Good news first!
Turns out I am not developing pregnancy-induced quasi-hypoglycemia. Instead, I have a rare but harmless side effect of pregnancy that is affecting my kidneys without affecting my blood sugar. I won't get into details, but it means that I can ease up on my anti-sugar and anti-carb diet without fearing that I'll over-sugar myself or the baby. Orange juice and pasta here I come! Of course, I need to drink extra water, but who cares? Water is fiiiiine if it lets me eat delicious mac and cheese.
Bad news second!
My rash? Remember? Apparently it is the dreaded, evil, and "totally harmless" PUPPP rash. This is the evil rash that also plagued my sister. My care providers all got bug eyed when I showed up in their office this morning- "WHOA that is a serious rash you got there!" Yes, thanks. I know. Now tell me what caused it and how to get rid of it. The chance of getting PUPPP rash if you are a pregnant white woman? 1 in 160. The literature says exactly nothing about it having a genetic component, so either;
a) my sister and I had exactly a 1 in 256,000 chance in both getting this rash and somehow hit the jackpot
b) there is a genetic component to developing it that is poorly understood because noone studies a rash that causes no lasting harm
Keep in mind, there are risk factors. Like having twins (nope) or other extreme skin stretching (not really, although my sister's extra fluid probably counts for her). And interestingly, 70% of PUPPP rash suffers give birth to boys. So that is something to think about. Maybe we are having a boy! Time will tell.
Lastly, my PUPPP rash is funny. It did not start where this kind of rash normally starts, which is why I thought it was more like a heat rash. One of the only parts of my body that does NOT have the rash is in my stretch marks.
One thing that I am glad of is that it doesn't seem as bad on me as it does for many people. Most people describe it as "insane," "extreme," "intolerable" and that it keeps them up all night for weeks on end, itching. This is not the case for me. Is it itchy? Yes. Does that annoy me? Yes. Is keeping me up at night, or making me crazy? No. Is it very, very scary looking? Yes!
I got nothing but sympathy from everyone at my doctors. They are all pretty much unified in their horror and pity at what my skin has done. But I'm counting my blessings here- at least it will go away, and just like hives, poison ivy, poison sumac, poison oak and the Puerto Rican vine whose name sounds like Chlamydia... if you don't scratch yourself to the point of scarring, it will not leave a single permanent mark. And I managed all of the above throughout my life so far, so I think I can handle this one too.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Well, that sucks.
Mine definitely did not start out driving me nuts, though.
My best advice is to treat it however you usually treat rashes like that. You have experience with all sorts of maladies, so there's not much wisdom I can offer.
I liked oatmeal baths and when things got really bad, benadryl cream helped and cold compresses.
Cold compresses are great - frozen veggies and the like really soothe. It was the only way I could get any sleep in the final week or so.
My PUPPPs just kept getting worse, and didn't clear up until almost a week after the birth, so go buy the benardyl cream and oalmeal bath stuff now, just in case it gets worse in the next few weeks.
By the way, this isn't exactly the most official or thoroughly-researched page about PUPPPs, but it's my favorite. It's all about how much PUPPPs sucks, and then a bunch of ancedotal recountings of how well different soothing attempts work. or not.
Of course, anecdotal is about as good as you're going to get with PUPPPs.
http://www.tcinternet.net/users/kritzerburke/naomi/PUPPP.htm
Post a Comment