First, a little symptom update...the past 6 or so weeks I have been itching ... A LOT ... no rash, no hives, no redness just itching! I let my doctor know and he wanted to see me to rule out PUPPS. After taking a look he said I didn't have PUPPS and he wanted to run some blood work thinking my immune system may be causing the itching (i.e.: something I would just have to deal with). While waiting for the blood work results we tried a few different things to alleviate the symptoms nothing really worked. But also let me just say that it wasn't/isn't unbearable and its severity comes and goes. At my next appointment (2 weeks later) doctor only saw an elevation in the "bile acid" levels from my liver/gallbladder. On a scale of 1-10 being "normal" I was a 10. He wanted to recheck my blood in two weeks, meanwhile having me try a course of medication to help with symptoms. After about 3 days of the medication I was feeling sick and the symptoms weren't improving so we stopped the medication and he decided to call the high risk doctor just to be safe based on my blood work. He told me a little about why he wanted them involved and let me just say when your doctor says "I don't want to scare you but...." the first thing you do is panic.
A week later (yesterday) I saw the high risk doctor and had an ultrasound.
Update on baby... Baby girl is doing great.. yesterday (Wednesday) I was 30 weeks 4 days. All of her measurements were coming up 33 weeks or 34 weeks and when they estimated weight she was 5 pounds!!! Let me just say I was very shocked Kendal (my biggest baby) was only 6 pounds 13 ounces so hearing that this little one was already 5 pounds with 9 ish weeks to go I was a more than a little worried. After the ultrasound the doctor and I talked about "dates" I told her that every ultrasound baby was measuring 1-3 weeks ahead but they never discussed changing my due date. She asked to see photos of early ultrasounds and I showed her the six week one to which she promptly said "that is not a six week baby" uhhhh ok?? I know I was six week by dates.. when you are trying to get pregnant you pretty much know every single date necessary to help you conceive and I knew all of those dates. It didn't make sense that I would be so far ahead of where we "thought" we were based on those dates. The doctor went a head and said it was time to change the due date but could only change it by 8 days.. immediately putting me at 31 weeks 5 days! I was shocked but it did help explain her measuring so much ahead but still even with the change she is 2 ish weeks ahead of the game. Now I know that these measurements (especially towards the end) are just estimations and could be off in either direction. But needless to say baby girl was due April 9th with a scheduled c-section for April 5th and now is due April 1st.
Update on liver/gallbladder issue... We next discussed the reason I was actually there. Unfortunately, the doctor hadn't received all of my records from my OB so I gave her a list of my symptoms and what my doctor had told me about the blood work. She immediately diagnosed me with Cholestasis (click the link for details)... in short Cholestasis is brought on by the high levels of pregnancy hormones present in the last trimester of pregnancy; affecting the gallbladder function causing the leakage of bile acids into the blood stream in turn affecting baby.
OB appointment update today... Doctor agrees with high risk Doctor assessment although he doesn't necessarily agree with changing the due date based off of ultrasound. So we decided to go with the c-section at About 37 and half weeks. I will start twice weekly visits next week. One visit being an ultrasound to monitor Growth and the other an NST.
It has definitely been a lot to process over the last few days. But I know that my baby and myself are in good hands for the rest of the pregnancy. It's hard to believe she will be here so soon! Either way we are ready (almost) and excited for her arrival!
Weekly updates from here on out ... I'm sure things will change quickly!
~Kristy
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