My first pregnancy, I had PUPPPs. It's this godawful disease that has no lasting impact on mother or baby and normally ends with birth, and so therefore no dollars get spent on figuring out why the heck pregnant women get it, why the heck only pregnant women get it, and what can be done to prevent it or relieve it. It just makes pregnant women (and only pregnant women) miserable for weeks or months at a time, completely unable to enjoy their pregnancies. Again - no lasting impact. No dollars. No one really seems to know what causes it. Ugh.
For anyone who stumbles on this entry looking for help with PUPPPs, check out this page for a very comprehensive list of remedies. For me, the only thing that helped was cold - ice packs, cold baths, etc. And once the cold was removed, the itching came back. Others have found help with dandelion and flaxseed and in the more severe/early cases, steroids.
Here's a pic of what my hand looked like at my firstborn's birth:
You just can't stop itching and so you create open sores all over most of your body. Like I said, godawful.
Anyway, here I am at 39 weeks 6 days... and no PUPPPS this time! I was reminded of this happy fact today when a mom who had PUPPPs with her first and is 29w along with her second emailed me asking if I got it. I feel like I dodged a big bullet and I need to celebrate. I think I'll celebrate by having a baby today!
