Dermatologists are great!

I got to meet our local dermatologist today. She was amazing. I like her more than I like my OB, which is unfortunate.

Basically, I stripped and put on the paper gown and plopped my sweaty ass up on the exam table. the nurse practitioner came in and felt me up and immediately said, "I think it's PUPPP. Let me go get the doctor to see what she thinks." Sweet. I didn't have to suggest to her that that's what I think it is too. That's a good sign. She said in her 8 years she's only seen maybe a half-dozen cases of it, so she wasn't 100%. So she grabbed the doctor and a text book. The text book read identically to what's happening to me, but apparently the rash isn't "presenting" like normal PUPPP. There are a couple of scaly spots on me that apparently look like eczema.

So then the NP says "well, let's do a biopsy!" WHAT?! The NP and a regular nurse came back and numbed the crap out of my arm. Then the NP took a ¼" diameter chunk out of my bicep, and closed it up with a couple of stitches. I didn't realize I was going in for minor surgery today, so wtf. They have to send the nasty skin sample to a lab in New York, so it'll take up to a week to get the results back. And I have to go back in 2 ½ weeks to get the stitches taken out. Lovely.

In the meantime, they gave me a prescription for Elocon ointment and Zyrtec to take at night. Apparently, there are 8 levels of steroid cream... 1 being the strongest, 8 being the weakest. Elocon is considered a category 2. So it's pretty high-powered stuff. And the Zyrtec is in an effort to ease the itching and help me sleep through the night. They also told me to buy Olay body ribbons body wash with Jojoba Butter to use instead of my regular soap, then follow my showers up with Cerave lotion. Holy jesus. But in theory, all of this will work better than the random combination of garbage I have been using. Fingers crossed.

So my life is looking up.

Now I'm taking a prenatal vitamin, a DHA supplement, Famotidine, and Tums in the morning, using the Elocon ointment twice a day, showering with doctor-ordered soap and lotion, and taking Zyrtec at night along with another Tums to get more calcium. I've never taken so many medications at once in my whole life. Jeez.

OH! I also called my OB back today to get the results of my 3-hour glucose challenge, because he's been out of the office since Friday (which is nice, since I might have been killing my baby with too much sugar all weekend unknowingly... but whatever). The nurse said my numbers were fine. They did a total of 4 blood draws over 3 hours. The first was my fasting rate, which doesn't count... but the other numbers were 88, 149, and 86. The 149 is higher than the cutoff of 139, but she said it's normal for having 100gm of sugar in your blood for 2 hours. And then it dropped right back down by the 3-hour draw. So that's cool.

So again, I feel like my life is looking up. I almost can't wait to go to bed tonight so I can try my new concoction of meds.

ETA: I just slept for almost 10 hours without having to get out of bed. Holy crap. I haven't slept a full-night's sleep in almost 3 weeks. Modern medicine is amazing!!

I'm 30 weeks, 5 days pregnant and being a wuss about the stitches in my arm.

PUPPP is killing me

So I wonder if there's some kind of medication they could give me to numb all of my skin for the next 11 weeks. A girl can dream.

Today the rash has officially spread to my back and behind my knees. It's slowly taking over my entire body.

I can't even begin to explain the magnitude of the itch. Imagine a million tiny spiders crawling on you, and the spiders have tiny spider head lice, and the spider head lice are carrying poison ivy in their tiny pockets. Now multiply that creepy crawly itchy feeling you just had imagining that, by like, 1350285384763068. That's how unbearable this is.

I have a doctor's appointment in 11 hours, so maybe he can come up with some miracle for me.

ETA: My OB sucks. He just referred me to a dermatologist who didn't have any available appointments until next Wednesday. Bah!

I've never been allergic to anything in my life. I've never come in contact with poison ivy or sumac. The only itchy skin thing I've ever had is bug bites -- and a little Calamine lotion and a couple of days is all those need to heal. I'm stuck with this ridiculous rash until after Jack is born. So roughly 11 weeks. But, I've read online that in particularly aggressive cases of PUPPP, that the mom will be induced early. I'd like to carry him until 40 weeks, but not at the expense of my ending up in a mental institution because this freakin rash is driving me crazy.

I'm 29 weeks and 4 days pregnant, and I desperately need this Benadryl to kick in so I can try to sleep.

Pregnancy thus far.

So amazingly enough, this pregnancy has been pretty not-severe, in regards to ridiculous symptoms. You always hear about how uncomfortable pregnancy is, and how miserable you'll be the entire time. That has definitely not been the case here. But, with 11 weeks to go, I'm sure I still have time to eat those words later.

Around week 7 or 8, I had my only bout with "morning sickness". And that only consisted of about a week of feeling mildly nauseous. But I never puked... thank god. Me and puking to not mix.

By week 12-ish, I was starting to feel the tell-tale signs of round ligament pain. There were random stabby pains in my abdomen, and obnoxious aching feeling in my pelvis that hasn't really gone away. And I was completely exhausted from here until around week 17.

*TMI ALERT* The day I was 19 weeks along, I woke up with crusty nipples. Ohmigawd. Did I seriously start leaking already?! Yep! GROSS.

From midway through the first trimester up through the end of the second, I had lots of random cravings. No pickles and ice cream, but things like Wendy's chicken nuggets at 9 in the morning, or grilled cheese sandwiches in the middle of the night. I've heard of chicks craving things like raw ground beef and dirt while pregnant though. What the heck is up with that?

At 24 weeks we finally got to find out that it's a boy. As we were sitting in the car in the parking lot afterward, and calling everyone, Dan's dad suggested the name Jackson. We had thought of Gabriel Jack for a boy name, but changed it to Jackson Gabriel that day. Absolutely love it. We've been calling him "baby Jack" since then. It was around this time too that my acid reflux got really bad. I've since gotten prescription Pepcid AC that's squelched that pretty quick.

On 27w5d, I did the 1-hour glucose test for gestational diabetes. The acceptable range is 75-139. I failed with a 153. Boo. So starting this coming Tuesday, I have to start a 3-day carb diet and then Friday morning I'll go in for the 3-hour test. I have to drink double the sugar in the same amount of liquid then sit in the lab of the hospital for 3 freaking hours after fasting for 10 hours beforehand. It's gonna SUCK.

Not 3 days after the 1-hour GD appointment, I started to get an itchy feeling in my stretch marks. Weird. I did some Googling and discovered PUPPP. I haven't been diagnosed yet, but I'm dead certain that I have this. The itching started in just a couple of spots on my belly, but it's expanded across my entire midsection below my belly button. And it's gross. Like a lumpy, intensely itchy rash inside the stretch marks. The only thing I've found that helps is a frozen washcloth. But I have another doctor's appointment this coming Wednesday and hopefully I can get a prescription for some kind of steroid cream or something. Oh, and apparently, the only cure is having the baby. It won't go away until a few days after he's born. Super.

So like I said, I've had nothing but mild symptoms (up until this friggin rash). Which is pretty awesome. Hopefully that's some kind of sign that Jack will be a low-maintenance baby. Heh... we can only hope.

I'm 29 weeks, 2 days pregnant.