I'm Getting My Money's Worth

The rash continues to spread. There are more bumps on my fingers than there were yesterday and it is now showing up on my arms, legs, shoulders and back. I pulled out the leaflet in the steroid cream today just to take a look and noticed that the drug is listed as a Pregnancy Category C drug. From what I understand, this means that the drug has been shown to have adverse effects to a fetus in animal studies, but has not been adequately tested on humans. However, the FDA recommendations state that the potential benefits may still warrant use of the drug despite the risks.

Although I'm sure the PA yesterday knew what he was talking about when he stated it is perfectly safe to use in pregnancy, I started to get nervous. I mean after all we've been through, I just don't want to risk harming Apple and Banana and I had never met this guy before, nor seen anyone in the practice. I know plenty of medications are used in pregnancy, but between my morning sickness, pre-term labor scare and now this, I've just taken way more drugs than I ever imagined or wanted to during pregnancy.

So I called the answering service for my OB's office today and had the doctor on call paged. I might have said this before, but one of the positives that came out of my hospital stay is that I have now met each of the 6 doctor's in my OB's practice more than once and I'm very comfortable with almost all of them. The OB that called me back today confirmed what the PA said and she was happy that he had prescribed the steroid cream. She said they use it for PUPPPs patients all the time. She also suggested we put the immersion therapy on hold for the weekend, so no more baths for me at least until my next appointment on Monday. This is a relief. Last night and this morning I would sit in the bath just wondering if I was making the stupid rash worse. But I didn't want to stop them if the OB thought it was still necessary to help Apple keep her fluid up.

What I love about my OB's practice is that I never feel rushed when talking to them. I feel like they take the time to listen and provide as much information as they can. The PA at the dermatologist's office was not like that at all. He was short with our conversation and seemed in a hurry to be done with me. I don't like this treatment at all, especially in a medical setting. The OB that I spoke with today reassured me that even though the rash is still spreading, it will run its course and will likely clear up as suddenly as it appeared. She also said that unlike PUPPPs, which you are stuck with until delivery, this will likely clear up before then. Of course who knows when delivery will be, but at least I can stop worrying that I now have a skin condition that I'll have to live with the rest of my life since it isn't pregnancy-related.

So now I just need to concentrate on NOT SCRATCHING as much as possible. This is SO much easier said than done.