Obstetric cholestasis?

[kmr1763]

I have the worst case (for me!) of pregnancy insomnia. It's caused by lots of things but always results in me being up for hours in the wee morning. Today it's the possibility of cholestasis! GAHHH!

Yesterday I started itching. Insane itching that left huge red patches all over my body. I was convinced it was dry skin so I moisturized, duh. Yesterday while dh and I were driving home I got itchy on my feet. The bottoms, the annoying place that you can scratch but it never really feels better. So I peeled off my boots right there to scratch scratch scratch. Then before bed my palms AND feet are itching, horrid! Now at two am I get woken up by the most intense hand/foot itch of my life. And now I'm awake all alone so start to research.

Pretty sure this must be cholestasis. I was out for a 4D yesterday and baby was healthy and a whopping 3 lbs 11 oz. Now I'm almost certain she will be pre-term, as my son was naturally preterm and she will most likely be induced.

I am sitting on pins and needles til I can call in the morning. Just glad the itching started today and not during a weekend when no one is there.

Kind of a rant. Anyone else have/had it? What was your experience?

My gallbladder was removed a few years ago after DS was born. Good thing it wasn't called cholecystasis LOL or I might not have clicked the link.

 

[FeistyMom]

I haven't had this, but it does definitely sound like the cases I've read about!

Hope you get into the doctor quickly and they can help you out. I think there used to be a sticky thread around about it; you might want to check 3rd tri too to see if there is something there.

Good luck!!

 

[kmr1763]

Thanks Hun! I did post on the sticky thread and read through quite a bit. Sure now that this is my issue. The doctor saw me straight away this morning and was wonderful. My liver function test was normal, but the bile test is sent off and will take a week or so to get back. In the meantime she is treating me with granules to break up bile (she believes it is OC and is going to treat me accordingly!) and a strong antihistamine which will hopefully get me through the night without tearing my skin off! I am going to try to update because I always want to know the outcome. Thanks again for responding!

 

[purplespecs]

Hey! I had OC during my first pregnancy and I can agree how awful the itching is! It was driving me insane and I actually broke through the skin on my feet with so much scratching! I was put on a cocktail of ursodeoxychoric acid, piriton (antihistamine) and e45 (moisturiser). It took about a 2-3 weeks for the medication to properly take effect but once it did I finally got some relief. But until then I found that sitting with my feet and hands in cold water in the evening helped, and sleeping with wet flannels on my hands and feet worked well. I also kept a tube of moisturiser with me at all times and tried putting some on before I scratched. I was told they used to induce people at 37 weeks with it but they have now changed that policy (in the UK anyway) and will let you go to full term with plenty of monitoring. As it was I was induced at 36+5 with pre-eclampsia so I never got that far!

BTW I have also had my gallbladder removed so was a bit confused about it too!

 

[reebee1979]

I had this during my first pregnancy and have just been diagnosed again with this one. So bloody annoying! I'm going to be induced next Fri because of it! Phew.

 

[kmr1763]

I meant to update. My blood test came back with bile salts high, so OC it is. I got repeat bloods done this past Monday and go back in a week from Monday for next appointment, and then will be seen once a week. Plan right now is to induce at 37 weeks. I imagine if the number goes down at all we can try to wait a bit longer. I'm just glad it's been diagnosed and that means we KNOW what needs to be done to keep baby safe !