn't sleep on my normal schedule, eat at normal times, or otherwise have anything going on that was typical for me. I was away from Matt, dog, home, and all my creature comforts. And I'm hugely pregnant. So yeah, I'm sure part of me was stressed.

So here I am, counting my lucky stars. Please, please let me have the rare case of stress-mediated PUPPPs. Let this be something that if I get lots of sleep, gentle exercise, and good food until I have the baby, remains in itch-remission as much as possible.