PUPPPs

One of my friends was asking about some of my pregnancy/birth stories and I sent this to her. I thought I would share to see if any of you had a similar problem with your pregnancies.

Oh boy do I have some pregnancy/birth stories to share!!! I think PUPPPs is a good place to start. No, not the cute, brown, furry kind. PUPPPs (Pruritic Urticarial Papules and Plaques of Pregnancy) is a rash that very few women get, usually late in the 3rd trimester of pregnancy, and the cause is unknown. One study has shown that male fetal DNA can be found in skin biopsies of the rash and, since 70% of women with PUPPPs give birth to boys, a new hypothesis is that male fetal DNA acts as a skin irritant. PUPPPs is also usually the worst with your first pregnancy, but usually goes away shortly after birth. However, for some unlucky few (we're talking 1 in thousands), it can last up to 1 year postpartum.

Meet one of the unlucky few.

During my pregnancy with Connor (my first pregnancy), I noticed by belly was starting to get itchy half way through my 3rd trimester. I just chalked it up to the fact that my skin was stretched more than ever (and was still in the process of stretching) and was, therefore, extremely itchy. While that may not have helped the situation any, that wasn't the real reason.

Immediately after Connor was born, within the first couple hours, my legs got so itchy I literally couldn't stand it. The bed sheets were like torture because they made my legs and feet itch so bad. I asked the nurse what was happening and she said sometimes that happens when the epidural is wearing off and that it should go away within a day or so. And it did. Until a week later.

1 week postpartum, my shins and thighs started to itch uncontrollably and were covered with pea-sized to quarter-sized, raised, welt-looking bumps. Within 3 days it had spread to my calfs and the soles of my feet and the itch was unbelievable. I've had mosquito bites, poison oak, and other similar rashes/bites, but this surpasses them all x1000 and until you've had PUPPPS you can't even imagine how itchy you can get. None of the lotions or hydro-cortisone creams I had helped at all and it was only getting worse as time went on, so I called my doctor (and the only reason I waited that long was because this began on a Friday night so I had to wait out the weekend).

I saw my OBGYN and she recommended I see a dermatologist because she didn't have any idea what the rash could be (which amazes me because she sees pregnant women all day every day!). The dermatologist also shrugged his shoulders the first time I saw him and sent me home with a stronger prescription strength hydro-cortisone cream and told me to take Benedryl for the antihistamine. Neither worked at all, and the Benedryl just made me groggy. I went back to the dermatologist several days later and he said he thought it might be PUPPPs - a very rare pregnancy rash that he's never actually seen on a patient and never heard of lasting this long after birth (this was 2 weeks postpartum). He also said there's really nothing that can be done except wait for it to go away. He prescribed some even stronger creams and lotions anyway, none of which helped in the slightest, and said it would most likely clear up in a week or so. I didn't think I could last another week as I was starting to (quite literally) scratch my skin off - I was making myself bleed.

I went home immediately and started reading about PUPPPs online and found several online posts from some women that said they had PUPPPs too. The longest any of them said they had it was 6-8 weeks until I read a comment on a post from another girl who said hers lasted 1 full year. A YEAR?!?! I was horrified. I hoped and prayed that mine would stop in a couple more weeks.

1 week, 2 weeks, 3 more weeks (so 5 weeks total) went by and there was absolutely no relief, although ice helped a little (I just left ice packs on my legs until my skin was numb of all feeling). The itching was worse than ever and trying not to scratch was IMPOSSIBLE. I was waking up several times a night because of the INSATIABLE itch. All I could do all day long was scratch and, of course, that helped it spread. Never before in my life have my legs, stomach, sides, arms, and neck itched so badly, and the worst of all were the soles of my feet and the palms of my hands. At one point (I think about 6 weeks into it) I didn't care if I bled and, in fact, I kept itching more thinking that if I could get it to hurt, it wouldn't itch anymore, or at least not as bad - that's how bad it was. I knew pain would be better than the itch, but that didn't make the itching stop either.

2 months came and went. It turned into 3, 4, 5... and here I am, 10 months later, and I'm still itching. Fortunately, it has gotten immensely better. The worst of the itching peaked around 6-8 weeks for me and, slowly, the itching subsided for longer and longer periods of time. I started only itching a few hours a day, then only a couple times per week. Now, at 10 months postpartum, I go through an itching spell about once every 2 weeks and it usually only lasts for about 30 minutes to an hour. I'll keep you posted about whether or not the itching stops at the 1 year mark...

Needless to say, pregnancy does some pretty crazy things to your body!!! Did anything like this happen to anyone else?