Itching

At my 24-week appointment, I'd intended to ask my doctor if it was normal to have as many stretch marks as I did. They essentially covered my belly at that point, though I didn't have any on my thighs or breasts. But then we started talking about my elevated risk for gestational diabetes, and the stretch marks flew right out of my mind. Besides, she'd looked at my belly in order to measure it. She'd have said something if it was abnormal, right?

A few days later, my belly started itching. I poked around on the internet, like I do with every new symptom, and found out that this was fairly common. Skin dries out more easily when it stretches, so it gets itchier. I upped my moisturizing regimen and tried to power through. Over the weekend I bought some cocoa butter, hoping that using it in addition to the shea butter would help.

At the glucose test, I was concentrating on giving blood. I've been dizzy in the mornings, and I wanted to make sure that I didn't faint. Besides which, I saw a technician instead of the doctor. And the internet had assured me that the itching was normal. So even though my stretch marks had become inflamed, turning my entire stomach red and angry, I didn't think to bring it up.

The next morning the itchiness and apparent stretch marks had spread to my thighs. I thought it was strange for the stretch marks to appear all at once overnight, but what do I know? They were supposed to be there all along, maybe it just took a while for my body to catch up.

The itching was bordering on unbearable at this point. I was putting on shea butter in the morning and cocoa butter in the evening. I have regular old body lotion at my desk at work, which I was applying 2 or 3 times during the day. And every time I woke up to pee in the night I was putting on more lotion, lest the itchiness keep me awake. Even then, it was managing to wake me up on all it's own. So I did what any millennial would do in my situation.

I complained on Facebook.

A friend of mine who had recently been pregnant herself and is a doctor to boot asked if I had the rash. I responded no, but it got me thinking. So I looked it up and started learning about PUPPP, or pregnancy rash. (I can't for the life of me remember what all those Ps stand for). It matched. The symptoms were the same and all the pictures looked familiar.

Of course, an internet diagnosis isn't a real diagnosis, even if having an answer made me feel better. So I called my OB and described my symptoms. She asked me to come into the office, which required shuffling my work schedule around, but I made it work. And then she told me that it's too early for the rash to be pregnancy-related and that I should make an appointment with my regular doctor. It felt like a complete waste of a morning, though she did give me permission to start using a cortisone cream.

The good news is that I am feeling better now. The rash has vanished from my stomach and it's become less itchy elsewhere. The last couple of weeks were rough, and I still have no idea what caused the rash. But it seems that it wasn't PUPPP, since the only cure for that is to give birth. My best guess at this point is that it was heat-related and the cortizone (and aloe and cocoa butter and shea butter) helped clear it up. At least I'll know what to try if it does come back.